This weekend sees many graduation celebrations! This important right of passage, whether it is from junior high, high school, college, or higher achieved degrees, is an important marking of hard work and dedication. We should celebrate!
We encourage members of the next generation to aspire for high expectations, ensuring a solid future for themselves, and for future generations to come. This class of graduates will produce doctors, lawyers, businessmen, teachers, repairmen, plumbers, construction workers, farmers, ranchers...all which have to potential to change our world. This could be the generation that cures cancer, creates an environmentally safe pesticide for wheat crops, creates water saving devices for our homes, builds beautiful monuments, serve in Congress and create wonderful democratic policies, the possibilities are endless!
Why should we encourage these young, dedicated, hard working people to aspire to make change? Many, if not most, are leaving college with a lot of debt. They must now begin to reach for the goal of employment and making a difference. I would normally say, "Go for it! Good for you!"
Today, I say, "Be careful, be very careful. You could be judged in the year 2220, and your legacy will be for nothing." Why so negative? Our American citizens have decided that only perfect people can be honored, remembered, and respected. We have become a citizenship of censor and judgemental posturing.
I recognized this with the movement to remove Confederate monuments and statues. I could understand the discomfort of seeing some of these monuments if it were 1920, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Even with that discomfort, these men, Confederate leaders and soldiers, were welcomed back as true citizens on that fateful day at Appomatox Courthouse when Genral Grant stepped onto the frontporch after accepting Lees surrender. "...The Rebels are our countrymen again."
Now it seems we are going to censor our founding fathers. These were brave, passionate men, quite like some in Congress today, who wanted just and prosperous opportunities for future American generations. These men of 1776 were not perfect, nor did they claim to be. In fact, until we won the Revolution, they were traitors! Yes, they made life decisions we would never agree with today, but it was not today! Life was different, norms were different. This doesn't mean those norms were right or moral. That also doesn't mean that some of those founding fathers didn't reflect on and rethink their lives and their decisions. I am confident is saying, like all men (or women), these courageous men had regrets as they looked back on their lives.
So, today, we have decided as a "moral" people that we now need to remove names, monuments, etc...that recognize these men. When will we decide that the U.S. Constitution was written by these "immoral" men, so it should be dissolved? Will we go back and punish anyone who is tied to historical figures who offend us today? How dare we! This is 2019, not 1776, not 1863, we have no idea the actual life steps and emotions these men experienced. We can imagine, we cannot know.
I usally avoid anything controversial or political on this blog for fear of offending someone, but not today! I am not trying to start an arguement. I am wondering who is on our "moral outrage" censorship in the future. Is it one of the graduates of today?
One of the worst parts about censorship is that it's often ignorant and unevenly applied. Abraham Lincoln viewed African Americans as less than equal. I don't see anyone vying to tear down his statue.
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