36 Hours in St. Louis…part 1
36 Hours in St. Louis Part 1.....
Last week I had the opportunity to be in St. Louis for a couple of days. The plane was filled with journalists and newsmen from around the world... Norway, Germany, France, and Spain on my flight alone.
It was the same weekend as the sad events in Ferguson. I experienced the different sides of a city both literally and metaphorically in the center of our country and its history.
St. Louis is the quintessential American city. It has a unique place in the country’s history reflecting the dreams, troubles and aspirations unique to the growth of our nation.
It is where many of our national discussions on territory, growth, race, and technology were borne, and where the outcomes of these decisions have affected us for generations.
Going back to 1804, Lewis and Clark set off from St. Louis to “discover” and map out the Western territory doubling the size of our country, from coast to coast. At the Old Courthouse, Dred and Harriet Scott, an enslaved couple sued for their freedom in 1847. The “Dred Scott” decision, (African Americans, whether free or not, could not be American citizens) became a catalyst for the Civil War.
Virginia Minor founded the Woman Suffrage Association in 1867, two years before Susan B. Anthony’s National Woman’s Suffrage Assoc. In 1872, Minor was refused the ability to register to vote, and brought a civil suit, which found its way to the US Supreme Court forging a path not only to women’s rights, but to the voting rights as well.
In technology, St. Louis led the nation. 1874, the Eads Bridge, first steel bridge opened across the Mississippi, peanut butter is invented in 1890, the largest train station in America, St. Louis Union station opens in 1894. In 1904, the “Meet Me in St. Louis” Worlds fair opens, set on 1300 acres in the center of the city, and defines America as a world trade center.
The Muny, Anheuser -Busch, Steamboats, Mark Twain, Baseball, Football, “the Joy of Cooking”, Boeing aircraft, the arch “Gateway to the West” all have defined the city and our nation to the world.
Because of Ferguson, a national discussion is being held again... where are the lines that define the police in their duties? Are we seeing the militarization of the very people who are supposed to “protect and serve”? What is the community’s responsibility in its response to these actions? How are we going to move forward if we refuse to acknowledge our mutual humanity?
These incidents, and national discussions are often scary, sad in their circumstances and may not always bring clear solutions. But at the very least, they bring out from the shadows those things that are often festering, and left unsaid. They force us to stop, look at ourselves and reevaluate who we are as a nation, and with that, who we are to each other.
St. Louis is yet again in the center of our national discussion, and with hope, will provide us a pathway forward.
