Opinion: This Memorial Day weekend is the perfect time to teach children to love America despite its wounds

An illustration piece from 'Manual of Patriotism' 1900.
(Library of Congress photo via The Wall Street Journal)

As we launch into Memorial Day picnics, celebrations and sales, it's a good time to rethink the day — why it was created, who we are honoring and what opinion of our country we leave for future generations to follow. Surely, this idea mixes the good, the bad and the ugly, but what about love? In her opinion for The Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan suggests that a legacy of love of country is the best Memorial Day remembrance. 

"Parents, teach your children to love America, either as an extension of your own love or as a simple kindness to them," Noonan writes. "We live in an age in which children are instructed in 100 different ways through 100 different portals that America is and always was a dark and scheming place, that its history is the history of pushing people around, often in an amoral quest for wealth but also because we aren't very nice."

Whether out of suspicion, personal experiences or a desire to protect, some parents have taught their children to distrust and perhaps be disgusted by their homeland. "What does this atmosphere of unlove for America do to kids? . . . To kids from difficult circumstances, it means there is no hope; you won't escape a violent or unhappy family into a better place, the world outside, because it isn't better," Noonan explains. 

Kids are the ultimate dreamers. To kill that innate existence is to do them a horrible injustice, according to Noonan. "It denies a dream of a good thing you can make better. It undercuts the idea the people you came from were brave and hardy and did marvelous things. It robs you of a sense you've got this within you and can go on and be a marvel, too."

Where do we go from here? "I've spent the past few days reading an old book that couldn't possibly be published today because it's so full of respect for America. Manual of Patriotism: For Use in the Public Schools of the State of New York, runs 461 pages of text and was published in 1900," Noonan writes. "The manual was written after the Legislature passed an 1898 law requiring public schools to display the American flag and 'encourage patriotic exercises.'"

What's the best way to teach children to love their country? "You let them have fun. You hold pageants and parades, have them read poems and learn songs," Noonan suggests. "Have children memorize and recite Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride." Have them enact the battle of Lexington and Concord and read aloud Emerson's 'Concord Hymn':

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world."

Roundup for World Press Freedom Day: Americans think news media hurt democracy; journalists concerned about press freedoms; site picked for Fallen Journalists Memorial

Associated Press chart refers to "the news media" as singular, which is not helpful. --Al Cross, Institute for Rural Journalism

Most Americans think the news media are hurting democracy and driving political polarization in the United States, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. "Four in 10 say the press is doing more to hurt American democracy, while only about 2 in 10 say the press is doing more to protect it," AP reports. "Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults say the news media is increasing political polarization in this country, and just under half say they have little to no trust in the media’s ability to report the news fairly and accurately. . . . That breakdown in trust may prompt many Americans to reject the mainstream news media, often in favor of social media and unreliable websites that spread misleading claims and that can become partisan echo chambers, leading to further polarization."

AP's David Klepper adds, "The survey reveals the complicated relationship many Americans have with the media: A majority rate in-depth and investigative reporting as very helpful or extremely helpful for understanding the issues they care about, but they are more likely to say they regularly scan the headlines than read an in-depth investigative article. And while overall trust in the media is low, a majority of respondents say the media is doing at least somewhat well in covering issues they care about." The poll of 1,002 adults was conducted March 30 through April 3 using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. NORC stands for the former name of the National Opinion Research Center.

On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the news media are under attack all over the world and "urged all nations to stop the targeting of truth and those who report it," AP reports. "Guterres said the collapse of the media industry, which has led to closures of local news outlets and consolidation of media 'into the hands of the few' is threatening freedom of expression." World Press Freedom Day was first proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in December 1993.

Pew Research Center graph

"Most journalists in the United States are concerned about the future of press freedoms in the country, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 12,000 working U.S.-based journalists," Pew reports. "These concerns come at a time when the U.S. ranks 42nd in the world in press freedom, according to a 2022 analysis by Reporters Without Borders, and as some journalists face harassment or threats of arrest." The poll found that concern increases with age and with experience in journalism.

A site on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., has been approved for "the capital’s first memorial dedicated to journalists who have died while reporting the news and to the role of the free press in a democracy," The Washington Post reports. The Fallen Journalists Memorial will be be built between the National Museum of the American Indian and the Voice of America building, at Independence and Maryland avenues and Third Street SW. "The site, which has a direct view of the Capitol, was chosen to evoke journalists’ role as government watchdogs," the Post reports. "The memorial is projected to open in 2028 and will cost as much as $50 million, which will be entirely funded by private donations. Officials said they have commitments to cover 40 percent of the cost so far."

