“Democracy. A Work in Progress”

I’ve had this installment of my non-travel travel blog ready for a while.  I’ve held off because I was so horrified at what happened to George Floyd in the city where I lived for nearly 50 years that I — yes, I — was speechless. And I wanted to let the message of Black Lives Matter fill your reading, listening, watching space.  We all need to pay attention to and act on that message. 

Recently, on my now-regular morning walk, I listened to “How I Build This,” one of my favorite Podcasts.  Host Guy Raz  re-interviewed Cathy Hughes, an Omaha native who founded Urban One, a radio network of 54 stations that she started with one station in Washington, DC.  it’s the largest African American-owned broadcast network in the country.  If I were more tech savvy, maybe I could embed a link to that Podcast here.  But I remain a Luddite, and at almost 75, that ain’t gonna change.  So, I ask you to check out the Podcast because Ms. Hughes straightforwardly lays out the impact of Black Lives Matters and Covid-19 on her business and other Black entrepreneurs.  Cathy Hughes’ voice is a voice you should hear.  

The planned travel blog actually is a bit timely since it was supposed to chronicle Glenn’s and my trip to Colonial Williamsburg last fall.  First, I’d done my “flying nanny” gig with my friend Aideen’s son Mickey, 14, for a couple weeks, then we’d visited friends of Glenn’s in Roanoke, then we drove across Virginia — through the heart of the American Civil War, stopping occasionally.  We saw the site of the last battle between Lee and Grant and stopped at Appomattox Court House where the treaty was signed.  Then on to Colonial Williamsburg.

I’m not going to recount the details of what we saw although the visit to the former mental hospital with its descriptions and displays of care were pretty shocking.  But I will talk a little about how Colonial Williamsburg has begun to address its history of enslavement.  Several presentations depict the lives and contributions of Africans in the town, the term “enslaved” was used throughout, and its use explained as an adjective that best describes the circumstance of the individuals, rather than calling them “slaves.”  It’s a start at dealing with reality.  The optimist in me believes they’ll continue the journey, especially now.

After a few hours of seeing Colonial Williamsburg, we returned to the Visitor Center across a wooden bridge that is inlayed with metal plaques that identify what your life would be like at specific points in time. From the Visitor Center side, you  leave “the 21st Century and walk back in time” to Colonial Williamsburg. The plaque marked ‘you know someone who owns another person’ was especially jarring.  From the Colonial Williamsburg side, you walk through the advancements of the 19th and 20th Centuries until you arrive at the end where the plaque reads:

You have returned to the 21st Century.

DEMOCRACY.

A Work in Progress.