History Made in a Moment
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But an honest look at our history – which is the only way we should look– shows us that we’ve not always been a land of hope for everyone. But is it not true that our feelings of disappointment could only be born from our hope as a Nation? It is our communal – our nationalistic – hope that inspires us to want to do better, to include, to forgive, to move always forward to being better. We had a high school exchange student living with us one time who made the comment that “You Americans are always optimistic that your government can achieve perfection. You think your country has virtue.” His voice was disapproving; or perhaps it was jealousy. His country doesn’t have as much hopefulness. He is right, though. Americans allow ourselves to get our hopes up, because we have always been free to hope. But getting ones hopes up is risky, isn’t it? Because we can always be disappointed or disillusioned by humanity’s blunders. It’s all in our history.
There are two opposing columns in our newspaper today. Both are written by literary black males. The first by Burgess Owens is “Why I don’t want and don’t deserve reparations.” The second by Jonathon Capehart is “No check could substitute for an apology.”
Owens writes that his great-great-grandfather Silas Burgess came to America shackled in the belly of a slave ship. Silas Burgess worked hard, saved his money, founded the first black elementary school and church in his town. He was a Republican, a Christian and a pillar of his community. Proud and industrious, he taught his children to be the same. Owens says the Reparations Movement forgets the 150 years of legal, social, and economic progress obtained by millions of American minorities, and the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of white Americans and a Republican president who gave their lives to eradicate slavery. Proponents of reparations believe black Americans are incapable of carrying their own burdens and white Americans must bear the sins of those who came before them. He writes a compelling story that this is a divisive message that marks the black race as forever broken and does not represent black Americans’ potential.
Capehart says no check of any amount could substitute a simple and sincere apology. Without one, he writes, our nation will never reconcile. He didn’t make clear who should make the apology and to whom, or who should write the check. Since there is no one alive today who owned a slave, who wanted slavery, or who was a slave, we aren’t talking about living people to do this. His argument should also include Indigenous people, naturalized Asians, and others who’ve met injustice in our land of hope.
As a lover of historical truth, I can see both men’s arguments, though I admit to being partial to Owens as realistic. I see the study of history through the eyes of a writer who must learn to see historical actors and actresses acting and speaking in another time, in another set of circumstances and moral code, and sometimes under other laws written for that time. They walked this land in an eyeblink of time, making history in that moment. They cannot be judged by us. What they’ve left us is our legacy of hope. Know, of course, that future generations may want us to apologize and pay for what we do!
We must study our history with honesty, the ugly with the beautiful. And, because we can, move forward with the same hope that Silas Burgess carried in his heart: that someday…for all people…Hope.
Burgess Owens wrote this article for Prager University. www.prageru.com/video/why-i-dont-want-and-dont... Jonathon Capehart is on the Washington Post editorial board. The columns I refer to appeared in Chowan Herald, October 9, 2019.