(Marshall University’s “Jenkins Hall” was named for Albert Gallatin Jenkins, a prominent Cabell County resident of the 1800’s)
Doug Smith is an opinion columnist, historian and Associate editor for Free State Patriot
December 8, 2018
I see that our local chapter of the SDS has taken up the social justice battle of Jenkins Hall. Thank God they are here! Who knows how many people that building has chased down and, wait, what? You mean it is just a building, not a person?
It is the height of foolishness to attack history, though barbarians have done throughout its course. Hitler destroyed priceless works of art, and ISIS destroyed historical and cultural sites throughout the Middle East. The IRA struck a blow for freedom by bombing the statue of Lord Nelson, who was unaffected by the attack, having been dead over a century.
Yet statues of Caligula and Nero exist in Italy and have not inspired anyone to toss people to hungry lions in the Coliseum. Italy certainly does encompass the Roman Empire. Now modern barbarians, of whom the SDS is only one small sliver, want to wipe out history because it offends them. Perhaps, if they were to learn from history instead they might escape their own barbaric tendencies.
It is foolishly short sighted to hold the people and history of a time long past to modern mores and customs. We do not hold slaves in the US in 2018. Prior to 1860, all the way back to ancient civilizations in Babylon, slavery was a common practice. After much struggle to identify slavery as an evil we wanted to purge from our nation, and after a long and costly war, the practice was abolished. Many seem to have missed this fact. They also blithely ignore the fact that throughout the world, today, 40 million are held in slavery. Many of the same countries and regions supplying the slave trade to America 200 years ago are still engaged in taking and selling slaves to this day.
Jenkins held slaves, in an era when that was legal, though increasingly unacceptable. He ceased doing so when he was killed in action in 1864. But he did exist. This is not Orwell’s 1984, nor Stalin’s Russia. We do not make “Unpeople”, erasing not just their lives but their memories from the ledger. Nor does noting people of the past denote agreement with their positions. History is real, and a fine teacher. Erasing it does not alter it. What it does is make more ignorant people who readily stumble on the same rocks.
But the angry young men of the SDS want to make a statement about slavery. Bravo. Here then is a current way they can do so. Iran currently holds about 16 slaves per 1000 population, one of the highest ratios in the world. Last night, in Iran, people slept in chains. A few years ago, Barack Obama sent billions of dollars to the leaders of Iran. So, he was actively supporting a slave holding country. Barack Obama is around today. Perhaps our angry young men might show the courage of their convictions and demand that his name be removed from something due to his support of a slave holding country and renamed for a President who did put sanctions on Iran. Oh, I hope that didn’t make their heads explode.
Free State Patriot 
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