How Shall We then Respond?

Flower Power, 1967, photographed by Bernie Boston on October 21, 1967, while he was sitting on the wall of the Mall Entrance of the Pentagon

On this day in 1587, Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.

We didn’t make it to Roanoke Island this summer, so I can’t really tell you what happened to The Lost Colony. But the history, both real and speculative, is fascinating.

When we’re at the Outer Banks we love visiting the island for downtown Manteo, for the aquarium, and occasionally for the dolphin tours.

Mug Shots
(click the pic)

Not to worry. We’ll be back. Just perhaps not soon enough.

It’s Friday and we’re still struggling with the events of last weekend. We will continue to struggle as the debates and rhetoric and, yes, hate, continue to fly.

All I will say is that we should all, and that means all, look beyond the hysteria before responding.

If we can’t respond without anger, and finger-pointing, and hate, then we should either not respond, or wait until we can.

How we respond is up to each of us. But in figuring out just what my response should be, I am reminded of the words of Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom. Ten Boom and her family hid Jews from the Nazis until she, her father, and her sister were captured and sent to concentration camps. Corrie Ten Boom survived. Her father and sister did not.

But in her book The Hiding Place, she recounts the time she encountered a former Nazi guard.

She wrote:

“Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him….Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness….And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.”

Ponder upon that this weekend.

If you’ve been bouncing around the Interwebz talking about how love trumps hate, interspersed with comments about what you’re going to do to the $%@#$ing Nazis, or applauding those who are vandalizing statues, or reminding us how much you hate Donald Trump…then you might want to think about what Corrie Ten Boom said.

I can’t answer that for you. I can’t make your decisions.

But you should.

I really haven’t meant to dwell on this subject over the past few days, but it’s hard to let it go. Hopefully next week we can get back to your regularly scheduled snarkiness and brilliance.

This weekend, I’ll be writing, and working at the park, and maybe even mowing the lawn.

Plenty of time to think.

FIVE THINGS FOR YOUR WEEKEND

Statement on Confederate Memorials: Confronting Difficult History
National Trust for Historic Preservation
We should always remember the past, but we do not necessarily need to revere it. As communities work to determine the appropriate balance, we hope they move forward in a transparent, deliberative, and inclusive way that embraces the complexity here, examines many possible alternatives, and allows for a thoughtful community dialogue that gives all sides a chance to be heard.

Trump Spoke Truth About ‘Both Sides’ In Charlottesville, And The Media Lost Their Minds
The Federalist
The media’s responsibility, if it even cares anymore, is to learn how to tell the difference between the things he does right, the small mistakes he makes, and the big blunders he commits. Currently the media are apparently incapable of telling the difference between all three: it’s one and the same to them, no matter what he does, no matter what he says.

The time for Ed Gillespie’s ‘Buckley moment’ has arrived
Norm Leahy in The Washington Post
Gillespie should follow the good professor’s lead and write Stewart and his cynicism out of the Virginia GOP, and he should do it as soon as possible.

Un-American activities
The Washington Post
Communists, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates — I can’t stand them. They are supporters of ideologies of slavery and murder. They are losers, who lost for very good reason. But their speech should be protected, I think; and the cases for stripping protection from such speech have always been very similar.

Secret Service investigating Mo. state senator over Facebook post hoping for Trump’s assassination
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a Facebook post from Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-University City, in which she stated: “I hope Trump is assassinated!”

AND, FINALLY…

This, because I love Virginia, for many reasons.


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