Silent Sam is a statue of a young Confederate soldier that stood on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill for many years. Recently controversy has erupted over its place and meaning. One evening a group of protestors tore it from its base. It seems the leaders of the university cannot decide what now to do with "Silent Sam." Here are some thoughts that came to me early one morning about what Silent Sam "could" say.
What Could
Silent Sam Say Now
“So again I am toppled like the
cause for which I stood. What if I told
you that I have been watching what has happened all these years since I was
first erected in the midst of all those white supremacy speeches and the
planting of Jim Crow seeds?
What if I told you that I now see
how blind we were? My shoes are frozen
so I realize that you cannot walk a mile in them. I do not expect you to understand how and why
I signed up before I stood up. I
believed my cause was just because that is the way I was raised. I knew nothing else and it felt “right.”
You cannot imagine the carnage I
both witnessed and in which I participated.
You fight wars now with drones and smart bombs. We stood face to face a few yards apart and
looked each other in the eye before we killed one another.
My name may now be “Sam,” but I
represent countless unnamed “boys” who were ripped apart by loyalty and
whirling metal. I at first stood for but
one side of all this. I was erected to
honor one side and demonize the other sides’ cause, but I now know in my heart
of steel that I really stand for a need to remember how we can get lost in
causes.
What if I told you I now understand
why I need to be brought down? What if I
also cautioned you to while not “featuring” me that you should also not hide me
away in some grave like closet? Put me
in a place where there is a door so that those who wish to gaze upon my frozen
memory can chose whether or not to do so.
And if they chose to see me, perhaps
the remembrance can be one of the need to learn and not forget; not forget how
good people can do really awful things in the name of zealous and even blind
nationalism. Maybe this is too much to
ask and after what I have witnessed from my monumental perch, I would
understand those who want me banished.
Over the horizon I have seen lynchings,
rallies with grown men wearing white protection and dancing like children
around a burning cross, votes denied, dirty back of buses, “colored and white”
water fountains…and countless images of injustice. Before you knocked me from my place of vision
I also saw thousands listen to a man who “had a dream,” I saw laws changed for
the better and hearts change, I even saw a man whose ancestors were the slaves
I fought to keep become President….I have see a lot.
My question to you is do I still
have the ability to “teach?” It could be
that the evil I represent to so many is so prevalent that nothing can be
learned. But what if some could see me
and remember to be careful of causes?
What if history, rather than being used as a weapon could be used as a
tool? What if rather than honoring me
you use me to remember never to forget?
Maybe you could put me someplace
where those who come to see me will come as students rather than
protestors. There is sure a place and a
need for protesting after what I have witnessed, but there is also a need to
learn and not forget the hard lessons of the past.
It’s just a thought. And by the way, after what I have seen, if I
could speak I would ask those I harmed for their forgiveness and I would
understand if they could not do that.
The thing about silence is that if that is all there is, people tend to
fill the silence with their own thoughts.
I guess that is all I have to say.
Do with me as you please. Just
remember to learn.”
