Erasing History

Photo credit: iconichistoricalphotos.com and Reddit

As you all know I’m a lover of history, a promoter of history and a defender of history, even the history none of us finds appealing anymore. There are lots of things from history that makes us cringe now when we look at them from our modern day sensibilities. From slavery, to genocide, to racial divisions, to religion, to political opinions that are always changing, there is much in history that is uncomfortable. Even in my own book The Gathering Room - A Tale of Nelly Butler it was hard to write Lydia, from my modern perspective, as the fifteen year old girl that marries an older man, even though I knew historically it was very common.

I think back to the first time I became aware that people would actually destroy historical references to serve their own political or power based purposes. I watched it unfold on the television as giant statues that had been carved into the hillsides in the Middle East were blown apart by the current ruling group because they felt these ancient statues threatened their current religious views. I remember feeling so sad that pieces of human understanding, even though they didn’t fit the current feeling, were being demolished. If anything at all they were great examples of art if they no longer held a religious purpose.

A few years ago it was all the rage to tear down statues of some of our countries once great heros or statesmen because now they were deemed offensive by modern standards. In other words they were no longer heros or great statesman, at least according to someone in charge of something. I found it rather interesting at the time because one of the biggest perpetrators of the very thing that was driving the removal of all of these statues still remained on our federal currency. Funny how humans think sometimes.

Near Boston I once found a cemetery where the names and dates of certain individuals had been scraped off from their gravestones hundreds of years ago because they, or their contribution to society, were no longer deemed important in the grand scheme of things. I remember commenting to my son that apparently attempting to erase history was not a new thing.

I saw it again last year when I was in England. As we walked through cathedrals built six hundred or eight hundred years ago, statues of once great religious leaders were mutilated in ways that their heads were removed or names chiseled away. On one massive stone altar in particular I saw a whole row of figures carved in relief on the side that had had all of their faces chipped away! Clearly humankind has been at this historical cover up a long time!

So I wasn’t surprised recently when the above photo of the author Stephen King and the very young actress Drew Barrymore, started popping up on social media. This photo was taken forty years ago, in 1984. Interestingly it was taken in my home town, Bangor Maine, at the premier of the movie Fire Starter. I remember that time well. Everybody was buzzing as Bangor’s most famous citizen brought Hollywood to Bangor! I even remember this photo being in the newspaper and how I didn’t think anything about it beyond the fact that there had been a big event with really famous people in town.

But now, forty years on, with our sensibilities either evolved or changed, all of a sudden people are having a real problem with this photo. I think Drew Barrymore herself has stated she was intoxicated at this event. I can’t remember from what, alcohol or drugs or both, but she was nine years old. Let that sink in with a 2024 mindset and you can see why it was popping up in the old algorithms lately. Some comments I saw were bothered by the fact that Drew was in a subservient role to an adult male while in the act of lighting his cigarette. Some noted that it was sexual and gross.

I found all of this fascinating because both Stephen King and Drew Barrymore are still alive, very famous, and very popular. Yet they have left a mark in the historical record with this iconic photo and are now open to being erased by future generations if somebody, somewhere decides their lives were inappropriate. Is it possible that in the future, after they are long gone, someone decides that all of his books should be destroyed or all of her movies never be seen again? Everything they accomplished, all of their dreams and goals realized, all their contributions to society suddenly gone because they don’t fit a future frame of mind? That’s truly sad, because art, like history, should never be erased even if our tastes change.

Sobering thought. Something that everyone should consider when they find history being erased or buried because it doesn’t fit our modern ideas. History is what it is. We shouldn’t go back and attempt to change it or erase it. If we find something that happened in the past that we don’t like, it means we should all learn from it and not make that mistake in future generations. Erasing it doesn’t help anyone. No one learns anything from that. We learn from studying and reading about uncomfortable moments in the past.

Recently I was informed of another piece of history that appears to be on the list of purposefully being forgotten. It was brought to my attention when I spoke in Eastport a few weeks ago. Look up the Colfax Massacre in Louisiana. Attorney Charles Moore, who I met personally, is working hard to get the State of Louisiana to recognize this disturbing piece of history so that it is never repeated again. It seems like a simple solution, place a sign to identify the spot so that it is never forgotten. Yet efforts to do so are constantly thwarted. A few years ago a memorial was privately erected on donated private land so as to memorialize the lives that were lost. Sadly though the memorial had to be installed over a mile away from the site of the actual massacre, which took place at a court house, a state courthouse that is still in use to this day. I’m sorry but we shouldn’t ignore the facts even if it is uncomfortable to think about. We must learn from our history!