New Op-ed on Honor the Past and Build for the Future
The Article in the Western Journal Applies Lincoln's Principles of Unity in a Divided Country
There is no higher camaraderie than between reconciled brothers. There is no lower connivance than reconciliation revoked.
Thus, begins my latest opinion editorial in The Western Journal.
You cannot erase the names of the dead without impugning the names of the living. You cannot dismantle a memorial to the fallen without denying the memory of the surviving.
The current campaign to systematically remove memorials erected by generations of Americans past is at best chronological arrogance and at worst blatant desecration. From a statue of the Reverend George Whitefield (1714-1770) removed by the University of Pennsylvania (a George Whitefield-Benjamin Franklin enterprise founded the university; where Whitefield’s Charity School, 1749, became the subsequent home of Franklin’s Academy of Philadelphia, 1751) to the removal of statues to Robert E. Lee (e.g., New Orleans, Richmond) who became a sign of unity and fidelity in the postbellum United States, our historical landscape is being degraded.
The mistaken actions to discredit America’s heritage by destroying dedicated artifacts of the South are not only wrong but unwise. The needless disruption is far from Lincoln’s vision: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.” — M. A. Milton, “Op-Ed: Don't Desecrate the Memorials of Our Forebears - Honor the Past to Build for the Future.” The Western Journal, April 18, 2023.
I trust you can visit the Western Journal site to read the opinion article. You may not agree with my application or even my premise concerning this familiar sign of an empire in decline (are we that?). Freedom of speech doesn’t cancel the conviction of another’s conscience and, therefore, should not cancel the person. For “men of goodwill can disagree,” and yet maintain goodwill. However, I hope you will find that our advocacy to “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set” (Proverbs 22:28) is grounded in “charity to all and malice towards none.” That principle remains the primary working value for uniting a divided nation. And, O Lord—O Lord, we pray—we need Lincoln’s vision now more than ever.