Media mogul Robert Allbritton says he has committed $20 million to launch a non-profit educational newsroom that will train reporters in fact-based, non-partisan journalism on government and politics. The Allbritton Journalism Institute will offer a free, two-year fellowship, starting in September, and fellows will be paid $60,000 per year as they work with reporters and editors to produce a digital news publication launching this fall, a press release said. Allbritton, the founder of Politico, said “The path to a strong republic flows through reliable news and information, and that starts with the way journalists are recruited and trained.” AJI's executive director is Tim Grieve, the founding editor of Politico Pro and Protocol; editors include Richard Just, the former editor of The Washington Post Magazine, National Journal magazine and The New Republic. Instructors and mentors include Tim Alberta, a staff writer for The Atlantic and author of American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. Applicants may apply on the Institute’s website, www.aji.org. The deadline is May 31. Professional journalists interested in working with AJI should contact Grieve at tim@aji.org.

Trump gets bill to authorize Fallen Journalists Memorial

Congress has passed and sent to President Trump a bipartisan bill authorizing the planning and construction of a memorial in Washington, D.C., to slain journalists.

The Senate approved the Fallen Journalists Memorial Act, "co-sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., which authorizes the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation to begin planning and raising funds for the memorial’s construction," Brooks DuBose reports for the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md., where five journalists were killed in an attack last year by a disgruntled subject of a story, in what is "considered the deadliest attack on journalist in American history." Other sponsors of the bill were Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Reps. Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., and Tom Cole, R-Okla.

"The foundation must raise tens of millions of dollars, meet with a half dozen commissions and search for a location," the Capital reports, citing former Rep. David Dreier, who chairs the foundation and is a former chair of Tribune Publishing, which owns the Capital and parent Baltimore Sun. "It takes, on average, about seven years to build a memorial. “Now the real work begins,” said Dreier, a Republican.

"Dreier said he expects Trump to sign the bill despite an adversarial relationship with the press," DuBose reports. "Trump did condemn the attack on the Capital Gazette’s newsroom. . . . The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment." Trump could veto the bill or allow it to become law without his signature.

Dreier said recognizing journalists' contribution to the United States and supporting freedom of information is more important than ever following the closure of the Newseum, which had a memorial for journalists killed on the job. To donate to the memorial, go to FallenJournalists.org.

Tom Hendrix died two years ago today, but the wall he built to honor his Yuchi Indian great-great-grandmother lives on

Tom Hendrix in 2014 (NYT photo by Robert Rausch)

Two years ago today, Tom Hendrix died at 87, and The Rural Blog failed to take note. We regret that, and are trying to make up for it now, mainly because he built what is probably the largest completed memorial to a Native American: a winding stone wall to honor his great-great grandmother, a Yuchi named Te-lah-nay who was forced to take the Trail of Tears' southern route in the 1830s but found her way back to the northwest corner of Alabama, made a life for herself and left a legacy.

After Hendrix took early retirement when an automobile plant in Muscle Shoals closed, he met a Yuchi woman who told him, “We shall all pass this earth. Only stones remain. We honor our ancestors with stones. That's what you should do,” Anne Kristoff reported for Alabama News Center. He spent the next 25 years building the Wachahpi Commemorative Stone Wall in a wooded tract on his land. He told The New York Times in 2014, “I wore out three trucks, 22 wheelbarrows, 3,700 pairs of gloves, three dogs and one old man.”

Hendrix did little to publicize his work, saying that any visitors were meant to find it, but he was mentioned in the 2013 documentary "Muscle Shoals," and the Times story called his work "the largest unmortared wall in the United States." The wall "has drawn a multitude of visitors from every state in the union and from many foreign countries," said Hendrix's obituary in the Florence Times Daily. "The book he wrote about Te-lah-nay’s journey, If the Legends Fade, has sold more than 17,000 copies. He loved nothing better than greeting visitors at the Wall, telling his great-great-grandmother’s story, and answering questions. He was a gifted storyteller, and he loved people."

New York Times map

We knew that, because we visited Hendrix and the wall in 2006, on the strong recommendation of his cousin, Rudy Abramson, who had helped start the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog. In 2008, after Rudy died in an accident at his home in Reston, Va., Tom came to his memorial service at the Newseum. So, we're doubly sorry that we didn't know about his death, but happy to report that his son Trace welcomes visitors to the wall from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The wall is also open to visitors during those hours Monday through Friday. It's at 13890 County Road 8, Florence, Ala., just off the Natchez Trace Parkway, about four miles south of the Tennessee line.
--Al Cross

Judge-historian defends Confederate monuments, says race problems run deeper than stone

Kentucky Supreme Court
Justice Bill Cunningham

Debate about the memorials to Confederate fighters continues to spread across the South.

