The Presence of a Monument Cannot Twart The Power of A Heritage

The presence of a monument can invite the power to make a statement. The photo presented below was taken in mid-1966 while my father was deployed in the Republic of Vietnam, serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. His deployment occurred in the midst of very volatile times at home and my mother's disposition reflected the tension of the times and the danger of Dad's duty assignment.

The occasion of the photo was a visit to the most prominent monument in the town of Port Gibson, Mississippi, during my father's deployment. This visit was not a minor issue and invited some controversy at the time, yet allowed us to make a statement - literally and figuratively - that my parents, raised at the height of Jim Crow in the very heart of Dixie, were now making sacrifices in freedom that obliterated the philosophy of slavery and servitude espoused by the system that erected that monument.

The presence of such monuments rightfully stir strong emotions, yet also provide us with powerful opportunities to reflect on the bad,  commit ourselves to the good and educate those who follow us regarding the costs of evil and the sacrifices required to overcome it and sustain truth and beauty in a free society.

I am concerned that the demolition of such monuments will eventually lead to the denial of transgressions and a sweeping cultural amnesia that will open the gates for evil's reemergence and render prior gains in vain.  I propose that we allow these monuments, in all of their offense, to provide us with opportunities to remember, teach and learn with bold intentionality.

Using these monuments as vivid reminders of our nation at its worst can provide us with powerful  reminders of how we should not live so that we might avoid revisiting the unrighteousness of our past and so that this great experiment called America might not perish from the earth.