Kendall Stanley: Doubling down on bad history

Yesssa Master, please keep me in bondage so that I can learn a skill to use later on!

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he didn’t write the part in the Florida’s new history curriculum that suggested some Black slaves learned skills they could later use in their life. While he may not have written it, it comports with an overall view of conservatives that slavery and racism weren’t that bad and we don’t want our students to be uncomfortable by having to read the real history of slavery.

Needless to say, the governor and the state education department came under plenty of fire for the historic revisions.

The reality is there should be no whitewashing of the nation’s slavery history.

It was evil, pure and simple. You can’t pretty that up with slaves’ work experiences. There is no other side to that story.

This does not come at a good time for DeSantis — he’s slipping in the polls, fundraising has been less than stellar and his campaign has had to lay off some employees. So yes, a self-inflicted wound if ever there was one.

Florida law mandates that history courses cover slavery. If so, let’s make sure it’s a full reckoning of what happened in the South under slavery.

Busy enough for ya?

A family friend came visiting from downstate after several years of not coming north to Petoskey.

The good news: Petoskey hasn’t changed, it looks the same.

The bad news: Holy moly where did all the people come from!

She was surprised at all the people on the street and wherever she went. And she is right in noting there are a lot more people making this a destination vacation spot.

It used to be that downtown would be full of shoppers if it was rainy or cold and thus not conducive to hitting the beach. Not anymore.

The streets are packed and the traffic, well don’t get us started on the traffic.

Heading north on US 31 is a bumper-to-bumper, below-the-speed-limit crawl. It’s like rush hour — every hour. And then you get to the construction in Alanson! Wheeeee!

It’s not a bad thing, really, this crush of visitors to our area. After COVID-19 impacted the business community, it’s nice to see a rebound in retail businesses and the assorted weddings that can only be held in Northern Michigan where beauty is ever present.

We have been discovered, it’s true, but we have always been a place where people came to enjoy life. The many rail lines that converged at the waterfront train depot and the Penn Plaza uptown fueled dozens of rooming houses and hotels throughout Petoskey. And that’s not to even mention those who came to Petoskey and then hopped a dummy train to take them to their summer “cottages” in the many resort communities formed in the late 1800s.

Be kind, be nice and enjoy the summer.

A historic look

The Harbor Springs Area Historical Society is holding a special event Thursday, Aug. 3, to mark the society’s acquisition of the 6,000-image photo collection of the late Virgil Haynes. For those of us of a certain age, it will be a spectacular step back in time.

Photography by Haynes was located downtown, and Virgil and his wife, Audrey, had a good business with family photos of resort families, high school senior pictures and more weddings than they probably could recount.

But Virgil also took pictures of his Harbor Springs and the activities that occur in a small town in Northern Michigan.

School children’s Halloween parade? Got it captured. Kindergarten graduation? Sure. Shop owners shoveling off their sidewalks after a snowfall? Got it.

Virgil was always willing to answer the questions of budding photographers. That in and of itself was a community treasure.

His daughter, Cynthia, published books containing some of his photos, and this collection of images will add to that extraordinary vision of decades of life in a small town.

The museum will now include, along with the new Haynes collection, 20,000 images donated to the society by Bruce Gathman. When Gathman bought Photography by Haynes he acquired some photos by Haynes. The museum will now include all those negatives and images in its online archive of photographs.

To all those who worked to make this happen, thank you!

— Kendall P. Stanley is retired editor of the News-Review. He can be contacted at kendallstanley@charter.net. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and not necessarily of the Petoskey News-Review or its employees.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Kendall Stanley: Doubling down on bad history