The South

My earliest memories of the place called "The South" were that is wasn't a place that was safe to go. I don't remember exactly what was said or what the context of what I heard was.  But, something came up about visiting The South and my dad said something to the effect that it wasn't safe.  My memory is the from the 1960s and the Freedom Riders and civil rights protests were happening back then.  I can understand why my dad thought it wasn't safe for his Catholic family with 4 little children would be better off going elsewhere.  I remember that we went to Yellowstone during that era.

Later we did venture to The South.  We went to Kentucky and Washington, DC when I was in high school.  The South didn't seem so scary to me then. But, I was curious about the confederate statues and monuments and restored history. plantations that could be visited with hardly a mention of slavery. I knew which side I was on in the Civil War.  My great grandfather and his father and brothers had fought for the Union.  One of the brothers died at Andersonville.  The South lost and to my mind they were wrong.  They tried to tear the country apart.  While individual people living in the south weren't to blame for all of that, surely the generals, the plantation owners, the leaders of the Confederacy had some significant blame.  "Why were there statues and monuments to these traitors to our nation?" was what I thought.

I never got a good answer to that question.  I really didn't know many southern people until I married into a family with some southerners.  I was shocked at the language and attitudes toward Black people, as though they were somehow superior.  While I am sure that this was not representative of all southern people by any means, it represented some.  I didn't know what to do about it, the racial talk.  I left the room when I could.  Looking back I am not sure what I could have said or done. I am no longer part of that family and the most prejudiced among them are long since gone.

But, I lived in the South for 4 years in Florida and I live in Missouri today which has a lot of southern roots.  Most of the past is covered in a veneer of acceptance and liberalism or at least tolerance among my circle.  But, I would venture to say we are not "woke".  I am not "woke" even though I would like to be.

I have really mixed feelings about tearing down statues and changing names of cities.  If there is to be a statue of any human who ever lived, they made mistakes, they were not perfect.  There should be discussion, but mobs tearing things down is not the way to run a civil society.  Still, my young self and my old self questions our country that has statues and memorials to traitors who fought to destroy our country out on the city streets, that names military bases for these traitors.  They killed loyal Americans fighting to hold our country together, fighting to end the scourge of slavery that still echoes pain and anger to this day.

I no longer fear the South.  It is a place.  It has a mix of all kinds of people. Like everywhere, some people are good and some are bad and most are a mix of good and bad.  Our history belongs in museums to be studied and thought about.  But out on the city streets all people should feel included and welcome, in my opinion.  It might be a start to tear down or move some statues and change a few names.  That won't correct the problems of the past, but perhaps it will give a pause to people in the future about who we are and what we believe in.