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Celebration: An alternative Jamestown event
Date published: 3/28/2007
You won't find the word "celebration" used in conjunction with the official Jamestown 2007 events; the term was banned several years ago by the steering committee because of pressure from Native American interests, most notably the late Mary Wade, an outspoken activist and former secretary for the Virginia Council of Indians ["Celebrating Jamestown," March 18].
At the time the decision was made, Wade remarked: "You can't celebrate an invasion" in which "whole tribes were annihilated."
Officials have also recently erected new plaques in Old Jamestown that read: "Because many facets of Jamestown's history are not cause for celebration, like human bondage and the displacement of Virginia Indians, the Jamestown 400th Anniversary is referred to as the Jamestown 2007 Commemoration."
Yet there are those who beg to differ with the radical revisionism of the left.
Among those who plan to "celebrate" are Harrison Tyler, whose grandfather, President John Tyler, gave the keynote address at Jamestown in 1857. Tyler is serving as Grand Marshal for an alternative event, dubbed "The Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America's Providential History," which will be held on June 11-16 at Fort Pocahontas--part of Tyler's ancestral estate, located a few miles downstream from Jamestown.
Significantly, Harrison's father--Lyon Gardiner Tyler--was the president of the College of William & Mary for more than 20 years and was among those who spearheaded the Tercentenary Celebration at which Teddy Roosevelt and other notable American leaders spoke in 1907.
Harrison Tyler comes from one of Virginia's most distinguished families. He is a direct descendant of Pocahontas, and his great-grandfather fought beside George Washington and was personal friends with Thomas Jefferson.
I, for one, plan to stand with Harrison and others who gather to "celebrate" in June, even as other misguided Virginia officials want to apologize for the remarkable history of this great state.
I'm a one-time Virginian and a forever grateful son to our faithful forefathers.
Roger Wesley Strackbein
Johnson City, Texas
Date published: 3/28/2007
Most recent reader comments:
Celebrate
(posted by
Rodndor
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
I will also stand and celebrate my family's arrival in the Americas via Jamestown. Our family records show one of our ancestors landed at Jamestown, 1612. We landed, we survived, we are still here after almost 400 years. Why not rejoice?
"While the sorrows of the past give us pause, they should in no way diminish celebrations of life." - Rod Adams
okay
(posted by
uncjohnny
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
while i agree with the writer, I am amused by his use of 'left'. Why is it that there must be finger pointing in every issue?
PRE-NATIVE AMERICANS
(posted by
Seadragon
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
No one points out that the native Americans themselves encroached on each other and annihilated each other.
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