I love my dad.
Yesterday on Christmas which was on a Sunday this year, he and my mother, who are both preachers were worried folks would choose to stay home and open Christmas presents instead of attend worship.
So Dad reminded myself and my siblings that "today is Sunday" Meaning we could open all the frivolous commercial, material presents in that non-biodegradable paper after we treated the day like Sunday, the Lord's day, and went to worship.
How many of my neighbors and friends have such discipline from their father? There was something powerful about before looking in the living room at all the goodies I would get, hearing Psalm 98, and singing Christmas carols, and realizing for the full hour that yes like the Grinch remided us: "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more."
In fact it means a whole lot more than what we buy at the store. And if we forget that it is Sunday and the Lord's day then all we have at Christmas is toys and clothes and a pile of wrapping paper, and just these material things to put our joy in. Don't let that happen. It is Sunday. Let your joy reside in our God, and things greater than ourselves and our stuff. Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!
Psalm 98 (words that Joy to the World is based on)
1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
9 let them sing before the Lord,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.
Monday, December 26, 2016
Friday, December 23, 2016
Deep Water Horizon
I saw the film Deep Water Horizon this week.
It is a very powerful dramatization of the events on the Deep Water Horizon rig before the high pressure from the deep water oil well "the well from hell" busted the pipes and set the drilling rig on fire, killing 11 workers on April 20, 2010.
I was a sophomore, environmental engineering student in college when that happened and I honestly don't remember hearing that people died on the rig. The 20 million gallons of oil being released into the ocean that summer was all I heard about it.
Ever since my first job as a food commissary worker at the boy scout camp I have felt those little pressures here and there from management on getting it done quicker to make the money. It was sometimes more profitable to waste some food, or not take the time to breakdown cardboard or recycle, I hated it. I did it. In this film the well drilling process was already 43 days behind schedule and several million over budget, so they began cutting corners by skipping a concrete test on the pipe. Two tricky unusual test results gave a tricky reading of the pressure and they made the decision to open the well up for harvest, but there was way too much pressure down there that it broke the equipment and shot the oil into the rig which eventually caught fire.
As a new employee in the energy industry, a solar installer I understand the pressure coming down from management on getting the energy out at a reasonable time. And I can somewhat empathize with the middle management on the oil rig who have pressure from the big bosses to get that rig up and running and start to overlook the safety for the workers. Money and the pressure.
Similar story with NASA's Challenger disaster in 1986, there were some faulty O-rings and they discussed it the day before launch was scheduled but they decided as a group it was ok to proceed with the launch. The frost overnight made the problem worse and the tiny little thing of the bad O-ring failure caused the entire space shuttle to explode killing the crew during the launch.
I can remember distinct times on every job I've had that the pressure to get things done on time we went real fast and sometimes that left us in tough situation. One time, I never opened the pre-wrapped-in-aluminum-foil garlic bread to check it's quality before we handed it out and then I got a call 20 minutes after I got home that all the bread was moldy and the scout masters were very angry. I could have gotten fired for that, but I imagine mistakes on a big oil rig are just as easy to do, and have far worse consequences.
The corporate world has an incredible influence in our lives. Those of us with jobs are trapped because we have to make the money to pay for healthcare, buy food, and clothes for our kids. Yet sometimes that can put us in a real tough spot when we may have moral, safety, personal, or some other objection to doing a job a certain way.
It is really easy as an environmentalist, Eco-Steward, protester, solar installer, Nature Camper, and JMU ISAT graduate to blame all of this and the Deep Water Horizon on the big business, big oil, big money, quarterly profits, etc. Right. I mean all that is true. But the thing that strikes me most from this film was that WE PEOPLE, myself included buy the oil that caused 11 people die on the oil rig and so much more destruction beyond those deaths. I'm responsible.
I drove two and a half hours to meet my brother for his Birthday to see the film, and drive back. I watch these ELEVEN guys die in the oil fire knowing I had to fill my car up with gas to get back home and that I had an oil change scheduled the next day. I watched the characters burn up because my society is dependent on that oil. I cried a little thinking about being in that kind of workplace on that day. Imagining doing that job to pay for a parent's medical bill, or to send your kid to college. They put their lives on the line every day digging up fossil fuels. Why do they dig it up? We will buy it,so they will get it! No matter what they charge. Not only is the money putting pressure on them to hurry up and cut corners, but there is a massive thirst for the black gold.
