Matamoros statue in the Cathedral

[m j anderson]

claudia castellani wrote:


> Are we back in the barbarian times of censorship and of the burning of
> books? I think history should not be changed or "purified" by our modern
> "pruderies" or censorships: we are the fruit of our history and of the
> memory of our past. If we "purify" it, we lose a part of ourselves and
of > our collective memory.

.....excellent point, Claudia.

I'd like to offer a small thought:
Driving through the mountains of North Carolina along a highway, my
husband said "look up there--see the doe and her fawn?" I did not see the deer
in the woods along the road and my eyesight is the same as my husband's. I
replied that I did not see them, he told me where to look, still I did not see
them and all
of this took place while we were approaching the deer at 70 miles per hour. I
trusted my own eyesight rather than his and suggested he did not really see what
he
thought he saw. But finally I did see the deer! Why had he seen them first if
our
eyesight is equal?

Because he is trained to see game in the woods. Even though I have equally
acute eyesight, my lack of experience in seeing game among the trees prevented
me from seeing the deer until I was very close.

My point is simply this: Perhaps our ancestors saw what we do not yet
see....they were trained over centuries of bitter experience --and we have
been fortunate to be free of  persecution for centuries so that now we cannot
"see" the pattern developing. Let's acknowledge that our ancestors understood
that they were fighting to preserve their way of life and their physical life.
Their struggle is a history that we recognize as a turning point for much of
Western Civilization.

Thanks again, Claudia.
MJ Anderson (headed to Spain in 10 days!!)