The recent trip to Virginia gave me many ideas for stories to share here. I think there are many ideas that go with our small town theory we've been discussing and we'll get to that soon. But Before we do, I'd like to focus on one of the more beautiful sites I encountered along the way. In the South, the great houses are a thing of legend. In all likelihood, this particular home was the first among them. Completed in 1722. the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg served as the the seat of power and the home of the king's designated colonial governor of Virginia. The governor that is discussed the most in the Revolutionary City was the final royal governor, John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore typically called Lord Dunmore. The original structure was destroyed by fire in 1781, just months after the capital was moved to Richmond. John D. Rockefeller made the commitment to restore the city as a historic landmark and the Governor's Palace was reconstructed using plans discovered at Monticello. Thomas Jefferson had drawn up detailed plans on the structure while planning some renovations during his tenure as governor. While the plans were not used by Jefferson himself, they proved invaluable to the reconstruction effort.
The color in the gardens is beautiful even during the onset of fall. There's a resident cat, "Sir Thomas Grey" who roams the gardens much like his predecessors would have. Among the other life are squirrels and more than a few birds. While such rooms and gardens are not practical in most of our homes today, this was not an ordinary home. This is a gem from yet another bygone era. An fitting reproduction of an elegant home of yesteryear and a recommended stop for anyone finding themselves in the area.
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By Sam Burnham This article was originally written a little over a year ago for a website called "Cornbread Conservatives". The article was never published there and I have decided to post it here. “If it were socially acceptable I’d wear nothing but seersucker. And maybe linen.”
That was the quote that gave birth to this essay. Sean Busick probably didn’t mean to inspire it but without his quote I would be sitting waiting to see what interesting ideas would appear on Cornbread Conservatives. Instead, I’ve been dubbed to present my opinions by expounding on my follow-up quote, “I think one of the responsibilities of a Cornbread Conservative should be setting appropriate trends.” Much of my early adulthood was spent trying to find new and innovative ways to do things, resisting traditions, and experimenting with such entities as the Emerging Church These are not exactly the characteristics that define a Cornbread Conservative. But that long and winding road taught me that traditions matter, that simplistic beauty is irreplaceable, and that we can often answer our questions about the future with an honest look at our past. I also learned that trends can be shallow and that the crowd is often chasing something disposable and tacky. Time, experience and some really good friends helped me to where I am today. A Southern, Conservative, liturgical-tradition-leaning, Agrarian sympathizer experimenting with the Oxford comma. The stance of a Cornbread Conservative is, in a word, Conservative. When we look at that word we cannot ignore conserve. The role of a conservative is, or at least should be, to conserve. We are the protectors, the conservers of society and civilization. Our actions and omissions should lead to the day we can hand off a healthy world to our children. Accomplishing that task is dependent on our ability to conserve the foundations that were set by our forefathers that established the world we were handed. The traditions, those permanent things that we often take for granted, are not just repetitive actions, preserved for the sake of tradition. They are the very foundation of our society. If we lose that foundation, our civilization will crumble. That is where the responsibilities of a Cornbread Conservative come into play. By setting appropriate trends and showing others why these trends matter, we become the evangelists that spread the gospel that saves our own way of life. So let’s look at some of those trends. It can be as simple as seersucker and linen. We live in an excessively casual society. Being a complete slob is socially acceptable while my friend Sean worries about wearing seersucker and linen. It’s not that there is not an appropriate time for a t-shirt and blue jeans. And during the winter months, tweed might be a better choice than seersucker. I’ll also say there is an appropriate time and place for pajamas (hint: the place is never further than your mailbox, providing it’s at home and not a P.O. box). This assessment may seem harsh and I know people are looking to be comfortable. I also know that there is a common idea that caring what others think is outdated. But let me say this, dressing like a slob in public communicates a lack of respect for yourself, for those you encounter and for society at large. My Uncle Sam, for whom I am named, survived the Depression, worked in textile mills and for the city street department, had only a 3rd grade education, and would not leave the house without wearing a collared shirt and fedora. It mattered to him that he looked presentable when he went into public. It was a matter of having respect for himself and for others. This is an excellent arena for a Cornbread Conservative gentleman to lead the way. Be seen in public dressed well. Demonstrate your respect by looking respectable. In