A 16-foot bronze statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, a fixture in New Orleans for 133 years, was torn down May 19. The next day, one of West Kentucky's most respected residents, Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham, stood at a Murray monument dedicated to Lee, defending Southern Civil War heritage and criticizing what he called revisionist history and "monument marauders," Joshua Roberts reports for The Paducah Sun.

"How long will he stand?" Cunningham said to about 100 people gathered May 20 for the 100th anniversary of the Lee monument outside the Calloway County Courthouse in the county with Kentucky's southernmost point. "The great men and women of 100 years ago were in the business of constructing monuments of appreciation. The lesser men and women of today are in the business of tearing them down. . . . We have moved in 100 years from proudly dedicating this monument in the full light of the noon day to tearing down monuments under the cloak of darkness and police protection. We have moved in 100 years from a generation of appreciation to a generation of historical amnesia."

Cunningham, 72, has long championed equal rights, and one of his books, A Distant Light, is about racial injustice in Western Kentucky. "Based on Cunningham's resumé, background, and public and private remarks, the racially insensitive label applied to many pro-Southern voices doesn't fit the justice," Roberts writes.

Cunningham told Roberts, "I don't have to apologize to anyone (about) my position on race. I am very depressed that after 50 years from our civil-rights laws, race is still an issue in this country, and our poor brothers and sisters of color, in general, are still living in such social and economic conditions." He added that the country's problems with race relations are bigger than the polarizing issue of Civil War monuments. "How many black doctors, lawyers, insurance salesmen, bankers, and school superintendents do we have in West Kentucky?" Cunningham asked. "Meanwhile, we worry about monuments made of stone which are easily destroyed instead of taking on the bigger issues not so easy to resolve."

Retired Marine from Montana walks 3,000 miles across the country to honor fallen soldiers

In a great example of capturing rural life, Vince Devlin has a story in the Missoulian about a Montana man who spent more than five months walking from Washington state to Washington D.C. to honor a high school friend who died in Vietnam in 1968. Chuck Lewis, a 62-year-old retired Marine from Ronan, walked "through blizzards, lightning storms, howling winds, pounding rain and sweltering heat...pushing a baby stroller in front of him filled with gear and supplies, and decorated with American and military flags," to get to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to see the name of his friend, and others who died in the conflict.

While making the journey across the country, Lewis found that American pride still exists, especially in rural areas, where dozens of people offered him a place to stay for the night, or gave him donations for a fund called www.walkingforthefallen.com, which tracked his progress throughout his journey. Many people also gave him items to leave at the wall for their fallen friends and family members. (Missoulian photo by Michael Gallacher)

Lewis told Devlin, "there are parts of Montana as well as North Dakota and Washington, where there are long stretches that you can look down the road for 10 miles, and see where you’ll be in three hours." The pinnacle of his trip, he said, came in Indiana, Devlin writes. Lewis told him, “A gentleman who’d seen a newspaper article about me came out to greet me, and told me, ‘I want you to know, you’re a true American,’ That really resonated with me, in the way I view myself. My mom was born in Spain. Technically, I’m 50 percent Hispanic, but I never check those boxes when I fill out forms that ask. I don’t believe in hyphenations. There’s a time for cultural diversity, but not at the expense of dividing our country. I’ve always felt if everyone saw themselves as American first, our country would be stronger.” (Read more)

W.Va., Labor Department pause to remember 2nd anniversary of worst coal mine disaster in 40 years

Two years ago today the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years happened in Raleigh County, West Virginia, at the Upper Big Branch underground mine. An explosion fueled by methane and coal dust tore through the mine, killing 29 miners. In the wake of the disaster, Massey Energy's longtime chief Don Blankenship resigned, and Alpha Natural Resources bought the company. Two high-level employees at the mine have been convicted, and Alpha has reached a settlement with the miners' families. The Associated Press reports Alpha will soon permanently seal the mine. Bore holes will be plugged and air shafts capped to prevent any access, and the company hopes to be finished by summer. (Charleston Gazette photo)

