SLAVERY ON TOP OF FREEDOM
The renovation of the area around Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell here in Philadelphia became quite a maelstrom of controversy when it was discovered that a key part of the new mall would be built on top of the location of the former slave quarters of the father of Fathers, George Washington himself. Some have argued that construction should continue as scheduled, while others loudly protest that history, no matter how painful to swallow, ought not be built over. The compromises reached in timetable and design haven't seemed to satisfy anyone. Our nation's "progress" in race relations continues, sometimes jaggedly, sometimes two steps forward two steps back, but always in movement.
If you think about our country, there have been three major events -- one per century -- that have defined us as a nation. Two, the Revolutionary War and World War II, are glaring in their inconsistency: how can we fight for indepedence, here or abroad, and yet deny it to an entire group of people? The third was directly about race: the Civil War, in which southern states seceded and fought for the right to be able to enslave black people without federal interference.
What I love about America is that it is a nation built on process. Having won independence, the new Americans split between those who wanted a strong federal government to keep the infant nation together and those who argued that a strong federal government represented the kind of tyranny they had just shed blood against. Instead of deciding between one or the other, our founding fathers decided that our country would be about the process of progress. That process continues today.
So while our nation has had many shameful episodes in its history, I bleed red white and blue. I am not proud of certain flaws about America, but I am proud to be an American. What I don't want is for us to become, as Michael Eric Dyson calls it, "the United States of Amnesia." To forget about our less desirable historical events would be to become a nation that I would no longer be proud of.
The renovation of the area around Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell here in Philadelphia became quite a maelstrom of controversy when it was discovered that a key part of the new mall would be built on top of the location of the former slave quarters of the father of Fathers, George Washington himself. Some have argued that construction should continue as scheduled, while others loudly protest that history, no matter how painful to swallow, ought not be built over. The compromises reached in timetable and design haven't seemed to satisfy anyone. Our nation's "progress" in race relations continues, sometimes jaggedly, sometimes two steps forward two steps back, but always in movement.
If you think about our country, there have been three major events -- one per century -- that have defined us as a nation. Two, the Revolutionary War and World War II, are glaring in their inconsistency: how can we fight for indepedence, here or abroad, and yet deny it to an entire group of people? The third was directly about race: the Civil War, in which southern states seceded and fought for the right to be able to enslave black people without federal interference.
What I love about America is that it is a nation built on process. Having won independence, the new Americans split between those who wanted a strong federal government to keep the infant nation together and those who argued that a strong federal government represented the kind of tyranny they had just shed blood against. Instead of deciding between one or the other, our founding fathers decided that our country would be about the process of progress. That process continues today.
So while our nation has had many shameful episodes in its history, I bleed red white and blue. I am not proud of certain flaws about America, but I am proud to be an American. What I don't want is for us to become, as Michael Eric Dyson calls it, "the United States of Amnesia." To forget about our less desirable historical events would be to become a nation that I would no longer be proud of.
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