Memorial Day Remembrance Flags at New Capitol Building

As someone raised in Florida, I was taught growing up to respect our fallen soldiers through a sense of remembrance and pride during patriotic holidays such as Memorial Day. It wasn’t until I got to USC, that I realized there were people in the United States that voluntarily chose to not recognize these holidays. It is something that bothered me deeply and still does because I have close friends in the military. I remember I was once having a conversation with someone about this subject in Los Angeles and asked their reasoning behind boycotting these types of holidays. In response to my question, she said that she “refused to celebrate because of all the damage this country has done”. Questioning her, I said “what about the fallen soldiers who died protecting our freedoms”. She remained firm in her belief saying that it didn’t matter. It was then that I realized that most people in this country view things as either black or white instead of grey.

Traveling throughout the state of Louisiana, I have noticed that there is a strong sense of remembrance. In every city that we have visited, I have found memorials commemorating the citizens who have died while deployed. Even in the small town of St. Martensville, you could find marble pillars dedicated towards the service of the U.S. Navy & Army near the old Evangeline Oak. Seeing these memorials throughout and simultaneously reading the Moviegoer, I had present in my mind the trauma our soldiers faced. This trauma that was never ending even after they returned home, as we read through the life of Binx whom despite returning displayed PTSD. For me it is sad that this noble line of work cannot be recognized because it is viewed as political since historic individuals such as Andrew Jackson or Robert Lee have committed atrocities.

Overall, we witnessed through A Lesson Before Dying, how the past can be inescapable. I think this is an issue that currently plagues the south. I remember how people in Los Angeles were disgusted to learn that I voluntarily chose to vacation in places such as Tennessee and that I was interested in visiting Louisiana including the countryside rather than just the party city of New Orleans. People would tell me that these places were racist and that as a result they weren’t beautiful. However, based off my experience, I think the opposite is true. In comparison to the hostile city life in Los Angeles, I think that the people of the south are much more approachable. They are learning from their history and learning to embrace diversity and inclusion. In Louisiana, we have experienced that “Southern hospitality” or kindness and warmth throughout our stay. A prime example is how we were able to meet the Sheriff and Mayor of Pointe Coupee. We had just pulled up to the courthouse to explore the jail cells when the sheriff stepped out of his meeting to greet us, giving each of us an individual handshake. He later made some calls and booked us a party boat on the False River despite just meeting him that day. Personally, after living in Los Angeles for four years, I have never experienced this kind of hospitality. Yet, it is interesting to note that many of my classmates felt bothered because when meeting these fine people, we were in a room with a Blue Lives Matter Flag. In Los Angeles, these banners symbolize racism. In Pointe Coupee however, these flags were worn by black people and stand for community policing as in befriending the neighborhood sworn to protect which is a different take on the matter.

I feel that if anyone from California would of saw those banners first without meeting the people of Pointe Coupee, would have immediately written them off as bad people because of this ideal established from history that the south is this bad place. I think it’s interesting that even one of the administrators that we met mentioned how “Hollywood doesn’t portray southerners in this way”. I think we are at a unique point in time in which the South is not only recognizing Injustice but facing responsibility and trying to change the narrative. We witnessed it in New Orleans, in which we saw the empty pillar where Robert Lee once stood. We also witnessed it as the Whitney Plantation, which was one of the most touching experiences on this trip.

What was unique about the Whitney Plantation was that it was refurbished to commemorate the lives of the enslaved people of the Louisiana area. It didn’t hide the history, but acknowledge the crimes committed. It showed the slave quarters and cages in which enslaved people were auctioned in. It even had an art exhibition showing the beheading of those who choose to riot against the system. I was deeply moved by the experience, and it gave me that same feeling of remembrance as experienced in memorials. After all, the act of slavery was a war against humanity and deserves more tributes to be dedicated towards it. In debriefing our experience, some of my classmates brought up the fact that there was a couple who took pictures of the beheading memorial installation, questioning why they would do that and how they viewed it as wrong. In my mind, I was wondering why we had to stay silent about the memorial; why was it wrong that we took a picture of this installation if we could use it to educate others about its significance extending its reach. How come for other memorials that was acceptable but for this one it was not?

Video showing exhibition of Huey Long Speech at the Old Capitol Building

For me it is sad to see that patriotic holidays or memorials such as the Whitney are viewed in a political light. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be that way because at the end of the day it is about recognizing and remembering the people affected. For me, I think that is what memorial day is about. I think it is about reflecting, reflecting on our wrongs and our rights. It is equally about remember the enslaved as it is war. I think that’s what I found fascinating in learning about Huey Long’s platform. The Kingfish was a leader in the Louisiana territory because he was focused on the people and believed that was where the power lied. In walking through his exhibit at the Old Capital Building in Baton Rouge, I was able to hear one of his speeches in which he touched upon the absurdity of the party system in the United States. Long’s belief mirrored that of which Thomas Jefferson warned about: that our nation would be focused on which party was in power rather than on the people. This speech really resonated because the Kingfish was described as a mixture of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, and it was evident why. Through this speech, I realized that we as a nation need to learn to come together and talk about situations rather than focus on if this is a left or right viewpoint because at the end of the day the world is grey and how would we progress if we cannot acknowledge this. We should be proud to be a part of a nation who has made progress, but also just because we are patriotic doesn’t mean we have forgotten that there is still work to be done.