When 5 blind men create a connect-the-dots puzzle....
How can anyone make sense of the assembled conflicting perspectives?
“The things you’re curious about intrigue me,” a friend responded to my Philadelphia in 1873 post, and I realized I was also intrigued.
Two years ago, I jokingly bragged that most of what I knew about American history I learned from Lin Manuel Miranda. Things have changed dramatically.
In the midst of quarantine, in response to George Floyd’s murder, the injustice following the Tuttle murders, becoming aware of the broad interpretation of “MAGA” and becoming aware of a disturbing anti-South sentiment (as well as an almost overwhelming contempt for poor whites), and the pervasive disregard of Urban Chicago’s war zone, I found myself compelled to dig deep in search of the truths that matter when it comes to our shared past.
Inconsistencies, misinformation and biases based on conjecture and opinion…I’m seeking significance in a disjointed image pasted together by differing factions with conflicting motives.
It’s a game of connect-the-dots of individual thinkers who’ve invested no effort in compromise, like the 5 blind men who encountered their first elephant.
Which serves as a reminder, our collective history isn’t based on collaboration but on a rocky foundation created by victors writing history and losers seeking nobility.
With this in mind, I shall continue to plow through available records hoping to find clarity.
Let’s do this!