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| One mama who is happy to have her boy back |
I tried to write a
post tonight about white supremacy, Charlottesville, and Confederate statues,
but my thoughts are too tangled to make it coherent. Anyone reading this knows how
strongly I deplore white supremacy and today’s violence. Were I in
Charlottesville I would have stayed hidden inside, partly because I fear
violence and party because I think going out to protest the marchers gave them
a certain credibility. I am, like everyone, devastated by the deaths and
injuries.
It may surprise
some that I don’t favor destroying Confederate monuments. The Confederacy and
the Civil War are significant parts of our history, and we are foolish to try
to either deny or rewrite history. Let the monuments remain not as objects of
glory but as reminders that we are now better people, shaped by the fire of
that war.
Hate has been
legitimized in this country by a president who encouraged violence at his political
rallies, mocked minorities and the disabled, banned certain nationalities from
our shores, and still strives to build a wall to keep out an entire race of
people. It is a sad day for a nation founded on the belief that all men are
equal.
On another note.
It’s been quiet around the Alter/Burton homestead lately, but today we welcomed
Jacob home from camp where he had, in his words, a blast. He went for two
weeks; one week in, he wanted to come home. Now he says he wants to go back
next year for four weeks. He’s tanned and healthy and happy and grew two feet,
I’m sure. I’m glad he’s back. To celebrate, we fixed Polish sausage for dinner—a
favorite of his, but I found I didn’t buy enough. Double that order next time.
And on a personal
happy note: I wrote two thousand words today on the novel I’m working on. My
daily goal is a thousand words, but yesterday if I was lucky I wrote three
hundred. The words wouldn’t come. The late Jerry Flemmons, who gave me lots of
good advice and counsel, always said when writer’s block hits the thing to do
is put your butt in the chair and write, no matter how meaningless the words. I
tried yesterday, honest I did, but I stared at a blank screen and finally resorted
to Facebook. Today with everyone gone, I wrote twice my daily goal and made a
lot of notes for tomorrow’s writing.
I would say all’s
well and the world is in its place, but clearly it’s not. Not with Kim Jung-Un
and Trumpf rattling sabers and not with the tragic events of Charlottesville.
But when I’m discouraged I remember William Faulkner’s Nobel speech—“I believe
man will not only endure, he will prevail.” Call me Pollyanna.
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