One of the most distinguished residents of Washington National Cathedral's burial crypt is Woodrow Wilson — 28th President of the United States, and a Democrat.
We cats are also honest and forthright bloggers, and will add that Wilson was pretty much a horrible racist — something that folks have become more aware of recently.
Wilson is an endlessly fascinating figure, the subject of one of the greatest political biographies ever written. But he was a son of the South and pretty shameless about it. He also thought that fellow Southerner D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" was a great film, so need we say more?
Now the National Cathedral has decided to do something that Wilson would abhor, and which we cats think is just swell: remove the Confederate battle flag from its stained-glass windows. Fabulous! We've always wondered why a house of worship styled as a "national" cathedral should feature symbols of our country's most devastating armed insurrection, which cost the United States 600,000 lives. Just sayin'.
Of course, our right-wing friends over at Free Republic are probably screaming that the world is too politically correct, and that history and heritage are being erased. Nope. What's happening here is that a major part of America's shameful past is no longer to be enshrined in a place whose purpose is to encourage tolerance and love.
Sorry, Woodrow. But if this act by the National Cathedral inspires more people to buy When the Cheering Stopped, we cats are happy to oblige. And we PURR.
No comments:
Post a Comment