On Public Discourse, Moral Re-examination, Offended Sensibilities, Court Rulings and Emblems of the Confederacy in Leesburg, Va

As Americans, as a Nation, we stand unified in our belief that each and all have the right to express their opinions proudly and openly, especially when doing so opens heretofore obscured pathways to a deeper understanding of our collective humanity during broad discourses such as these; vigorously reassessing an ever progressing and changing identity.

As a Democracy, we ideally look toward and rely upon a majority representation of our majority personality. There are many compelling forces in this broad “heritage” argument. I hear confidence and resolve from folks holding nearly sacred the recognition of those (especially our ancestors) who “died for their beliefs”.

As a native Virginian (Fredericksburg, Northern Virginia and until recently Leesburg) I'm proud of our multi-faceted history--rife with admirable and remarkable personalities manifest in myriad trajectories, often times in contradictory fashion. That any may have died "standing for something" doesn't automatically meet my personal standards for veneration. History is rife and rancid with all sorts of agents displaying hideous conviction.

Leesburg has indeed and repeatedly been a bed of revolutionary passion. Loudoun County earned the colloquial status of “Breadbasket of the Revolution” for its formidable agricultural support of the Continental Army as it feverishly fought to extricate its citizens from the demeaning and crippling clutches of a far-away tyrannical regime.

The colonies—united—won that war to become thereafter, in fits and starts, an officially independent and sovereign nation. For months, years, decades and centuries we proceeded as a young society navigating, negotiating a brighter, fairer and ever more promising future for each and all. Relative to other "great” nations of the globe, we today still remain a relatively young one. Many other nations have existed for far longer, though we seldom acknowledge or give a glimpse of any appreciation for their lessons learned throughout their longer ages. 

No one can accurately predict when one established era's characteristic practices, social mores and moral standards will seemingly—suddenly—tumult into another with its laws, practices and traditions slightly but more effectively reasonable, rational, righteous, enlightened and otherwise evolved.

The "War Between the States” was a bloody and divisive conflagration, when certain States within our unified nation attempted secession from  the majority collective thus allowing themselves to adhere only to their own codes and economic methods, one of which is now clearly recognized as a cruel, demoralized practice, that of keeping and utilizing human beings as livestock.

It is fact that many of our honored “forefathers” were slave owners, but during all that while an ever flowing enlightenment was by degrees reaching many enough shores to gradually become a mainstream. Those cultures—multiple generations of them—slowly gave way to change much as a frightened uprooted child slowly learns that a new home can be better, even while holding the memory of the old home near.

Of course, acceptance moves and grows by degrees as well. It requires dialogue both external and internal.

Recently, in the wake of "rulings" (we've been inoculated to steel ourselves as a reaction to that word) it’s irrefutable that this slow conversion is requiring this conversation, even within the considered climate of many a jarred sensibility. Perhaps we’ve evolved farther to a point where all of these opinions, reactions and detractions can be civil (writ large), constructive, non-violent (literally and literately) and made (and heard!) with patiently open minds and compassionately open hearts. We are compelled to examine ourselves as private and public entities and we do so privately and publicly.

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld recently stated (perhaps within another context, perhaps not) that "pain (like stubbing your toe on the edge of furniture in the dark) is just knowledge rushing in to fill a gap in knowledge. That pain you feel is a lot of information rushing in really quickly." In that sense, intransigence is our enemy, both as an end result and as a practice fostering more unpleasantness along the stubborn way.

As a somewhat unified Nation we won the Revolutionary War, only to later relent and lament to the divided begrudging struggle of civil war--a long-fought ugly conflict whose legacy, by virtue of its origins of regional solipsism and nationalistic self-loathing, is one of which many an American are understandably not proud.

But we ever too gradually manage to progress. Whether they be flags, statues or lofty hoisted monuments of the heart and mind, we fondly cradle these emblems as commemorations of a survived history although some of their ultimate stigma bears out as perverted vestiges of passed times and archaic cultures. 

On the one hand, we feel strongly that the Confederate facet of our region’s identity should be recognized and taught. On the other, its arguably most salient historical mantle is human slavery--universally deplored. Any nod to icons standing for this cause of the Confederacy risks being perceived as approval, perhaps celebration more than commemoration.

We should know to cede to the reality that the African American diaspora in this country have a unique history among all others. It is a legacy that continues in the face of continued transformation throughout these subsequent generations and needs to be learned more eagerly by those suffering from the inoculated predispositions instilled by a foundationally Euro-White ruling class. 

Generally I find it rude to question and argue others' clearly or vaguely articulated reasons for  offended to most anything. The sensibilities of our fellow Americans and Leesburg/Loudoun citizens (especially our brothers and sisters of African ancestry) should be of paramount importance and of utmost consideration in these Confederate monuments debates.

 Even still, many perceive these complaints as a weak-kneed chorus of politically correct whiners and "snowflakes".

At this point in the legislative debate it's encouraging to foresee the moment when we may allow the cognitive dissonance to flow like a robust and widely drinkable wine. In vino veritas. Let's learn and make some long needed adjustments.