What I did on my Christmas vacation
A road trip travelogue and a look at Christian Nationalism in the new “Knives Out” movie
As you may recall, I stepped away for a while over Christmas break. Aside from needing a little time to recharge and focus on the busyness of the holiday season, we took a road trip to visit my military son in Texas. We live in Georgia, so this was a major undertaking.
We made our plans late, so I didn’t even look at flying. Driving also allowed us to move some larger items that my son had been wanting for his military-subsidized off-base housing. The trip, just under 1,000 miles each way, spanned five states (and not small ones) and two Buc-ee’s. We could have pushed through and made the drive in one day, but it was much more enjoyable to make it a two-day trip. One Buc-ee’s per day is plenty.
Driving also allowed us to see some flyover country up close. We saw some things I didn’t know about, like the group of Buddhist monks walking from Texas to Washington, DC in an effort to promote peace. As we drove through Alabama, we happened upon a group of police cars in the middle of nowhere. I thought there had been an accident, but it turned out we had run across the monks. My wife had seen this story and got very excited, but this was the first I had heard of it. As an avid walker and hiker, I now have a new life goal.
I won’t say what I think the odds are that a group of Buddhist Texan monks will impact Donald Trump’s steady lurching towards war with Venezuela (and Canada and Iceland and possibly with China over Taiwan), but a focus on peace is needed and appreciated. With Trump now launching unprovoked attacks on Venezuelan soil, Trump’s American foreign policy is becoming increasingly like Putin’s Russian foreign policy, aggressive and imperialistic.
With two days to travel, we could also stop and see some things that we’d normally never come near. Like Selma, Alabama.
Passing near Selma, we went slightly out of the way to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The bridge, named for a Confederate general and Klan leader, was ground zero for the racist violence of Bloody Sunday in 1965 when Alabama state troopers and county deputies brutally beat civil rights marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams.
The bridge doesn’t look much different today, and it’s still named for a klansman. The main road bypasses Selma now, which is one of the poorest towns in America, owing to the decline of agriculture in the area. Selma is one of many small towns across the rural South that are drying up as agriculture becomes more automated and industrial jobs move to population centers. There are a few historical attractions in the area, but the city seems mostly shabby and depressed, forgotten by most of the rest of the state.
Still, in these days when civil rights history is being removed by people who say that history shouldn’t be erased (if civil rights gains are not actively being reversed), it’s important to remember how far we’ve come in a short time. Bloody Sunday was only 60 years ago, not far outside my lifetime. There are millions of Americans with personal memories of segregation and state-e̶n̶d̶o̶r̶s̶e̶d̶ mandated racial mistreatment. The persecution of black Americans didn’t end with the abolition of slavery. It’s not ancient history.
And speaking of slavery, our drive on I-20 took us through Vicksburg, Mississippi, where Edmund Pettus fought to defend that “peculiar institution.” For those unfamiliar with the Vicksburg campaign in the Civil War, it was the climactic battle for control of the Mississippi River and culminated in a 47-day siege of the city in which residents and defenders were reduced to living in dugouts in the sides of hills and eating rats. Vicksburg is a cautionary tale for those who long for another civil war.
Another piece of trivia about Vicksburg is that the Confederate commander, John C. Pemberton, commander of the Confederate forces at Vicksburg, was the uncle of John Stith Pemberton, the inventor of Coca-Cola. John Stith Pemberton was also a Confederate officer, although he was not at Vicksburg. Jeff Shaara, son of the author of “The Killer Angels,” the basis for the 1993 “Gettysburg” movie, has a really good historical novel about the battle for Vicksburg, which coincidentally fell the day after the battle of Gettysburg ended. July 1863 was not a good month to be a Confederate.
Vicksburg is also one of the few places you can see a Civil War ironclad warship. The USS Cairo, named for the city in Illinois, is on display after being recovered from its resting place in the river where it was sunk by a mine, then called a torpedo. One thing that struck me was the use of railroad ties to “up-armor” vulnerable parts of the vessel. I guess military procurement hasn’t changed a lot in 160 years.
Once we got to my son’s base, we enjoyed a week of family fun in an Airbnb that included hiking, gifts, meeting his friends, and a Christmas turkey dinner. We also watched some television, and one movie stood out.
I’ve long enjoyed the “Knives Out” series of mysteries (read my comments about the original “Knives Out” here), and the new installment on Netflix, “Wake Up, Dead Man,” was no exception. Daniel Craig is always entertaining as Detective Benoit Blanc, and I won’t go too deeply into the movie to avoid spoilers, but I will say that when I saw the movie centered on Catholic priests, I had some trepidations. I’m glad I stuck with it.
The dynamic between Father Jud (Josh O’Connor) and Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) is a microcosm of the Christian church’s struggle between Christian Nationalism and the teachings of Jesus. The monsignor argues that the church is under assault from the world and must fight back. This contrasts sharply with Jesus’s teachings to “turn the other cheek” and “love your enemies.”
A scene where Father Jud confronts Wicks about his ideology is particularly poignant and illustrative of the difference between the two factions. Wicks physically attacks Jud and urges him to defend himself. You’ll have to watch the movie to see how Jud responds.
Another key moment is when Wicks refuses to allow Jud to replace an icon of Christ on the cross that was destroyed by the “Harlot Whore.” Wicks wants to preserve the memory of the assault on the church in order to keep anger and hatred stoked. His grievance theology is consistent with the chip on the shoulder of Christian Nationalists who nurse grudges against everyone from “The Left” to immigrants to pluralistic democracy, while rationalizing the protection of Epstein’s pedophile friends.
The “Knives Out” suspects aren’t caricatures, but they are types that are frequently found in churches and elsewhere. There is a Republican political wannabe who has become a YouTube influencer, a conspiracy theorist, a sufferer of chronic pain, a woman seeking the approval of her deceased father, a man obsessed with winning back his ex-wife, and several church employees. There are lots of motives.
It would have been easy for the film to veer off into Christian bashing with Blanc being an avowed atheist, but that isn’t what happens. Again, I’m not going to give away the details, but Father Jud is a very positive role model for followers of Christ, and he even wins Blanc’s respect. In the end, Christians should be pleased with the treatment of their faith.
All in all, our Christmas road trip was a success. We logged more than 2,000 miles without incidents or accidents and had a great visit with my son. Family Christmases get hard when the kids grow up and move several states away (or further). I’m glad we were able to enjoy one more holiday together. Who knows where we might be a year from now?
The core meaning of Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s birth, but spending time with family and friends is also way up there on the list. I hope that you all enjoyed the holiday as well.
Happy New Year from our family to yours.
THE WAR NOBODY NOTICED President Trump crossed the Rubicon recently with his public announcement of an attack on a port facility in Venezuela. The attack, carried out by a CIA drone, marks the first time that the US is known to have carried out an attack on Venezuelan soil. Because covert actions are governed under different laws than overt military action, the attack may not violate US law, but it is fair to say that a state of limited, undeclared war now exists between the US and Venezuela, and the undeclared war may violate international law.
Aside from pushing Venezuela and other countries towards Russia and China, Mr. Trump should consider that wars are often much harder to end than they are to start.
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I drove from Atlanta to El Paso in March of 1965 about the same time as the incident in Selma. I did not hear much about that story until much later.
It is definitely a long drive across Texas. After leaving Atlanta, we were only halfway to El Paso when we got to Dallas.