Rather Historic American Statues than Return to American War

Professional Tribalist Personifies Hobgoblin of Small Minds

Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” showcases another professional tribalizing divider— “Professor Valerie Johnson.” 

The young people of North Carolina’s Bennett College have my deepest sympathy that this woman is one of their professors.

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ennett College used to be an excellent institution of higher learning for young women. Too bad it has descended to hiring the likes of Valerie Johnson turned North Carolina Historical Commission member whose predilection for consistency prefers return to civil war in America.

Maya Little tearing down historic statues in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, claims “context” as justification for physical aggression, the crime of vandalism. Valerie Johnson voting yes to tearing down statues in Raleigh, North Carolina, claims “consistency” as justification for her crime of the mind.

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ohnson told “Democracy Now!” she voted to remove historic statues in North Carolina’s capital city because she “…was keeping consistent with the idea that those three statues should not be on the state Capitol grounds” [NONSENSE!] …. “If we voted to remove them,” she said, “it would be an opportunity for us to rethink citizenship because those monuments also were about abrogating the citizenship of African Americans ….” [NONSENSE!]

If the statues are not there, how would Americans know their history?

It is imperative that we know from whence we came to know where we are headed; and to chart a better course. Write new chapters toward the future. We must know; and without blinking, ducking or hedging, we must see clearly the history of our country.

My response to Professor Johnson’s misuse of language is that no inanimate object ever “abrogated” (abolished) anything. As to her slant of historical reality: Africans and others brought to America as slaves—were foreigners who became “slaves”; and as such, on both counts, they were noncitizens. How many Americans today take seriously the “duty” of citizenship?

Johnson suggests the need to “rethink citizenship.” I think citizenship is a clear concept and clear in its application. Moreover, arguments about “citizenship” are irrelevant to arguments about historic statues and icons. In the twenty-first century, Americans have progressed beyond the era of war and enslavement.Let us not return to war or, in our ignorance, to enslavement.

Poor Bennett College students!

Professorial ignorance of language, history, meaning, and complexities of great issues is inexcusable. Sometimes it is better to stay home than expose oneself to ridicule.

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onsistency indeed!
 Most students, at least of an earlier era, are familiar with Emerson’s line.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He [SHE] may as well concern himself [HERSELF] with his [HER] shadow on the wall.” [My bracketed inserts]

Or Oscar Wilde’s line

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”

Maybe the Carolina ladies would have American city leaders set pyres to handle all the books they don’t like. The world needs imagination. We must imagine anew—free of shame and resentment, fear and jealousy.

I will always contend that our country is wonderful in so many ways, not least being its people.

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he United States of America, We The People of the United States of America are, in my view,  a country born and raised in promise and potential—America’s promised greatness being in its potential for goodness.

This good greatness is found neither in festering resentments nor regression, neither in nostalgia nor the status quo. And certainly not in grandstanding tribal opportunists spouting nonsense—on a dais or fronting a camera lens in search of fifteen minutes of fame — at the expense of the young, young impressionable minds, and in hindrance of a better-laid road ahead.

Sources

Democracy Now! “NC’s Sole Black Woman Historical Commissioner: Confederate Statues Don’t Belong at State Capitol” August 23, 2018 https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/23/ncs_sole_black_woman_historical_commissioner

Wikipedia. American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson; most of his important essays composed first as lectures then revised for publication (his lifetime May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance (1841). https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Consistency

Wikipedia. Irish poet and playwright Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde in the early 1800s was among London’s most popular playwrights (his lifetime October 16, 1854 –November 30, 1900). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

Oscar Wilde. “The Relation of Dress to Art” in Pall Mall Gazette (2/28/1885); reprinted in Aristotle at Afternoon Tea: The Rare Oscar Wilde (1991).

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Consistency

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