Of course in all reality the extremely high effusion pressure of that particular oil well may not have been able to be contained regardless of corporate pressure. But the dangers of oil harvesting get worse the harder it is to get to the oil. The easy oil is in North America where many are protesting new development such as the Keystone XL pipeline, the Bakken oil being held back by the Standing Rock Souix tribe and so many other native people who have joined them in protest in North Dakota.
Please watch the film Deep Water Horizon. Please watch the damage to the pelicans, the ocean, and see the damage to the people. Watch the rig explode and burn uncontrollabley. Please remember that story, and take an action in your community to break the mold. We can't let the profits, and conveniences superscede the life of a fellow man, or another species, or our home. Please do what you can.
If you have no idea what to do in your locally send me an Email haneyja314@gmail.com I'll find you something, Or look for what the Sierra Club is doing near you. They are a widespread and informed group to get you started.
This graphic is a few years old, but it shows how many quadrillion BTUs of energy are used by we US citizens. It is easier to follow percentage but for perspective, 1BTU is about the energy you get out of striking one match.
It is a very powerful dramatization of the events on the Deep Water Horizon rig before the high pressure from the deep water oil well "the well from hell" busted the pipes and set the drilling rig on fire, killing 11 workers on April 20, 2010.
I was a sophomore, environmental engineering student in college when that happened and I honestly don't remember hearing that people died on the rig. The 20 million gallons of oil being released into the ocean that summer was all I heard about it.
Ever since my first job as a food commissary worker at the boy scout camp I have felt those little pressures here and there from management on getting it done quicker to make the money. It was sometimes more profitable to waste some food, or not take the time to breakdown cardboard or recycle, I hated it. I did it. In this film the well drilling process was already 43 days behind schedule and several million over budget, so they began cutting corners by skipping a concrete test on the pipe. Two tricky unusual test results gave a tricky reading of the pressure and they made the decision to open the well up for harvest, but there was way too much pressure down there that it broke the equipment and shot the oil into the rig which eventually caught fire.
As a new employee in the energy industry, a solar installer I understand the pressure coming down from management on getting the energy out at a reasonable time. And I can somewhat empathize with the middle management on the oil rig who have pressure from the big bosses to get that rig up and running and start to overlook the safety for the workers. Money and the pressure.
Similar story with NASA's Challenger disaster in 1986, there were some faulty O-rings and they discussed it the day before launch was scheduled but they decided as a group it was ok to proceed with the launch. The frost overnight made the problem worse and the tiny little thing of the bad O-ring failure caused the entire space shuttle to explode killing the crew during the launch.
I can remember distinct times on every job I've had that the pressure to get things done on time we went real fast and sometimes that left us in tough situation. One time, I never opened the pre-wrapped-in-aluminum-foil garlic bread to check it's quality before we handed it out and then I got a call 20 minutes after I got home that all the bread was moldy and the scout masters were very angry. I could have gotten fired for that, but I imagine mistakes on a big oil rig are just as easy to do, and have far worse consequences.
The corporate world has an incredible influence in our lives. Those of us with jobs are trapped because we have to make the money to pay for healthcare, buy food, and clothes for our kids. Yet sometimes that can put us in a real tough spot when we may have moral, safety, personal, or some other objection to doing a job a certain way.
It is really easy as an environmentalist, Eco-Steward, protester, solar installer, Nature Camper, and JMU ISAT graduate to blame all of this and the Deep Water Horizon on the big business, big oil, big money, quarterly profits, etc. Right. I mean all that is true. But the thing that strikes me most from this film was that WE PEOPLE, myself included buy the oil that caused 11 people die on the oil rig and so much more destruction beyond those deaths. I'm responsible.
