[As with
everything else in this plague-ridden year, my sons and my annual summer trip
to Charlottesville unfortunately hasn’t been able to happen as planned. But this
blog will always return to my home state, this time for a series on a few
of Virginia’s pivotal historical moments, leading up to this special post on my
hometown in 2020.]
A few updates on
where things stand in Cville.
1)
Those damn statues: I’ve been writing
about Charlottesville’s now-infamous Lee and Jackson statues since well
before they became
the epicenter of so many 21st century American debates (Joe
Biden even launched
his presidential campaign through the lens of Charlottesville), and at
times it feels like I’ll be
writing about them for the rest of my life. Or perhaps not—as I draft this
post in late May, a new
ruling has made it more possible than ever that the statues will be removed
from their downtown Cville locations, so perhaps by late August the town will
finally have been able to move forward from those seemingly endless debates. Can’t
say I’m particularly optimistic that that will be the case, though, and I’ll
try to remember to edit this post to include any further developments between
May and August. [Addenum: As of late August, the Lee and Jackson statues remain in limbo, but the University of Virginia has moved forward with the possibility of removing the white supremacist statue of George Rogers Clark, and neighboring Albemarle County likewise with the Confederate soldier outside the County Courthouse. I support both those efforts as well!]
[
2) Continued youthful activism: Yet if the statue
conversations have seemed unable to move forward, many of those involved in the
debates have definitely done so, and none have progressed more impressively
than Zyahna Bryant, the Charlottesville High
School student who spearheaded the initial campaign
and petition to remove the statues and change the name of Lee Park. Bryant
is now a student at the University of Virginia, where she has
helped lead a number of inspiring new efforts, including one
on behalf of fair compensation and other employment issues for the university’s
contract workers. The future of Charlottesville, like the future of America, is
in the hands of young activists and leaders like Bryant, and that’s one main
reason why I remain (most of the time) a critical optimist even in 2020.
3)
Community leaders: Another reason for my
continued, hard-fought optimism is the online communities of which I’m part,
and the folks I’ve gotten to meet and be inspired by through those connections.
That includes a number of Charlottesville community leaders in various arenas:
UVa professors like Jalane Schmidt,
Allison Wright, and John Edwin Mason; journalists
like Jamelle Bouie; and members of the
town’s broader activist community like Emily Gorcenski, Andy Orban,
and Lyle Solla-Yates. These
and many other folks make me proud to be born and raised in Charlottesville,
and excited to see where the town’s communities and conversations can go from
here (especially if we can maybe, just maybe, move and move past those damn
statues).
These and many other folks
make me proud to be born and raised in Charlottesville, and excited to see
where the town’s communities and conversations can go from here (especially if
we can maybe, just maybe, move and move past those damn statues).
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other Virginia histories or contexts you’d share?
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