3/6/15 RMB Glory
Dear Rita Mae Brown,
Tonight my nephew trio and I watched the movie Glory about
the 54th Union regiment in the Civil War, the first all black
volunteer regiment. It is what I call a “learning show”. This one teaches of
history. Sometimes we watch Andy Griffith or a bilingual children’s show to
help them learn Spanish, or just an old black and white show to let them see
how things were and so on.
I debated with myself over this. Do three rambunctious boys need to see more violence? Ultimately, the way the movie touched me, led
me to the decision to share it with them. The questions they asked and their
connection made between this film’s message and The Butler’s, gave me cause to
think I made the right choice.
The time frame between the two films illustrates the
distance we traveled in 100 years from the 1860’s to the 1960’s. And the
situation in Ferguson, Missouri reminds us we have some distance to go.
Yet I still wonder, if we taught only of instances of peace
from our past and peaceful ways, would peace prevail? In nature there is
conflict and neither peace nor anything else is necessarily taught. Do animals
learn by example or are their tendencies simply instinct? What is the best path
to the place where we all get along?
Early in the film, Colonel Robert G. Shaw writes home to his
mother, “We fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written…”
I search for peace for a generation not yet born.
Onward,
Loraine
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