I drove two and a half hours to meet my brother for his Birthday to see the film, and drive back. I watch these ELEVEN guys die in the oil fire knowing I had to fill my car up with gas to get back home and that I had an oil change scheduled the next day. I watched the characters burn up because my society is dependent on that oil. I cried a little thinking about being in that kind of workplace on that day. Imagining doing that job to pay for a parent's medical bill, or to send your kid to college. They put their lives on the line every day digging up fossil fuels. Why do they dig it up? We will buy it,so they will get it! No matter what they charge. Not only is the money putting pressure on them to hurry up and cut corners, but there is a massive thirst for the black gold.
Of course in all reality the extremely high effusion pressure of that particular oil well may not have been able to be contained regardless of corporate pressure. But the dangers of oil harvesting get worse the harder it is to get to the oil. The easy oil is in North America where many are protesting new development such as the Keystone XL pipeline, the Bakken oil being held back by the Standing Rock Souix tribe and so many other native people who have joined them in protest in North Dakota.
Please watch the film Deep Water Horizon. Please watch the damage to the pelicans, the ocean, and see the damage to the people. Watch the rig explode and burn uncontrollabley. Please remember that story, and take an action in your community to break the mold. We can't let the profits, and conveniences superscede the life of a fellow man, or another species, or our home. Please do what you can.
If you have no idea what to do in your locally send me an Email haneyja314@gmail.com I'll find you something, Or look for what the Sierra Club is doing near you. They are a widespread and informed group to get you started.
This graphic is a few years old, but it shows how many quadrillion BTUs of energy are used by we US citizens. It is easier to follow percentage but for perspective, 1BTU is about the energy you get out of striking one match.
Monday, January 18, 2016
Robert E. Lee would support removing the Confederate flag: Thoughts on the flag and racism from a fan of Lee.
I wrote most of this last summer, and never released it due to the controversy,but here goes....
This will sound like it's two-sided but please bear with me. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Happy Lee-Jackson Day. (Lee and King's birthdays are 4 days apart, I can't control that)
Robert E. Lee said,
The confederate flag in my life as a white Virginian has always been a symbol of nostalgia, heritage, and great leadership. It's about holding on to a team that our commonwealth was a part of once because it chose the ideals of independence, state sovereignty, and agriculture. I went to college and have family in the Shenandoah Valley which was called "the breadbasket of the south" My Aunt and Uncle lived in a house that Stonewall Jackson used as a headquarters in Mt. Jackson (a town named for President Andrew Jackson and then treated like it was named after Thomas Stonewall Jackson after the war). I see the appeal of NASCAR and love me some Dukes of Hazzard. The flag is about the war to us. People I know fly it to say "I'm southern" not "I'm racist" For me, and I think I also speak to anyone between Lexington and Winchester the flag is about the war. The flag is for heritage, not hate for those who fly it.
bear with me.
The way we western Virginians remember Jackson, Lee, the VMI cadets, and the countless other Virginians who fought all over the commonwealth to defend the south, not once are we thinking about racism, white sovereignty, white pride, hate crimes of post-war reconstruction. That's just how we learned it--In our white-dominant, rural public schools that is how the story was slanted. Let's be honest. These generals and this army were hero's defending our state.
I write this knowing my white privilege is showing. But this is how I was raised. Lee and Jackson are just as important and heroic as George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Hellen Keller, Henry Ford, etc. They all made it into my children's book selection. I read Ghost Cadet for Elementary School and learned about the young cadets that fought and died while still in military school at the battle in New Market. I took a civil war summer class when my brother took one on Harry Potter. People fought and died in Shenandoah and we remember and reenact every blessed soul. My uncle dressed up as a relative an re-enacted the battle at New Market. Most of the war happened here in Virginia, and that kind of trauma and damage still hasn't gone away. The Yankee army under Sheridan, Sherman, and others burned courthouses and ruined southerner's place in society by erasing property titles and other history. The damage to our country was done to our homes right here in our family's backyards, and homes even. It's part of life in Virginia.
