Epiphanies

Since a photography road trip with a friend last week, I find myself fascinated by the existence of the Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas Japanese Relocation Centers. Few in our state seem to realize that we bear scars from this dark episode in American history, even as some in our country seem hell-bent on repeating it.

I found a clip of actor and activist George Takei discussing his family’s imprisonment at the Rohwer camp. The interview occurred a couple of years ago on the Daily Show. Click here to see it. I hadn’t realized the role Earl Warren, now a liberal legal icon, in the internment program. He's more well-remembered for his role in “Brown v Board of Education.”

It is said that Warren came to regret his role in the imprisonment of American families. One wonders if his change came slowly over the years, or as a sudden epiphany, where the evil gives way to the good. I call those "Thomas Becket Moments," in honor of the saint as featured in Becket, or The Hour of God, by French playwright Jean Anouilh. Seems Becket and England's Henry II were great hell-raising pals, so no one was shocked when Henry appointed him Archbishop of Canterbury, a plum ecclesiastical posting. As portrayed, however, once elevated to this lofty position, Becket succumbed to a higher calling and defied the king in favor of serving his, Becket's, god. The act led to Becket's murder, but gained him both his sainthood and a revered place in what many now call the right side of history.

 As America heads into unknown waters, we might take heart in the notion that any person is human, and may rise from the deplorable to the sublime in one lifetime. What might save us from the darker passions of our souls would be a few "Thomas Becket Moments." As Anouilh himself once said, "Nothing is irreparable in politics."

The line marking the right and wrong sides of history will not change, only the honored rolls containing the names of those who choose well.

Today, one only sees decaying
monuments and peaceful fields.