Untold Stories

(NOTE: Apologies to all! I had some trouble getting comments to work on my blog. Apparently the layout HTML was interfering with the link. It should be working now. Please let me know if that isn't the case.)

We're actually wrapping up our day in New Orleans (stay tuned for that post) but I'm finally getting a chance to talk about Little Rock, and touch a little more on Memphis.

I think the trend of the last few days has been "The story left untold", which really became apparent to me as we traveled through Little Rock yesterday. Starting out at Central High School, where the Little Rock Nine became famous during the desegregation of the South, I couldn't shake the powerful feeling of history...and the sense of shame for not knowing it already. I sat and watched the Nine talk about their experiences as I looked out on the school itself and realized just how important this moment was.

So how have I come to be a senior in college without knowing and understanding its importance?

It's partially because schools in America teach along a timeline, and are forced to cram 300+ years of history into 9 months of education, so the last bits get missed. But it's partially because America shies away from its own dark parts of history. Even at the memorial museum for Central High School, they featured plaques for other moments of civil rights, including women's suffrage, but neglected to mention that early women's suffragists argued that white men needed white women to vote, since black men were gaining the right to vote as well. It featured the story of Emmitt Till, who's death and funeral helped fuel the dialectic surrounding civil rights, but failed to mention the "crime" for which he was murdered was actually offensive and degrading to women. It included plaques for race, gender, class, and disability rights, but failed to mention any call for gay rights.

I looked at these plaques (or lack thereof) and couldn't help but hear the old aphorism from George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." A cliche that stuck with me as we moved on to the Clinton Presidential Library. No matter my personal feelings on Clinton, the museum was impressive, with one glaring omission: Monica Lewinsky. Yes, the scandal surrounding her was only one part of one year of his political career. Yes, the man's presidency shouldn't be overshadowed by one personal failing. But he did fail. He did lie. And it did happen. Failing to acknowledge that in his own museum, in even the briefest way, made me question when America will learn to own mistakes. When will we learn to do so in our own lives?

The thought stayed with me all night as we ate dinner (Kitchen Express was one of the best Meat and Threes I've ever had), headed to church and left for New Orleans. There is another side to every story. That's something we're going to struggle with throughout this trip as we explore these cities. Memphis was certainly not anyone's favorite city, but we didn't see everything to see there. Though Rashina IS a local of Memphis and picked sites she felt created a good blend of tourist attractions and local culture, A) she couldn't show us everything, and B) most of us won't be local ambassadors of the cities we explore. We have to rely on tourism boards, travel guides, local opinions, and our own eyes to try and scrape together an overview of each cities culture. Not to mention that we're dealing with specific time constraints, financial limits, and basic logistical issues that come with living on a bus for 40 days.

Things are going to be missed. Stories are going to remain untold. I may go back to Memphis and find a completely different experience. I might even like Memphis. Or I might hate Little Rock the next time. Who knows?

It's going to be the biggest challenge, finding those stories, understanding as much as we can about a city whilst understanding that we will never get the full experience. But it's also going to be the most fun.