A Different Perspective

Listening to two or more eyewitness accounts of an incident helps us understand how perspective influences the way we see things.  Accounts can differ based on the physical location of a witness in relation to an event, but the testimony of someone who saw what happened can also be influenced by that person’s beliefs and attitudes towards the persons and circumstances involved.

The different perspectives that we bring to understanding what went on in the pat
as well as where we should be heading makes history challenging to write and understand and public policy making controversial. 

While the English colonization of Virginia beginning at Jamestown in 1607 is often taught as the beginning of our country, another perspective is that humans inhabited the lands that became known as Virginia 10,000 to 15,000 years before the English showed up.  The Indians that were here when the colonizers arrived had a long history, established governance, and rich culture. 

As Daniel K. Richter wrote in his book, Facing East from Indian Country:  A Native History of Early America (Harvard University Press, 2001), “Yet if we shift our perspective to try to view the past in a way that faces east from Indian country, history takes on a very different appearance.  Native Americans appear in the foreground, and Europeans enter from distant shores.  North America becomes the ‘old world’ and Western Europe the ‘new.’”

Modern-day historians consign a very different interpretation to Virginia’s later history than early writers who attempted to glorify the Old Dominion.  As Professor Ronald L. Heinemann and others wrote in the Preface to Old Dominion – New Commonwealth:  A History of Virgnia, 1607-2007:

“But its allegiance to the losing and dying side in the CivilWar, as well as its continued promotion of racial discrimination, consignedVirginia to mediocrity for the next century, mired there by a commitment to the Lost Cause that stifled economic and political renewal.  Not until the defeat of massive resistance to racial desegregation in the 1960s was the state able to emerge from this malaise.  Now with the beginning of a fifth century, Virginia is reclaiming its place among the first rank of states through its economic development and a more visible national leadership:  a new commonwealth.”

I have the great joy of sharing different perspectives on understanding Virginia’s
history in a class I am leading with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  While we memorize few dates and events as part of our history class, I am hopeful that all will leave it with a broadened view of how Virginia came to be the complex society it is today.

In the public policy arena where I work as a state legislator, I encounter many
different perspectives on issues.  Personal experiences, educational levels, political and religious beliefs, and constituency interests are among the factors that give us our perspective.  No one person or belief has a corner on the truth.  As we can view different perspectives on history, legislators must adopt ways to respect individual views while working together for the collective good. 

The current debate among budget conferees is a perfect example of the conflict of ideas and perspectives.  Only history will be able to judge how well we are able to govern in the public’s best interest.