Somewhere in sweet ol’ Virginia they’re renaming one of their schools. Which name, you might wonder? Who’s worthy of that honour? Who, you ask, is that pillar of society, long overdue for some well-deserved recognition? Yep, you’ve guessed it: confederate general Stonewall Jackson. According to some of the local dopes, turns out, he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. You know, the South is like meeting that one high school friend again a decade down the road, still reminiscing over his four touchdowns in a single game, still the exact same fella – except that he’s put on a little weight. Not that I have any issues with a little nostalgia; it’s just that when your idea of the ‘good old days’ is the slave-owning confederacy, it gets a little worrisome, that’s all.
One time I talked to some colleagues about George Washington, discussing the good and the bad, and brought up how he owned slaves. ‘Well,’ they replied, ‘that’s just how it was. Times were different back then.’ Try as I might, after throwing out their retort, their minds were shut down – couldn’t get through. In his book, Chernow addressed this point head on. Here’s the gist of it. Times were different, but people weren’t – not really. Washington had enough of a moral compas to know slavery was wrong (definitely in his later years), but he needed the money, so he kept doing it. I guess sometimes the morally wrong stays socially acceptable for longer than it should.
Let me share one more thing with you, before I go. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to live in some bygone era, like the late 1800s, or even the early 1900s. Pretend the time machine got us there, and then promptly broke down, just so we wouldn’t be like tourists when we got there – we’d get the authentic day-to-day experience. You know what? Give me some books and music, and I’m a pretty happy guy. Heck, with any luck, I’d get my hands on a typewriter and there would be practically no difference. I’d have my mailing list and I’d be sending out my newsletter just like today. Sure, I’d have to pay for my stamps, but at least I wouldn’t have to deal with Gmail’s spam filters. I’m half kidding with some of this stuff, but every time I imagine what I’d do back then, I realise people pretty much did the exact same stuff I’m daydreaming about, their lives gone by in the blink of an eye, now skeletons burried beneath our feet. Well, dipshit, that’s us too. Blink of an eye, and we’re skeletons – gone. Before that happens, let’s do some good in this world. Food for thought.
Kind regards
Vincent J. Dancet