At the west end of Colonial Williamsburg’s Duke of Gloucester Street, just prior to the start of the William & Mary campus, a bronze version of Thomas Jefferson sits alone on a stone bench. A quill pen fits in his right hand, its tip perched an inch or so above the first few handwritten lines of the Declaration of Independence. He’s gazing off into the distance with the look of a writer searching for the right words.
As an author, I know that look well—the blank stare into the ether toward some elusive vision. Only after the vision becomes crystal clear do the right words for the perfect description arrive.
Looking at Thomas Jefferson, I can’t help but wonder what the vision of America in his mind actually looks like in that moment.
Surely, not this, I think. But perhaps I’m wrong.
I admire the statue for a few moments as the blazing July sun beats down on me. Then I turn to my left and look down the deserted street lined with 18th century buildings.
On a normal year, Duke of Gloucester Street would be teeming with throngs of tourists. Historical reenactors would guide horse-drawn carriages down the thoroughfare, leaving room for the fife and drum team marching toward the town center to herald some major announcement for the pre-revolutionary citizens.
But 2020 is, of course, no normal year.
I call my daughter and her cousin over to Mr. Jefferson and suggest they pose for a picture with the founding patriot. In my head, I think, He may not be here on our next visit.
I can’t help but notice the irony. The man who once said, “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” now finds himself at the center of such a modern rebellion. His flaws, common as they were for his day, now place him at great risk of being swept up in the efforts to erase the imperfect among us.
That includes all of us, by the way.
Because none of us are perfect. None of us ever has been and none of us ever will be. And as a friend recently said to me, “Erasing history is the takeoff roll of a most dangerous journey.”
I couldn’t agree more.
America is most definitely a wounded nation in this moment. Our hurts, many of which have been centuries in the making, are boiling over. We see this every time we turn on the news.
If we are to succeed, however, in ushering in an America that is more perfect than it is today, we must win the battle of “ful” vs “less.” That is, we must exchange what I see as our fearFULness and instead embrace our collective fearLESSness.
Dictionary.com defines fear as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.”
The key here, in my opinion, is that fear is an emotion. A powerful emotion, for sure. One that often serves to keep us safe. But it is also one that can lead us astray or cause us to make decisions that ultimately do not serve our desired ends.
Being fearful, thus, is allowing those emotions to consume our thinking. Being fearless, on the other hand, requires the use of logic, data, and experience to confirm whether our fearful thoughts are justified or not.
Ask any airline pilot about making a landing on a particularly gusty day or circumnavigating a powerful summertime thunderstorm and, if they’re honest, they’ll admit that these moments of high stress can induce a certain level of fear. They should also tell you that success in those moments depends not on blind courage or a willingness to ignore the fear, but on discipline, precision, and the ability to view one’s situation with candor and objectivity. To do this, we study the limitations of our aircrafts. We practice our skills. And we learn over time that exceeding these capabilities can easily lead to extremely undesirable outcomes.
There is little doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic—and, in my opinion, the media’s sensationalized coverage of it—has added great stresses on our society. Viewed through the lens of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, COVID-19 hammers almost every single level of the pyramid.
We fear it taking our lives (Physiological).
We see it impacting our livelihoods (Safety).
We experience decreased connection with our friends and loved ones (Love and Belonging), especially as we have slowly taken the humanity out of being human by training ourselves to basically fear the people around us. (Case in point, consider the anxiety felt in the grocery store aisles or the disconnectedness from Plexiglas barriers installed at checkout counters).
Lastly, COVID-19 puts at risk our ability to succeed (Esteem) and our ability to become the people we believe we can be (Self-actualization).
What fertile ground upon which to ignite the tinderbox of other fears—especially when COVID-19 has helped stoke the perception that our neighbors are our enemies.
How could any of us be expected to make rational decisions in such an environment? After all, when fear takes the wheel, we often lose our discipline, candor, context, and objectivity.
Do we really want to live in a society where our history has been cleansed? Where we lose our objectivity and contextualization?
I sure don’t.
Progress is about evolution. It’s about building on our shared past—ugly as it may be at times—to build a brighter tomorrow. A fairer tomorrow. A free-er tomorrow.
That cannot be done by wiping away our past or viewing anyone who sins as being devoid of any positive attributes. I sure hope such a measuring stick isn’t applied to my own life, because, if it is, I will fail that test miserably. All of us will.
It feels to me like we need a collective deep breath. America’s melting pot has boiled over. If we can find a way to turn the temperature down, the boil can become a simmer. That’s where a conversation can begin. That’s where progress can begin. That’s how we move the ball forward. And if moving the ball forward is truly our objective, then that must be our focus.
I’m ready for that conversation. I’m ready to help be part of the solution. I’m not, however, ready to accept the eraser of history as the means to achieve these ends. And I surely hope you’re not either.
Just before Thomas Jefferson said in 1787 that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, he said such societal turbulence “prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs.”
In other words, such rebellious events cause the government to be responsive to its citizenry while encouraging all of us to take a greater interest in public affairs. I suspect on both these points all of us can see the value in today’s events.
Yet Jefferson also went on to say, “Unsuccessful rebellions indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them.”
It is on this point that I think we must all be extremely careful.
If we truly value free speech, we must engage in such speech and accept such speech peacefully and respectfully.
If we truly value personal property, we must end the looting and rioting that serves no productive end.
If we truly value liberty, we must win the day with ideas, not force or intimidation.
If we truly seek change, we must connect with others, learn from others, and help others experience or understand life the way we have.
Our statues exist to ignite these discussions.
They are reminders of where we’ve come—whether positively or negatively—and they inspire us to build upon those foundations.
I do not choose to erase; I choose to embrace where we’ve been so we may build a better tomorrow.
I do not choose to remove; I choose to remember so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
And I do not choose to be fearful; I choose to be fearless so we may, with strength, decency, and love for all my neighbors near and far, become still more perfect.
May our great American experiment continue. May we rise to this moment. And may we win the battle of “ful” vs. “less.”—for all of us and our futures.
Korry Franke is a pilot for a major U.S. airline and the author of
3 FEET TO THE LEFT: A NEW CAPTAIN’S JOURNEY FROM PURSUIT TO PERSPECTIVE.
He has been featured aboard Celebrity Cruises and in Condé NastTraveler, AOPA Flight Training Magazine, and other aviation blogs and podcasts.
The thoughts and views expressed in this post are Korry’s alone.