I haven't been out and about much since covid to find neat things to photograph to use for my posts, so I was going back through the photos I have, to see what was there that I never shared before.
Our little town has one of the historic confederate statues in front of the old courthouse that the haters have been destroying of late. I know that sentence may sound a bit abrasive, but let me tell you about me and that....
I was born and raised in the south, but I consider myself one of the lucky ones in that my parents didn't raise me to hate others for no real reason at all and we weren't taught that we were better than anyone else simply because we were white, so that is something I never had to overcome as an adult. I was born with a mushy heart and an over-sized empathizer and I would never intentionally hurt someone else's feelings on purpose.....no ones.
(I realized once I started adding my photos that I didn't have a good one of the front of the court house, even though I thought I did, but I found this photo I had taken from my car one night in December, obviously. Merry Christmas ! ha ha)
It sits in the center of a circle drive. and has roads leading too (or away) north, south, east & west.
I had taken some photos one day of the old courthouse that was built in 1923 to replace the original one that had been built in 1861 of brick and stucco.
Being close to it really made me feel small. It is SO magnificent.
...HUGE !
..... and beautiful !
Nothing much they build today has near the personality.
The pole that was going through one of the photos above is for this flag.
I really love the lamp post too. It may look short compared to the courthouse, but they are still very big.
So back to the statue. This one is not of a general or leader, just a miscellaneous confederate soldier. For me, I never looked at it specifically as representing being against something or someone now, more just an icon of history past. It IS history you know, something in the past and we all know that there is a lot of history that is not pretty. It's still history.
It in no way means our city is still trying to fight that war.
I believe a lot of people fought because they felt attacked and they didn't know another way of life and that there was a lot of ignorance involved as many had been raised and taught by their parents things that weren't true (just like their parents taught them). How much did you believe that your parents taught you growing up..... and what portion of that do you still believe? As an adult, did you find things that weren't quite like you were taught and as an adult, did you let that go and make your own opinion?
It's definitely a process.
You would think from the headlines that America has not made any progress since slavery was abolished, but let me tell you something else, we as a country have made great strides. The headlines don't come close to conveying the truth I see. I live around and work with a very diverse group of people and most of us, of every race, are doing the right thing by each other. We ARE being the solution. We are making it a better day all around.
I'm proud of that and I believe it is going on like this in much more of the country than not. I know there are hot spots of badness and well..... when in all of the history of the earth has there ever been a place where everything was good and done right all of the time..... ??
I don't know of any.
I hope everyone is doing well and having a happy weekend.
... and remember, choose to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Hate never makes anything better.
