We stayed in the hotel this morning to watch the CNN reporting of the taking down of the Confederate flag in South Carolina. That flag had only been there since the early 1960s, and it was intended for display only during the year of the Centennial--but somehow it never was removed. South Carolinians have been debating the issue or keeping it or taking it down for many years, and thousands of people assembled this morning to watch it being removed from the capitol grounds.
As we've traveled together through the Deep South, we've taken the time to watch films and read about the history of Natchez and the Natchez Trace--stimulating conversations about the meaning of the Confederate flag and the Southern psyche.
I learned that my two great-grandfathers fought in the same battle in Gettysburg. One was an Alabama farmer, the other a Georgia farmer--neither slaveholders. Ironically, the two soldiers were just a few feet apart at one of the bloodiest battles of the War. Both were captured, both survived--and, as far as I know, they didn't know each other. Had either man died in that battle, our family tree would not have sprouted the branch on which I live.
It's mind-boggling to think of how such strokes of luck or good fortune (or the opposite) determine who gets to be born and have a life. All of us alive today are descendants of survivors of wars.
In eighth grade, Betty and I read Yankee Stranger, Gone With the Wind, and other historical novels about the Civil War, but I don't recall ever studying the war in school beyond a cursory coverage of dates and place names. The impact of that war is felt in the trajectories of our lives, both Northerners and Southerners.
When asked why there are so many good writers in the South, Walker Percy said, "Because we lost the war."
I learned that my two great-grandfathers fought in the same battle in Gettysburg. One was an Alabama farmer, the other a Georgia farmer--neither slaveholders. Ironically, the two soldiers were just a few feet apart at one of the bloodiest battles of the War. Both were captured, both survived--and, as far as I know, they didn't know each other. Had either man died in that battle, our family tree would not have sprouted the branch on which I live.
It's mind-boggling to think of how such strokes of luck or good fortune (or the opposite) determine who gets to be born and have a life. All of us alive today are descendants of survivors of wars.
In eighth grade, Betty and I read Yankee Stranger, Gone With the Wind, and other historical novels about the Civil War, but I don't recall ever studying the war in school beyond a cursory coverage of dates and place names. The impact of that war is felt in the trajectories of our lives, both Northerners and Southerners.
When asked why there are so many good writers in the South, Walker Percy said, "Because we lost the war."
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