So that was it. I drove away under a halo of moon-drenched trees and lawns. South Carolina was beautiful and the opportunity to come here has given me a look into a Southern culture that is charming and gracious.
For the first time I think I understand why the bitterness over the Civil War still lingers . . 150 years later. Not, of course, in the normal discourse, but, in the thinking, the attitudes, and the unspoken feelings which drape the landscape and hang like the Spanish moss that covers the low lying areas.
And, to a small degree, I think I understand why the civil war still matters.
The attempt by the government after the war to erase the southern culture, rob them of their heritage and supplant it with . . nothing, was a mistake. It ingrained in the culture the fighting spirit to preserve what it had . . good or bad, whether they believed in slavery or not . . it was their culture and history that was trying to be erased. And, that indomitable spirit that we all have to survive, still pervades the beautiful hills and flowers and white chapels, even 150 years later.
We didn’t learn this lesson until after World War II when MacArthur took a broken Japan and helped them turn themselves into the economic world power that they are today, prosperous and moving into a future with the world’s great societies . . in only 50 years.
And, we do know what happens when we take a people and humiliate them and rob them of their riches and humanity . . World War II.