Anthony Esolen, whose writing has been featured here before wrote another outstanding and relevant essay today on The Catholic Thing Blog, entitled: Disowning the Father.
Professor Esolen tells the story of "Captain Robert Shaw, who had trained and led the Massachusetts 54th, one of the first colored regiments in the Civil War," and of the bronze memorial in his honor sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
He speaks of how things were in days past (and how they should be today): "Healthy people honor their forefathers. It’s a natural thing. They forgive their failings, and remember and honor their virtues."
Unfortunately, too many people feel differently today. Esolen laments that fact in today's quote from his essay.
Here's the quote:
We are the only people I know who do the opposite. We scorn our forefathers. We forget or deny their virtues, and magnify their failings. We delight in thinking worse of them than they deserve.
Finally, here's the monument to Captain Robert Shaw:
