The blog entry below that I wrote in 2015, I just read it again today (12/16/2017). Since 2015 and especially this year, there has been a lot of action involving Civil War monuments, most of it very uncivil and even fatally tragic in at least one instance. I still, however, hold to my thoughts as I wrote them in 2015's blog. To add a little more detail to what I was hinting at - NC's true history of the Civil War - you might start with a little research into The Red Strings; discovering this group and its impact was truly enlightening. Also, a book about a cold-blooded racially motivated murder in Oxford, NC in 1970, Blood Done Sign My Name, may also help to open eyes about NC's racial history. Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain, although a fiction, shares a perspective of the plight of the common Tarheel foot soldier that I feel one might be able to project onto "Silent Sam" himself, whether or not that was the intention of the sculptor or the people who had the statue installed. How do I feel personally about statues honoring Confederate soldiers or the Confederacy? To me, it's two different categories, and I'd be more inclined to understand why someone would want to remember the first, but not the latter. My thinking is more in line with Prof. James Loewen (author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, Lies Across America, Teaching What Really Happened, and The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The "Great Truth" Behind the "Lost Cause") Some statues and monuments need to come down while others should remain, and other memorials need to be erected, e.g., plaques attached to older monuments that correct misinformation or at least provide an objective summary of current perspective (with a date), statues of children from different ethnic backgrounds playing together, etc. Knowledge can lead to understanding, and understanding to wisdom. Knowledge good, ignorance bad. - cn 12/16/2017
Charley NorkusHigh school history teacher for almost 20 years Archives
November 2015
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