politics, and don’t allow yourself to be distracted by a political party on this issue, we need to set the trends by having high standards for our viewpoints and our candidates. We need to be honest in our dealings. We need to be resistant to sensationalism from the left and the right. It would be wise to begin to remove ourselves from the modern pundits that get labeled as conservative but do not share our views on true conservative issues. Instead we should choose to reflect on the commentary of true conservatives like William F. Buckley Jr., Russell Kirk, The Twelve Southerners, and others. This will often require us to seek out older and less popular sources for information. But as we form coherent arguments to support conservatism and positively advance that viewpoint, we have the opportunity to start a trend in that direction. As Cornbread Conservatives, we should set trends in entertainment. Be it visual art, music, cinema, theatre, books, we need to appreciate, support, and promote those art forms that are congruent with our beliefs. There is much weeping and gnashing of teeth over the state of modern Country music. Entertainment is traded on an open market. There are sellers because there are buyers. Ignorance sells because stupid buys. Sex sells because horny buys. The trend to set is honest consideration the true talent behind our entertainment. Is our choice a true art form? Is there talent behind it? Or is it just blobs of paint and Auto-Tune? The point of trend setting is not to adhere to some Puritanical regimen. It’s not about being stiff and starched at all times. It’s not about some new social legalism that we have to enforce. It’s about providing true, conservative leadership - an example to the masses that low expectations and apathy are not mandatory. Higher expectations and respectability are true options at our disposal. The traditions that we grew up with can be handed down to our children. Meaningful entertainment, beautiful architecture, and good food can be preserved, even celebrated. We are not setting trends because we have to. We are setting trends because we can. By Sam Burnham He stands atop the hill, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon. From atop his perch, he has sustained the onslaught of wind, rain, sleet, snow, and the sweltering Georgia sun with nothing but his homespun jacket and the brim of his hat to shield him from the elements. He has his rifle ready, yet not aimed. His mission is not martial. He stands guard, not against foes with guns or sabers, but against time, forgetfulness, and apathy. His existence is intended to stand tall and gallant, "lest we forget". He stands for those who can no longer do so themselves - his courageous forebears whose bones, now dust, lie in neat rows beneath six feet of red Georgia clay. They came from all over. They died here. Some of their stones are adorned with their names, their home states, their units. Others are marked "Unknown", having fallen far from home leaving their loved ones to wonder where, when, how, and why their loved one was gone. This particular sentinel stands alone, mostly out of the public eye. Many of his colleagues, those crafted with the same intended mission, have stood their watch on town squares and courthouse lawns across The South. Most face North, guarding against the threat their charges faced, symbolically guarding against further intrusion. But these sentinels face a new threat. It's not a plague or invasion from far northern lands. This one is local. It's all around them. Ignorance, indifference. and the effort to focus any and all understanding of the Confederate side of the War Between the States on the role of slavery and nothing else, whatsoever. The effort insists that every single Southern participant in that conflict was fighting directly for nothing but the continuation of slavery and no other cause could have motivated any participation in the war. It claims that any person of any rank was the same as the most active and dedicated members of Hitler's SS and no one could ever find any nobility or character in any moment of any one of these soldiers' lives. So all over our land, these sentinels are under attack. They are removed from our public squares. They are vandalized under cover of night by people who must be really brave, as assaulting a stone statue in the darkness requires an amazing level of valor. But these sentinels stand for far more than these protests would ever be willing to admit. The men who lie in the clay have complex stories, as complex as the cause they took up. They were as complex as people today. None were perfect. The prayer books in their haversacks would teach them that. Some were better than others, just as men of our day. But the sentinels also stand as a monument of what can happen when polarized political forces see no reconciliation between opposing policies. When politicians lose all hope of compromise and communication, things can get ugly. The sentinels should remind us to talk, to listen, to think. As long as one stands, there is a reminder of one of the darkest and most tragic times in American History. We can learn from it...or we can repeat it. For now this particular sentinel stands. His glance remains set against the progression of time and the elements. He stands tall, a reminder of so many things, good and bad. His presence is much less threatening than his absence could ever be. Long may he stand. |
Sam B.Historian, self-proclaimed gentleman, agrarian-at-heart, & curator extraordinaire Social MediaCategories
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