Post 192 - September 19, 2020

Day 192…

I am in the South.

Yesterday, I crossed over the Mason-Dixon line on Delaware’s southern border and I am now in Virginia.

That, of course, just made me do a little research on what, exactly the Mason-Dixon line really is.

The line was established after a survey by two men named Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between 1763 and 1767. They were tasked with doing it to resolve a border dispute between Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware at the time they were all still just colonies.

It all began because of conflicting royal charters. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, applied to Charles I of England for the original charter of Maryland. Unfortunately, he died before that happened. The charter was ultimately granted to his son Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, in 1632. Father George had been stripped of his title of Secretary of State some years before when he’d announced that he was Catholic. Some think that the charter was granted by way of compensation for this.

In theory, Maryland is named after the wife of Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria, but it is also possible that Calvert named it for Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Then about 50 years later, William Penn received the royal charter for Pennsylvania from Charles II in 1681.

The problem was, that the two charters described where the borders were located differently. The two different Kings had used two different maps each with varying degrees of accuracy. As the states each expanded, the discrepancy was discovered.

While it was being resolved, William Penn was given an additional charter of three lower counties along Delaware Bay, called, of course, Delaware, which became a sort of satellite colony of Pennsylvania. Calvert considered that land to be part of Maryland’s original charter. All collective heck broke loose.

There was even a little conflict when violence erupted between settlers of differing allegiances called Cresap’s War. England actually deployed military forces to quell it, and it took until eight years later for George II to negotiate a cease fire. The crown sent in Mason and Dixon to establish the border formally and what they came up with still stands to this day.

Stone markers were placed every five miles along the line with an “M” on one side and a “P” on the other. On the two remaining sides, one has the Calvert coat of arms and the other has the Penn family coat of arms. Many of them are apparently still there, so now, having learned all about this, I am going to have to go and find one.

During the Civil War, the line became the informal border between the Northern free states and the Southern slave-holding states. When the line was first drawn, the Virginias were one unified state with the Mason-Dixon line as its northern border. At the beginning of the Civil War, after Virginia seceded from the Union its northern counties broke away and kept their allegiance to the north. West Virginia was the only new state admitted to the United States during the war.

This morning, I am writing this from what was once the capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia.

While I am in almost every measurable regard a Yankee from the liberal Northeast, I am actually a Southern boy by birth. Virginia is where I was born.

To be fair, Arlington, Virginia where the blessed event occurred, is really just a suburb of Washington D.C. I swear that it never really occurred to me until yesterday, when I was in Lafayette Square. that I was born in the South

My father’s side were mostly all southerners. He was born in Rustburg, Virginia. His mother, my grandmother, was born in Versailles, Kentucky. Kentucky, while it remained in the Union, did not give up its slaves until after the war. Part of her genealogy continues back in Kentucky through many generations. The other part came from South Carolina and other southern states.

My grandfather was born in Russellville, Alabama and his family were southern through and through. Many members of my family fought for the Confederacy.

Driving into Richmond last night, I passed by the statue of Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue that, in some ways, has been the emblematic center of the Confederate memorial discussion. It’s still standing, but from what I could see in the dark, it is covered with graffiti and protest signage. On my way out of town later this morning, I will take a look at it in the light.

Despite my newly realized southern origins and prior familial Confederate sympathies, I don’t believe that those statues should still be standing. I certainly don’t think by any stretch of the imagination though that they should be destroyed. They just need to be put into some sort of historical perspective rather than remain in positions of honor.

It’s not about canceling culture at all. It’s, in fact, just the opposite. It’s about presenting ALL of culture, not just cherry-picking the parts of it that support a single point of view.

The more I write these posts, and wander down the historical rabbit holes I discover, the more I realize that none of the stories we have been told are as simple as they’ve been made out to be. They are complicated, messy and contradictory. They are much bigger than some would have us all think.

Move the statue of Robert E. Lee to somewhere like the Griot Museum of Black History in St. Louis and suddenly, in that context, that same statue tells a radically different story.

Like the Statue of Robert E. Lee, the statue of Teddy Roosevelt triumphant on a horse flanked by a Native American and an African American on foot is still standing in front of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

At the height of the BLM protests in the city, Mayor DeBlasio made a big announcement and show of support by vowing to take it down. He hasn’t. Maybe he’s hoping everyone has just forgotten about it.

Change comes slowly. When it does come quickly, it’s a terrible shock.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away yesterday.

That was a shock.

She was only the second women in our history appointed to the court. She joined Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who had been the first. There was a time when having a woman serve would have shocked everyone.

"So now the perception is, yes, women are here to stay. And when I'm sometimes asked, 'When will there be enough women on the Supreme Court and I say, 'When there are 9,’ people are shocked. But there'd been 9 men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent her life working for change. She was a tireless advocate for gender equality, women’s interests, civil liberties and civil rights.

Yesterday, when she died, there was a collective cry of terror and despair all across the liberal internet pages.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died doing her job. At 87 years old and suffering from metastatic pancreatic cancer, she did. not. stop. Apparently, knowing how important, politically, it was for the ideological balance of the Court to be maintained, she kept going long after most of us would have retired.

This isn’t the time for panic. This is the time for all of us to recognize this truly remarkable American and take up part of the enormous burden she’s had to bear throughout her life, ourselves. She spent her life working to make us all stronger - what has that work all been for if we give up now?

Yes, the very Republican Senator from Kentucky who refused to let President Barack Obama appoint Merrick Garland to the United States Supreme Court towards the end of his term is now going to try and push through the current President’s choice - whomever that may be - before the November election. Why wouldn’t he?

President Obama said this yesterday: "Four and a half years ago, when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland, they invented the principle that the Senate shouldn’t fill an open seat on the Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in. A basic principle of the law — and of everyday fairness — is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment. The rule of law, the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle. As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican Senators are now called to apply that standard."

RGB, herself, on her deathbed, dictated to her granddaughter, "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

The Republican Senator from Kentucky has already proven that he is not guided by any of the principals outlined so eloquently by President Obama, so there is, indeed, going to be a fight ahead of us.

Yes, we should mourn this great American patriot, but let’s all also honor her by not giving into our fears but, instead, continuing to support her cause. Her passing makes everything we’re facing more difficult, sure, I’ll give you that, but it also just gives us all that last kick in the ass we need to make it through this election.

She left us because she knew we could handle it. And we can.

So says the more or less honorable gentle-person from the Great State of Virginia.

Rest in Power Chief Justice Ginsburg.

You’ve more than earned it.

We’ve got this.