“Do you endorse these statements?” (Evan Clark, Winchester City Council member)
My response;
Well obviously you didn’t grasp what I was trying to say, the concept of “presentism”, for it is illogical to take a quote out of history and judge it by today’s perspective. Do you condemn Lincoln as well? Because if you read my email I included a quote from him that says virtually the same thing. If you understand history you would grasp that the past was a different world. Throughout history mankind has changed and evolved in how they see the world and what they believed. Can the past be changed, of course not. Do you think America started slavery or this modern concept of racism, of course not, I hope? No, people all over the world throughout history believed and acted in ways that we would condemn today, but to those people that was the norm. It’s called history, and it’s diverse and varied and pretty and ugly… and removing it does not change it. And no one is calling for any of it to return, because we are a different people as a society today. And no one but people using it for a political agenda think history supports any supremacy or anything today. Not everyone judges the past on a race-based standard alone that y’all seem to today, and isn’t that racist in itself? The Egyptians, Zulus, or even the American Indians of the past would have no understanding of what you believe and why you would think that way; and they did all sorts of things we’d condemn too. Nor would they understand why you’re attacking dead people as if they are living today. People used to say don’t speak ill of the dead but I guess that was a more polite era, a different world. No one looked at these names as anything but part of history until they were told to when this agenda of tearing down America began. Nor do I believe this is all about race, to some yes, they have been misled to believe that, but there is a bigger picture at work here. Do you endorse the statements from BLM [Black Lives Matter] and Antifa calling for destruction and Marxism (on their websites and in news quotes)? I hope not, that is as ridiculous a question as you asking me if I endorse Early’s statement. Why even yesterday a BLM leader called for the destruction of churches- do you endorse that? Here’s Lincoln’s quote, “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality”. Do you endorse him? Shall we rename or tear down his memorial? Of course not, because it’s history, and I’m no fan of Lincoln because of his unconstitutional war, but I would be appalled at anyone who suggested that he be removed. So where does it stop? Must we all think the same government approved thoughts? Was Orwell right about the picture of the future? I hope not. Leave the people of the past alone, give the individuals of the future the freedom to judge for themselves, using unbiased information, what to think of history and it’s players. Do not limit people’s freedom in making their own decisions. I thank you for at least responding.
Sincerely,Todd Kern