By the time I got to know Gordon Rodgers, it was unthinkable to imagine him as an incendiary young radical. He was urbane, sophisticated, and his handsome wife, Agnes, had a certain stylish flair. They were a couple who would be unremarkable at a table in the Rainbow Room in New York. As time went on, it seemed to me that Gordon developed a kind of weary wisdom, the knowledge of a man who has seen a world of folly.The Star's editorial board also is looking at the comments made across Alabama following the arrest of three white teenagers for the defacing of the Confederate monument in Montgomery earlier this fall:
And that’s the thing about Gordon Rodgers and men like him in those days before the Old South died and sank to the bottom of history, not unremembered but dead. He was from a good family; his father was a doctor. He was educated, a graduate of elite Talladega College, where black professionals of the time sent their sons and daughters, an institution which turned out doctors and lawyers in assembly-line numbers.
John Napier, who was identified as “a historian and former member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” summed it up quite well. The vandals “must have learned something in school even though they applied it rather poorly.”We'll also have our daily dose of letters to the editor and syndicated columnists.
True enough. And it is the application, not the education, that society must now address.
For what it's worth, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman -- a regular in The Star on Thursdays -- is taking a break to write a book. His final column until April is on Thursday's op-ed page.