BUT We ignore the race part. We glorify these men, our relatives, our heroes, and we don't talk about the racial injustices of that. That's not an issue in our minds. I don't want to say we purposely ignore it, we just assume it's gone, that racism is in the past. To people like me, the confederate flag is all about holding on to an unpopular team. I'd compare it to rooting for the Redskins (which I guess is also a pretty offensive name) I imagine it's like being a Cubs or Detroit Lions fan. Something about sticking together with a loosing team gives you all kinds of pride. But unlike the cubs, people like me need to realize that however much Lee's decision to fight for the South had to do with him defending his hometown and not him being a terrible racist, and however much we point out Jackson's incredible military leadership and strategic mind, we forget that the loosing team they decided to lead was perpetuating a system of slavery. Slavery based on skin color. No matter how much it comes down to state's rights race-based slavery was there. Even if a huge majority of southern farms owned less than 3 slaves and worked in the fields beside them, the ENTIRE country benefited economically from slavery (even the north). So don't say, "heritage, not hate" unless you are willing to own the horrible acts of hate associated with that heritage.
Every one of us must remember the history so we don't repeat it.
Sometimes we forget that Robert E Lee nobly accepted the surrender, and fully submitted to the post-war national government. For Lee the war was over and we were one nation again, although he was ridiculed and shamed the rest of his life. He fought for the south so as not to raise a sword against his home state:
Granted Lee didn't support suffrage for blacks because he felt largely they weren't educated, He did support educating them the rest of his life. Lee was in many arguments with fellow southerners to move on and take pride in the United States of America and moving on from the Confedreate mindset.
I'll be honest we Virginians could tell you the ins and outs of Jackson's military strategy, his affinity for lemons, and his last words, but we don't ever really say too much on the history of the reconstruction, or much of anything after the war. Let's recall when the sly republicans in 1877 made a deal to remove federal forces from enforcing the necessary reforms in the south in order to win the election which resulted in the racist southern democrats having hands off from Washington. This gave southerners the freedom to implement the Jim Crow laws, and segregation. Yankees took the power and left the freed slaves out to dry. The southern crazies messed up pretty bad, but the Yankees gave them to much freedom to handle it their own way. That's where the racism got real nasty. That's what we're still working against. And along with my Virginian neighbors, I have to recognize this is what the confederate flag symbolizes everywhere outside of Shenandoah and outside my head.
I spent the last year 900 miles from Shenandoah in Little Rock, site of the famous integration of Central High School. Local whites did not approve of nine black students attending Central High School and violently protested this thought requiring Eisenhower to send the National Guard to escort these kids in. That Confederate flag was flown by the segregationists in Little Rock spitting and screaming at black high school students. Remember that Virginia! these violent acts after the war that made the federal news, KKK rallies, Selma, and countless other acts of violent white supremacy and racism used that flag. The confederate flag was raised at the state house in Charleston, SC during the civil rights movement, as an act of protest to integration. The confederate flag took a new racist meaning in the 50's and 60's than it had during the civil war. That's why we need to take it down and put it away.
Robert E. Lee would not condone these acts after the war. Stop using his name with those acts. He would be ok with the flag coming down. He might even be ok with some of the confederate statues in Richmond coming down. http://www.richmond.com/news/local/michael-paul-williams/article_3edc3670-9d34-54f9-a988-1d55e98f9691.html
Central High School at the time was one of the most expensive best schools in the country. It cost over a million dollars and did not even compare to Dunbar High School, the black equivalent down the street. Thus "separate but equal" did not hold, leading to integration. The year after integration, the school board closed the entire school district to all students to avoid integration. White Christians even protested to keep segregation in the late 50's. There is an incredible museum there in Little Rock, check it out sometime. They have pictures on the wall of white christians like me holding signs that condone racism. But it's heritage not hate.........
Just like many other cities in the US, Little Rock shows signs of segregation in local real-estate continuing to keep neighborhoods segregated by race and income. I think there is just one black lady at my Little Rock church in west Little Rock. One evening in Southwest Little Rock after helping at the ESL lesson for immigrants, I was the only white person in Wal Mart. Interstate 630 mostly divides the city from white and black.
Dear Shenandoah and fellow white people. Racism is still real. It is deeply embedded in our world. Everywhere, not just Little Rock, and big cities. And it will take each of us doing our part to change that. Just one example, look at our prison population compared to US population. The following numbers are from a 2013 report form the US Bureau of Justice Statistics http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5109
This does not mean people get sent to prison because they are black, My former roomate who is a police officer says it's not that they seek out the black neighborhoods but those and public housing happen to be where they get called for slightly dangerous calls more often. Statistically, blacks don't have the same access to jobs, support systems, income, etc due to race which put more of them at risk of falling into a life of crime. Along with a prejudgment in society that blacks are more dangerous.
