I am always amazed when history is viewed as HISTORY -- set in stone, immovable, inarguable.
History is simply a backwards view of a complex thing -- actual life. LIFE is messy and weird and nobody really understands it, except arguably God.
However, I agree with and admire this quote:
"The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future."
Theodore Roosevelt
A friend of mine wrote not long ago on Facebook of a chance encounter he had with actor/director Ben Affleck. They were in an airport, I think, in Eastern Europe, and struck up a conversation. Affleck was extremely kind and chatty and my friend -- who isn't easily impressed by celebrity -- was impressed.
I have spent many hours happily fascinated by a PBS show called Finding Your Roots. I don't know why the genealogy of strangers intrigues me so much, but it does. So I was dismayed to read that when Ben Affleck was on the show some months back, according to the Washington Post, and researchers uncovered an ancestor who was a Georgia slaveowner, they omitted that from the broadcast.
I am happy to see this:
"PBS will delay the next season of the show until its producers implement several staffing changes. They will be required to hire a fact checker and an independent genealogist, and will withdraw Affleck’s episode from all forms of distribution."
However, what I'd prefer to see is the program about Affleck WITH the embarrassing ancestor footage restored.
Affleck wanted to fashion his personal history to show he is descended from a long line of people who fought for social justice. "Researchers did turn up plenty for the actor-cum-activist to be pleased about: a mother who was a member of the Freedom Riders, an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War."
According to Wikipedia, Affleck attended college but never finished. I imagine he has some insecurity about that. College teaches a person to think critically, to analyze.
I also think college [usually] gives a person the confidence to ignore other people's opinions. Affleck shouldn't care what anyone in Hollyweird thinks about his ancestors. I never sit around worrying what other people think of me. I am who I am, and if someone thinks badly of me because I have family members who did awful things in the past, then that just illustrates their ignorance.
I recently wrote a blog called My Family History. I was delighted to see connections to notable figures like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, and even Queen Elizabeth II. None of them were [or are] perfect.
Do any of those connections really matter to me, to my life, right now in 2015? No, not really. Jefferson and Washington were slaveholders. Can I change that? No. If I could magically travel back in time I'd love to try and change that fact, but obviously I cannot.
If you read the Wikipedia article I linked to it mentions that Affleck and his wife bought a house near Savannah last year. OMG -- slaveowners might have lived in it! Call somebody to come in and clean up the bad karma!
This article talks about Affleck's connection to the city:
"Affleck and his wife, Jennifer Garner, often vacation at their home on Hampton Island near Riceboro, about forty-five minutes south of Savannah. Affleck bought the home nearly a decade ago and has been clear about his love for coastal Georgia since filming the 1999 film "Forces of Nature" in Savannah."
Savannah is a lovely and historic city. It has a past that includes slavery. (In fact, one of Affleck's ancestors was the sheriff of Savannah.) Should the entire city be burned to the ground as a result? Of course not. It has evolved.
Like another very historic and beautiful city, Charleston, Savannah is not a static, dead place.
Like most everyone else, I was horrified, of course, by the Charleston church murders last week. I was heartened, however, that the city has not turned into a place of rioting and looting, like Ferguson and Baltimore. Charleston's response to the tragedy has been very different.
Last Sunday, according to CBS News [and other news sources]:
"...thousands of people gathered on either side of the city's iconic Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge and marched across in a showing of solidarity and healing. Underneath the more than 2-mile span with towering cable supports, dozens of boats gathered and blew their air horns in support, while cars honked as they passed on the bridge."
Those people were black and white and all races. Those people were peaceful. They were mourning, not rioting. [see photo below]
So here's what I'd like to say to Ben Affleck, if I could.
Ben, we are probably related because most of my ancestors have been in Georgia for many generations. Your decision to own a home in Georgia tells me that you realize that this is a beautiful place, filled with loving and kind people. There are evil people, too, of course, and crazy ones. However, as a state we have evolved over the generations. We have learned. We aren't perfect, but we do learn.
I hope and pray a hundred years from now my great-grandchildren will realize that yes, I've done some stupid and regrettable things. No, I've not been as kind and Christ-like as I should have been. However, I have pushed myself to learn, to be better, to understand, to try and make the world a little better.
We can celebrate the past without worrying that it defines us now. We have that right, and that responsibility. Don't deny what happened. Just go forward with energy and faith, to keep learning and trying to evolve.
This was Charleston, after the murders last week -- ironically this photo is from the British Daily Mail:
