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Monday, Dec 23, 2002
Remember
December 23, 2002
I received a gift yesterday, "Lies Across America -- What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong" by James W. Loewen. I started to read it last night, which may have been a mistake. Most books relax me, and help me get ready to sleep. This one didn't have that effect at all. In fact, almost every essay agitated me further.
If I do another trip across the country, I may have to title it "Desecrating Monuments Around the Continent". The monument to the "Battle of Liberty Place" seems like a good one to start with. This obelisk can be found at the foot of Iberville in New Orleans. I believe I've seen it, but didn't understand the significance. It celebrates an armed insurrection in 1874 by the Crescent City White League, a white supremacist organization.
Toppling a monument of that size is quite an undertaking. An alternative would be to add yet another inscription to this oft revised monument. Some words spoken by Lincoln upon the liberation of Richmond, Virginia seem appropriate. "In reference to you, colored people, let me say God has made you free. Although you have been deprived of your God-given rights by your so-called masters, you are now as free as I am, and if those that claim to be your superiors do not know that you are free, take the sword and bayonet and teach them that you are -- for God created all men free, giving to each the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
"Lies Across America" continually reinforces a truth written by Orwell. Those that control the present control the past. Those that control the past control the future. This truth inspired me to do a little reading about events which have taken place in my lifetime.
Police vs. Jackson State
CIA and FBI vs. UC Berkeley