As a school board leader in Little Rock told me, "It's definitely a lot better than it was in the 50s but it definitely hasn't gone away" Even today, some school board leaders are continuing to push against the desegregation WAAAAYY after all the mess in 1957. The Arkansas board of education has recently taken over Little Rock School District because of controversies directly tied to the segregation in the city that has resulted in a wide gap in funding for certain schools. Here is a recent article in The Atlantic about it http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/segregation-persists-little-rock/479538/
Our privilege is that we don't see much of racial tensions in Shenandoah, and I partly believe that is because most blacks don't live here, and honestly, I don't think they'd feel welcome here.
When we say "heritage, not hate" we need to own that heritage. A heritage that not only represented one particular army of the south and every bit of your and my white heritage, Remember that this army fought to perpetuate an economic and agricultural system based on racial slavery. Remember that racism hasn't gone away, and every reconstruction, racist, act since that war of heritage have held this flag as a symbol of racism. Part of that heritage is hate. Let's be honest with ourselves.
As much as it hurts what I learned in my childhood, when I fly that flag I am showing the world that my own liberties as a white southerner are more important to me than the liberties of others. AND that the historic violence to protect my white southern liberties is worth it. Because of that, The flag is going in my closet. The swhastica was a symbol of auspiciousness, prosperity, and continuing creation until Hitler took it for his Nazi regime changing it's meaning.
My advice: We all need to get our heads out of the sand. Get our heads out of Lexington this weekend of Lee-Jackson Day. My year in Boston and my year in Little Rock got my head out of the sand. There is a world out there with billions of more significant problems than me feeling like someone is stepping on my toes because people don't like the flag.
Learn the stories of the Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, Integration, and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks, the Little Rock nine, pay attention to the discussions of privilege, and racism now prevalent in the news. Learn stories of civil rights leaders better than you know Lee's and Jackson's. They exhibit characteristics of greatness for their time and we have a lot to learn from them.
Need a place to start? Read Worldchanging 101 by David LaMotte, It's a great blend of inspiration to get you moving on addressing the issues of our day with examples of important behind the scenes members of the civil rights movement.
Keep learning!!! Robert E. Lee said, "Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in it's true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret."
I welcome comments below. Please keep it G rated.
This will sound like it's two-sided but please bear with me. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Happy Lee-Jackson Day. (Lee and King's birthdays are 4 days apart, I can't control that)
Robert E. Lee said,
"Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in it's true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret."
These photos are from my hometown of Craigsville, Virginia as I saw them driving home from Little Rock in August. The 2nd story porch in the center was the site of a beautiful nativity scene every Christmas, and across the street is a "Heritage not Hate" flag on the garage where I used to park my bike when I lived there.
The confederate flag in my life as a white Virginian has always been a symbol of nostalgia, heritage, and great leadership. It's about holding on to a team that our commonwealth was a part of once because it chose the ideals of independence, state sovereignty, and agriculture. I went to college and have family in the Shenandoah Valley which was called "the breadbasket of the south" My Aunt and Uncle lived in a house that Stonewall Jackson used as a headquarters in Mt. Jackson (a town named for President Andrew Jackson and then treated like it was named after Thomas Stonewall Jackson after the war). I see the appeal of NASCAR and love me some Dukes of Hazzard. The flag is about the war to us. People I know fly it to say "I'm southern" not "I'm racist" For me, and I think I also speak to anyone between Lexington and Winchester the flag is about the war. The flag is for heritage, not hate for those who fly it.
bear with me.
The way we western Virginians remember Jackson, Lee, the VMI cadets, and the countless other Virginians who fought all over the commonwealth to defend the south, not once are we thinking about racism, white sovereignty, white pride, hate crimes of post-war reconstruction. That's just how we learned it--In our white-dominant, rural public schools that is how the story was slanted. Let's be honest. These generals and this army were hero's defending our state.