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has encouraged all West Virginians to observe a moment of silence today at 3:01 p.m., the time of the explosion, reports Chad Abshire of the Williamson Daily News. "Two years ago, a tragic mining accident forever separated families from their loved ones and shattered a community,” Tomblin said. “The 29 men who lost their lives were more than hard working miners; they were sons, brothers, fathers, friends and fellow West Virginians." U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall and U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller have also commemorated the anniversary of the disaster and called others to remember the 29 miners.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis issued a statement, saying that the disaster was "the single most heartbreaking day" of her tenure, and that the Mine Safety and Health Administration has made changes to prevent similar disasters in the future. "On this sad occasion, I commit to ensuring the full human dignity of every coal miner by pursuing violators with the full force of the law," she said in the statement. "And I vow that those miners and families who suffered so grievously two years ago - and every day since - will never be far from my thoughts." (AP photo: After the disaster)

Several memorial events have been planned across the state. The Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce and the Whitesville Miners Memorial Group will lay a wreath at the Raleigh County Courthouse at 3 p.m., reports Sarah Plummer of The Register-Herald. Several local officials and the local fire department will attend. The chamber is trying to install a permanent memorial at the courthouse.

Remembrances of, and resources for, 9/11

The Rural Blog is published primarily for rural news media, most of which stick to events and issues in their own communities, especially if they are weekly newspapers. But on rare occasions, a national news event is so significant and touches so many local people that it makes the front pages of such papers. The most recent was the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the next one is likely to be the 10th anniversary of the terror he wrought on Sept. 11, 2001.

This item has 9/11 material that rural media are using or may find useful at this time, such as The Associated Press's September 11 Style and Reference Guide.

Michael Perry of Napa, Calif., has spent the last 10 years collecting newspapers from Sept. 11 or 12, reports Howard Yune of the Napa Valley Register. (Register photo by J.L. Sousa) He has 790 papers, "from nearly every state and more than 20 nations," Yune writes. "Newseum curator Carrie Christoffersen admired Perry’s labors in pulling so many headlines together into one place, but decided his asking price of up to $250,000 was too much for the museum." (Read more)

The Kentucky Press Association collected state political figures' recollections of 9/11 and newspaper front pages, mainly from weeklies, accessible at http://www.kypress.com/911/.

The Mississippi Press Association established a website to share newspapers' 9/11 content.

In a column for Associated Baptist Press,William Leonard of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity wrote about 9/11 at his school, where "Catholics and Protestants, Pentecostals and Anglicans" gathered to support each other, and earlier, at a previously scheduled weekly service, "Undergraduates galore came streaming through the doors, packing pews, leaning against the walls and sitting cross-legged on the floor of the sparse Davis Chapel. Staggered by the news, they grasped for sacred space to help them comprehend the moment." There's a lot more, including an amazing passage from the Book of Jeremiah in the Revised English Bible. Read it here.

Perhaps the main aftermath of 9/11 is what Greg Jaffe of The Washington Post calls "the American era of endless war," with far-reaching ramifications. Read about them here.

Television networks and magazines "have followed different paths in covering a solemn occasion that is also a business opportunity," The New York Times reports.

The U.S. Department of Education published a resources page for teaching about 9/11. USA Today reports on the topic. "Fewer than half the states explicitly identify the 9/11 attacks in their high-school standards for social studies, according to a forthcoming study," Erik Robelen of Education Week reports.

Memorial to Flight 93 is incomplete and short of money, maybe because it's the only rural 9/11 site

"Of the three memorials that commemorate the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, the Flight 93 National Memorial stands out," Curtis Tate writes for McClatchy Newspapers. "It's the only rural site, a world away from the urban bustle that surrounds Ground Zero and the Pentagon. It's the only one Congress has designated as a national park. And it's the only one of the three that isn't yet fully funded." (Flight 93 National Memorial Foundation webcam photo)

The memorial near Shanksville, Pa., needs another $10 million to build "a visitors center and other signature features, including 40 tree groves, representing the passengers and crew who fought the terrorists and gave their lives," Tate reports, but $52 million has been spent, and it will be dedicated Sept. 10 and President Obama will speak at a memorial service there Sept. 11.

"Because of the Flight 93 memorial's rural location, 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, it has no natural source of corporate funding," Tate writes. "The only thing that united the 33 passengers and seven crew members was the flight manifest." King Laughlin, the memorial's main fund-raiser, "said his group reached out to every Fortune 500 company. Almost all of them turned him down, saying they lacked the money or the memorial didn't fit their guidelines for giving."

 

Calvin Wilson, whose brother-in-law, LeRoy Homer Jr., was Flight 93's co-pilot, told Tate, "Flight 93 has always been a footnote in 9/11, and that's unfortunate," though the 40 passengers probably saved thousands of lives. If the plane had hit the U.S. Capitol, its most likely target, "It would have been a tremendous blow to the American psyche," Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa, told Tate. His story package includes renderings of how the memorial is to look when completed. For larger versions, from the memorial foundation, click here.