Some Thoughts on History

On Sunday Marci and I went to the Missouri History Museum. We were surprised to find it packed full of wonderful artifacts and stories. First of all, there was a folk concert going on in which an older lady in a pink tutu danced off to the side waving scarves in the air, polishing her latest Beyonce Knowles hip-hop moves. It was pretty awesome.

Secondly, history is a whole bunch of fun. We first looked at a large photograph taken in 1864 of the St. Louis skyline. The tallest building is this courthouse above, where Dred Scott sued for his own freedom from slavery in 1849. The photograph contained beautiful riverboats, lots of warehouses and river-front flats. St. Louis was a booming little river city. It's a city with a lot of history.

We saw exhibits on the Louisiana Purchase, Charles Lindbergh's famous flight to Paris, and the World's Fair in 1904. Did you know it was actually a world's fair with numerous countries around the world represented? One of the exhibits contained 4,000 filipinos on display in a little village. The people were to go and watch how these strange immigrants lived on their small reservation. St. Louis, like most cities at the time, was one of both great wealth and great poverty, great aristocracy and great oppression.

As we cruised along learning about slavery, woman's right to vote, civil rights, sports, air travel, and domestic duties of the 50's wife, we began to see more modern exhibits. A soccer jersey and cleats from 1999. What is all this about? Then we arrived at some empty cases.

My great error, and perhaps yours as well, while strolling through the paths of time, is to think that we've finally arrived somewhere. I think to myself, 'what injustice! how could people have been so base? Thank God that we've finally arrived HERE.' But we've arrived nowhere. These empty cases will hold our IPhones and our DKNY outfits, and other unwritten injustices and oppressions. Our struggles to give people love and justice will be chronicled right here behind this very glass. Our time and place is merely a continuation of this history that started with people we didn't know who set us in this place and this time. We make adjustments, some good and some bad, but the path has yet to reach the steps of any crystal palace or magical forest.

In one hundred years, people like you and me will walk those halls, point and think, 'how could they be so base?' Injustice continues to be the order of the day: children suffer from lack of food, they are sold into slavery to be sex toys, they grow without a ray of hope for their children. Minorities still can't get a fair shake; the words we think but fail to say are, 'it's just not time yet.' We're not down that path today. Maybe after a few more glass cases are full.