NEWFANE — I have listened with great interest to the rhetoric concerning the removal of Confederate monuments and the demonstrations about such actions.
The problem is that all this just does not go far enough. We must not just destroy in order to save, we must address the hearts and minds of the Philistines.
We are ignoring the greatest danger of all, especially to our children: books and, to some extent, film.
Take Gone with the Wind as an example of a hideous glorification of the antebellum south and the lamentation of its passing. I heard our august Senator Patrick Leahy state unequivocally that all those who fought for the Confederacy were traitors.
With that thought in mind and the often-unstated fact that the Confederacy was just a group of greedy farmers, it seems to me that all references to the Civil War need to be changed - and now. Every library, school, and Hollywood production should be made to hire a person, who in honor of George Orwell, and regardless of gender, or lack thereof, we should call “Mr. Smith.”
The Mr. Smiths will be charged with the responsibility to change every book and film reference to southerners or soldiers participating in the Civil War as follows: There shall be inserted in front of any and all references to such persons the words “that venal traitor.”
So “General Robert E. Lee gave orders for Major Lawrence to bring up his troops” will now read “That venal traitor General Robert E. Lee gave orders for that venal traitor Major Lawrence to bring up his troops.” This will be somewhat labor intensive and cost a bundle, but nothing is more important than the safety of our children.
We can have publishers reprint their books for reinsertion into our libraries, or we can have all the Mr. Smiths write the appropriate words in black ink in each book. Hollywood must pull all film featuring the Civil War and dub the words into the dialog at the appropriate places.
That leaves the problem of places like Stone Mountain in Georgia. That, however, is not really as difficult as it might seem. The Taliban in Afghanistan set a wonderful non-secular precedent when they blew the 1,000-year-old statue of Buddha to hell and gone with tanks. ISIS regularly destroys distasteful statues and other edifices with explosives. So... we can just send our glorious Vermont armored brigade down there (with Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders on top in their Dukakis helmets to direct fire) to send that piece of history to perdition. Simple.
I hope we have some demonstrations/speeches in Brattleboro. My marching days are way gone by, but I would love to stand between the Nazis, et al. and the counter-protesters,et al. I would stand with my back to the Nazis and face the counter protesters. My sign would read: I hate his speech - I glory that I live where it can be made. Shame on you (both).