I write this knowing my white privilege is showing. But this is how I was raised. Lee and Jackson are just as important and heroic as George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Hellen Keller, Henry Ford, etc. They all made it into my children's book selection. I read Ghost Cadet for Elementary School and learned about the young cadets that fought and died while still in military school at the battle in New Market. I took a civil war summer class when my brother took one on Harry Potter. People fought and died in Shenandoah and we remember and reenact every blessed soul. My uncle dressed up as a relative an re-enacted the battle at New Market. Most of the war happened here in Virginia, and that kind of trauma and damage still hasn't gone away. The Yankee army under Sheridan, Sherman, and others burned courthouses and ruined southerner's place in society by erasing property titles and other history. The damage to our country was done to our homes right here in our family's backyards, and homes even. It's part of life in Virginia.
BUT We ignore the race part. We glorify these men, our relatives, our heroes, and we don't talk about the racial injustices of that. That's not an issue in our minds. I don't want to say we purposely ignore it, we just assume it's gone, that racism is in the past. To people like me, the confederate flag is all about holding on to an unpopular team. I'd compare it to rooting for the Redskins (which I guess is also a pretty offensive name) I imagine it's like being a Cubs or Detroit Lions fan. Something about sticking together with a loosing team gives you all kinds of pride. But unlike the cubs, people like me need to realize that however much Lee's decision to fight for the South had to do with him defending his hometown and not him being a terrible racist, and however much we point out Jackson's incredible military leadership and strategic mind, we forget that the loosing team they decided to lead was perpetuating a system of slavery. Slavery based on skin color. No matter how much it comes down to state's rights race-based slavery was there. Even if a huge majority of southern farms owned less than 3 slaves and worked in the fields beside them, the ENTIRE country benefited economically from slavery (even the north). So don't say, "heritage, not hate" unless you are willing to own the horrible acts of hate associated with that heritage.
Every one of us must remember the history so we don't repeat it.
Sometimes we forget that Robert E Lee nobly accepted the surrender, and fully submitted to the post-war national government. For Lee the war was over and we were one nation again, although he was ridiculed and shamed the rest of his life. He fought for the south so as not to raise a sword against his home state:
"With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword..."
After the war he said, "So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that Slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interest of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this that I would have cheerfully lost all that I have lost by the war, and have suffered all that I have suffered to have this object attained."
Granted Lee didn't support suffrage for blacks because he felt largely they weren't educated, He did support educating them the rest of his life. Lee was in many arguments with fellow southerners to move on and take pride in the United States of America and moving on from the Confedreate mindset.
I'll be honest we Virginians could tell you the ins and outs of Jackson's military strategy, his affinity for lemons, and his last words, but we don't ever really say too much on the history of the reconstruction, or much of anything after the war. Let's recall when the sly republicans in 1877 made a deal to remove federal forces from enforcing the necessary reforms in the south in order to win the election which resulted in the racist southern democrats having hands off from Washington. This gave southerners the freedom to implement the Jim Crow laws, and segregation. Yankees took the power and left the freed slaves out to dry. The southern crazies messed up pretty bad, but the Yankees gave them to much freedom to handle it their own way. That's where the racism got real nasty. That's what we're still working against. And along with my Virginian neighbors, I have to recognize this is what the confederate flag symbolizes everywhere outside of Shenandoah and outside my head.
I spent the last year 900 miles from Shenandoah in Little Rock, site of the famous integration of Central High School. Local whites did not approve of nine black students attending Central High School and violently protested this thought requiring Eisenhower to send the National Guard to escort these kids in. That Confederate flag was flown by the segregationists in Little Rock spitting and screaming at black high school students. Remember that Virginia! these violent acts after the war that made the federal news, KKK rallies, Selma, and countless other acts of violent white supremacy and racism used that flag. The confederate flag was raised at the state house in Charleston, SC during the civil rights movement, as an act of protest to integration. The confederate flag took a new racist meaning in the 50's and 60's than it had during the civil war. That's why we need to take it down and put it away.
