THE WEEKENDER by Clyde Black: What a Shame!
As a kid in school, my favorite subject was history. It didn’t matter what era or what part of the world my fascination with the characters of the past was of great interest. When our bitter enemy and hateful Taliban started destroying ancient artifacts in the Middle East I was shocked. History gone forever not to mention the social importance to some. The hate mongers did not care and were simply hell bent on destruction. Really quite ignorant of them. It saddens me further to see it happening right here today in our country as our own American Taliban seeks to destroy, specifically, the statues of civil war veterans of the Confederacy. It’s just history folks. The hate mongers won’t be satisfied and will move on to book burning. Oh, wait, that’s already happening.
Let’s see, as I can determine it the whole issue seems to be race related. This current assault on these historical artifacts seems to be a black issue swelling up against these white historical figures. What a shame the whole thing is! I think we fought a civil war over slavery with mostly whites fighting for the blacks and now we seem to be fighting the memory of the damn thing. Good grief. Will it never go away? We’ve spent more time dealing with the after effects of slavery than we actually had slavery! There is a guy in our community who shows up every week at city council meetings and rants on about slavery and white supremacy issues. C’mon man, I doubt that even 200 years ago the mayor of Crockett could control much of the national issue of slavery and I doubt that our city council today can do much about your hurt feelings.
As for Crockett, Texas, I only have 2 statues that come to mind. Lightening Hopkins and Myrtis Dightman. Both happen to be black men beloved by our community and I am proud to claim Mr. Dightman as my friend. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe it was predominately white folks and social organizations that raised the money for these statues so let’s give the racial ranting in Crockett a rest. Let’s don’t judge each other by color but by how we treat each other. Houston had slaves. Do we need to change the name of the county? Crockett as well. What about Bowie? Then, as it always does, the pendulum will change direction and someone will be offended by Hopkins, Dightman and MLK. Lord, please help us control our emotions and give us maturity, love and respect for each other.
