There was no evidence of this in Charleston (in fact, there was no evidence of moonbattiness at all). It’s just as well, or I wouldn’t have been able to eat those ribs.
Not work safe, by the way. Will definitely induce laughter, and perhaps, nausea. You’ve been warned.
to fall for this?
We have instruction to pay $10 million USD to you via ATM
When did the birkenstock crowd get put in charge of the National Park Service? I ask because of the quotations on display in Liberty Mall outside the entrance to the Fort Sumter museum. Quotations are appropriate, of course, but there isn’t a single quotation from the Founding Fathers, or anyone who had anything to do with the Civil War on either side. No, the quotations could have been pulled from any left-wing “literature” book. The most annoying thing, however, was at the end of the boat trip. There was a local NPS employee who gave a historical overview of the events that led up to the shelling of Fort Sumter (and the first shots of the Civil War), who was obviously not reading from a script until the very end, when he said something that could have been a third grade asssignment, “Read the quotations in the Liberty Mall and think about what liberty means to you.”
Oh for chrissakes, who let the kindergarten teacher write the script? What trivial, subjective drivel. “What liberty means to you” is right down there on the idiotic topics list with “What three things to you miss most about your home country.” Liberty isn’t a subjective feeling. No doubt to Ted Bundy, liberty would have meant the freedom to murder as many coeds as he wanted without being executed for it.
Look. Not everything needs to be reduced and trivialized to some inane, banal, meaningless subjective soundbyte. History isn’t about how you feel, or what something means to you. History is far bigger than you, or your feelings, or your subjective thoughts. History is about people, tribes, movements, and nations, not you or me.
I hated history in school–in fact, it was the only class I hated. I hated it because when we were in school, it was nothing but a series of names and dates and places, with no context. It wasn’t boring: It was deadly. Later, when I wished history had more of a human element, I certainly didn’t mean reductionist, narcissistic, feel-good idiocy like “Think about what liberty means to you.”
Quite some time ago (ahem), the Instructivist posted an article dealing with this issue of history qua history v. history qua “my oppressed little narrative.” I was reminded of this article–and the issue–during the trip to Fort Sumter, which turned out not only to be a history lesson, but a lesson in history education.
You walk through the Liberty Mall to the National Park Service (NPS) museum, where you buy your ticket. It’s largely useless, at least as any kind of historical documentation. It’s the standard reductionist party line about the Civil War. Every display is King Cotton blah blah blah blah Slavery blah blah blah blah. It’s what we’ve all heard several thousand times at least, with almost no substance or detail.
You walk out the other side of the museum and get on the boat, which takes you out to the fort. As I said, there’s a local NPS employee who talks about the historical issues that led up to the first shots of the Civil War. He gives much more detail and substance than the museum, despite the solidly pro-Confederate perspective (unlike the solidly anti-Confederate perspective of the museum).
When you get to the fort, you see right outside the entrance a dedication from (I believe) 1929, by the Daughters of the Confederacy, which says: “In Revereantial Memory of the Confederate Garrison of Fort Sumter Who During Four Years of Continuous Siege and Constant Assault from April 1861 to February 1865 Defended This Harbor Without Knowing Defeat or Sustaining Surrender.” Inside the fort are two commemorations left by the NPS in the 1950s, one to Anderson, and the other to Anderson and his men.
So according to the locals (including the tour guide on the boat), Fort Sumter is dedicated to the Confederate forces who held it for four years. According to the NPS, Fort Sumter is dedicated to the Union forces who surrendered the fort to the Confederate forces (actually, the South Carolina state militia, since there technically weren’t any Confederate forces yet). You think I’m headed toward a “there are no facts, only interpretations” conclusion, don’t you? You don’t know me very well.
There is also a museum at the fort, and also maintained by the NPS, but it is very unlike the museum on the shore. The museum at the fort takes no sides on any issue. It not only gives you historical information, but about both the North and the South. It tells you why Anderson’s occupation of Fort Sumter so angered the South Carolinians, instead of just telling you that the State Militia fired on Anderson and his forces inside Fort Sumter. The museum presents facts, in a very even-handed way.
You can’t really understand the Civil War if you only get the King Cotton blah blah blah Slavery blah blah blah nonsense, because it was far, far more than just cotton or slavery (I’m not saying that slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War, but that slavery wasn’t the primaryissue for either the North or South). You certainly can’t really understand the Civil War if you think of it as “freeing the slaves,” or some chapter in a civil rights struggle. You can’t really understand the Civil War–no matter to which side you feel more sympathy–unless you understand both the North and the South. And every American should thoroughly understand the Civil War, because it had such a huge effect on our nation, and still does today. The shots fired on April 12, 1861 would change our nation forever. Those opposing commemorations are a testament to that.
But Fort Sumter is the proof that you can present history objectively, and separate the interpretation from the fact. While the opposing commemorations are interpretations, they reveal what Fort Sumter means to two groups of people: The two groups who once fought and died for what they believed in the bloodiest war of our nation’s history. History can be presented as the Fort Sumter museum presents it, giving voice to both sides of the conflict, and explaining the issues, as both sides saw them, that led up to that conflict. Presenting nothing but spin, either pro-Union or pro-Confederate, is reducing history to political propaganda.
Mountains, 75 and breezy, runaway truck ramps, hairpin curves, Black Bear Lane–hey, we must be back home!
Last breakfast here, pack up, and call the van to go to the airport. The flight back is basically the same as the one here. A little under four hours total, just over two hours in the air with an hour stopover at Dulles. Oh, did I mention we lucked into the best parking spot at the State College airport, first row right in front of the exit door?
The Charleston airport is 30 bucks away from the historic district. Something you may want to know, should you ever plan a trip here.
