© 2017 Michael
Swickard, Ph.D. History is
the driver of culture. It’s the story of people and how they dealt with adversity.
Recently Confederate statues have been under attack which brings the issue of our
history.
Our
country is talking not only Civil War but the entire history of our nation. We search
for our “Authentic” history, not the propaganda of the winners. But the winners
write the history.
Statues
are a measure but they only reflect the feelings of a time but not for all time
and all people. In our search for our heroes we are struck by the fact that
everyone in the past was imperfect. Some were more imperfect than others but
all had blemishes.
Yet over
the years this country has been a beacon to the rest of the world when it comes
to liberty. Our country was instrumental in many other countries becoming free
of dictators. That is our primary legacy.
But what
of our heroes? We have memorials and currency and a written history about
imperfect men. And we now see their blemishes. Example: George Washington
perhaps was the only man who could take the Continental Army to victory. Hence,
we have our freedom. But he had slaves as did Thomas Jefferson.
When those
slave holders and others who tolerated slavery set forth this nation, they
started with “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal.”
But not
all humans were equal then. Women and Blacks were not equal. In the war to end slavery
President Abraham Lincoln said, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Over the
last century and a half liberty has come to Americans. It wasn’t easy but it
was done. Now there are political factions trying to derive power from injustice
then and now. The history of our country is under attack.
Rather
than taking down statues and screaming about justice perhaps we need to really
understand our history with the blemishes. We cannot find any leaders without
blemishes then or now. But we can see that Americans are free and they inspire
freedom in other countries.
Our
country has brought liberty directly and indirectly to most of the world. No,
there is still slavery and injustice over much of the world but people all over
the world know that liberty is possible because we broke away from England in
1776.
Dennis
Prager said several years ago, “Our danger now is that we are not teaching our
children what it means to be an American.” I believe it is the core of this
problem of American identity also.
We must
resolve that the dead in our wars of freedom must not have died in vain. As
Lincoln said: “…that government of the people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from the earth.” Only if we focus on our history will that
happen.
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