Robert E. Lee would not condone these acts after the war. Stop using his name with those acts. He would be ok with the flag coming down. He might even be ok with some of the confederate statues in Richmond coming down. http://www.richmond.com/news/local/michael-paul-williams/article_3edc3670-9d34-54f9-a988-1d55e98f9691.html
Central High School at the time was one of the most expensive best schools in the country. It cost over a million dollars and did not even compare to Dunbar High School, the black equivalent down the street. Thus "separate but equal" did not hold, leading to integration. The year after integration, the school board closed the entire school district to all students to avoid integration. White Christians even protested to keep segregation in the late 50's. There is an incredible museum there in Little Rock, check it out sometime. They have pictures on the wall of white christians like me holding signs that condone racism. But it's heritage not hate.........
Just like many other cities in the US, Little Rock shows signs of segregation in local real-estate continuing to keep neighborhoods segregated by race and income. I think there is just one black lady at my Little Rock church in west Little Rock. One evening in Southwest Little Rock after helping at the ESL lesson for immigrants, I was the only white person in Wal Mart. Interstate 630 mostly divides the city from white and black.
Dear Shenandoah and fellow white people. Racism is still real. It is deeply embedded in our world. Everywhere, not just Little Rock, and big cities. And it will take each of us doing our part to change that. Just one example, look at our prison population compared to US population. The following numbers are from a 2013 report form the US Bureau of Justice Statistics http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5109
"Similar to 2012, non-Hispanic blacks (37%) comprised the largest portion of male inmates under state or federal jurisdiction in 2013, compared to non-Hispanic whites (32%) and Hispanics (22%). White females comprised 49% of the prison population compared to 22% black females. However, the imprisonment rate for black females (113 per 100,000) was twice the rate of white females (51 per 100,000)."The Census Bureau says African Americans only make up 13.2% of the total population, whites are 77%. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html How are there more than five times more whites than blacks, but nearly equal ratios inside the prisons?
This does not mean people get sent to prison because they are black, My former roomate who is a police officer says it's not that they seek out the black neighborhoods but those and public housing happen to be where they get called for slightly dangerous calls more often. Statistically, blacks don't have the same access to jobs, support systems, income, etc due to race which put more of them at risk of falling into a life of crime. Along with a prejudgment in society that blacks are more dangerous.
As a school board leader in Little Rock told me, "It's definitely a lot better than it was in the 50s but it definitely hasn't gone away" Even today, some school board leaders are continuing to push against the desegregation WAAAAYY after all the mess in 1957. The Arkansas board of education has recently taken over Little Rock School District because of controversies directly tied to the segregation in the city that has resulted in a wide gap in funding for certain schools. Here is a recent article in The Atlantic about it http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/segregation-persists-little-rock/479538/
Our privilege is that we don't see much of racial tensions in Shenandoah, and I partly believe that is because most blacks don't live here, and honestly, I don't think they'd feel welcome here.
When we say "heritage, not hate" we need to own that heritage. A heritage that not only represented one particular army of the south and every bit of your and my white heritage, Remember that this army fought to perpetuate an economic and agricultural system based on racial slavery. Remember that racism hasn't gone away, and every reconstruction, racist, act since that war of heritage have held this flag as a symbol of racism. Part of that heritage is hate. Let's be honest with ourselves.
As much as it hurts what I learned in my childhood, when I fly that flag I am showing the world that my own liberties as a white southerner are more important to me than the liberties of others. AND that the historic violence to protect my white southern liberties is worth it. Because of that, The flag is going in my closet. The swhastica was a symbol of auspiciousness, prosperity, and continuing creation until Hitler took it for his Nazi regime changing it's meaning.
My advice: We all need to get our heads out of the sand. Get our heads out of Lexington this weekend of Lee-Jackson Day. My year in Boston and my year in Little Rock got my head out of the sand. There is a world out there with billions of more significant problems than me feeling like someone is stepping on my toes because people don't like the flag.
Learn the stories of the Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, Integration, and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks, the Little Rock nine, pay attention to the discussions of privilege, and racism now prevalent in the news. Learn stories of civil rights leaders better than you know Lee's and Jackson's. They exhibit characteristics of greatness for their time and we have a lot to learn from them.
Need a place to start? Read Worldchanging 101 by David LaMotte, It's a great blend of inspiration to get you moving on addressing the issues of our day with examples of important behind the scenes members of the civil rights movement.
Keep learning!!! Robert E. Lee said, "Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in it's true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret."
I welcome comments below. Please keep it G rated.
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