Rashomon : Hall of Mirrors in DC

"Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing." (Akira Kurosawa)

" You must not count too much on your reality as you feel it today. Since, like yesterday, it may prove an illusion for your tomorrow". (Luigi Pirandello)

"Victim consciousness is aggressive and often leads to violence". (Bert Hellinger)

Recent events in our nation's capital brought the story of Rashomon to mind. In the

Japanese film, directed in 1950 by Akira Kurosawa, three characters and a witness offer four

different versions of a violent event, all subjective, alternative and contradictory. In January

2019, against a backdrop of political tensions, and government shutdown, just days before the

Martin Luther King holiday and on the very steps of the Lincoln Memorial from which he

delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech, an apparent confrontation set the stage for

viral media outrage.

In this story, three main elements included; White students from the all-male, Catholic,

Covington High School, in Washington for an annual anti-abortion, "March for Life rally", Black

men, identified as Hebrew Israelites, preaching their gospel of confrontaton, and Native

Americans wrapping up their Indigenous People's march. The fourth, and maybe most

important element, in the role of witness, was our mainstream media, known in this post-truth

era for their fondness of "if it bleeds, it leads", "alternative facts", and lies of omission.

Therefore, perception of exactly what happened between the other three elements varies

greatly, and each of these elements perceives themselves to be victims, and all others to be

perpetrators.

Our latest media conflagration broke out, with the posting of a photo, which became

something of a national Rorshach test. An apparerently inflammatory image shows a closeup

of 16 year old student Nick Sandmann in a Trumpian red swag MAGA (Make American

Great ) hat, smiling as he faces elderly Native American activist and drummer Nathan Phillips.

An accompanying, brief video-clip, appeared to present Elder Phillips surrounded by an

insolent gang of mocking, jeering, war hooping, tomohawk chopping, White teens. When I saw

this photo on social media my immediate perception was of White supremacy taunting

someone believed to be of lesser value, which as a historian I had seen in smiling Hitler-youth

and also Ku Klux Klansman, smirking as they spoke about race, as well as their long history of

White cruelty and genocide toward our Native Americans. I was not alone in my initial

perception, as others jumped in to revile 16 year old Nick Sandmann, as a cocky Draco

Malfoy, Bret Kavanaugh wannabe, and his MAGA-hat classmates as little nascent Nazi

Klansmen in the making, all suffering from severe affluenza.

Ours is a violent country, not much given to insight, patience or reflection and online mobs,

wielding digital pitchforks, rushed to hurl death threats at the boys, their schooland families,

Elder Phillips and so on. In rapid response to such negative publicity, Covington Catholic High

School shut down and circled their wagons, disconnected phones and turned to their right-

wing public relations firm, (with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc McConnell), to

manage the narrative. A hasty pro-forma apology was posted, concerning possible

misbehavior of their students. Soon thereafter, Nick Sandmann appeared in a television

interview, wisely, minus the MAGA hat, in what sounded like a scripted response; explained

that he was startled and confused when Elder Phillips approached him and his friends, with

intrusive drumming and singing, and his was a smile of peace. Sandmann then claimed to

have been offering a silent prayer to diffuse a tense situation. No apology was forthcoming

since Nick felt that he had done nothing wrong, had every right to be there, and was being

unfairly villified for, "standing still while White." (Savannah Gurthrie, MSNBC news, January

23, 2019).

While Nick's smile didn't appear all that prayerful to me, I have to wonder how I would have

perceived that smile had he not been wearing that red MAGA hat. And, it is true that he made

no movement or aggressive gestures toward Elder Phillips. In the wake of the blatantly racist

Trump campaign, MAGA is seen by many as the new white- hood symbol of White

supremacy, that wants to build a racist wall. Also, for many, this made in China, blood red hat,

emblazoned with white letters, aligns any wearer with the policies of the man made that hat

famous: real estate baron, and reality TV star Donald Trump. Now, President of our United

States, Trump's campaign, portrayed Mexicans as rapists, diease infested criminals, and drug

dealers; as the Republican candidate bragged about "grabbing women by the pussy".

Complicit misogyny is explicit in the message carried by Catholic Covington boys sent to

DC by their parents, school, community and Church; on a Pro-Life mission. One wonders at

the wisdom of sending teenage boys as messengers hardly mature enough to understand

pregnancy, abortion, childbirth and parenting, to tell women what to do with their own bodies.

The word crusades comes to mind. Excatly how Pro-life is it, for these affluent, Trump-aligned,

adolescents to be parading around in DC, during an ongoing national tragedy, of migrant

teens and young children's lives, torn from their families and caged at internment camps at the

border.?

One also wonders, given the milieu in which these Covington kids were raised, if they had

ever really seen a Native American prior to their encounter wth Elder Phillips? Covington

Catholic High School is located in Park Hills in a northern Kentucky county, which voted for

Trump by a substantial margin. This politically conservative, predominantly Catholic region, is

known to the Southern Poverty Law Center for its proliferation of White supremacy identity

groups, and radical right-wing Christian sects. (Tom McCarthy, theguardian.com, January 23,

2019). One also wonders how much these Catholic kids knew about the 15th century Doctrine

of Discovery, a papal law that allows violence against Native people who refuse to convert to

Christianity. This Doctrine, which has not been rescinded, also played a major role in

"civilizing" Indians during the Indian-boarding-school era, rife with violence and abuse, that

produced generations of traumatized children and their families, including that of Nathan

Phillips. (Mary Annette Pember, rewirenews.com, January 25, 2019).

When the close-up image of Omaha tribe Elder Phillips and Nick Sandmann first appeared

on social media there was a rush to sanctify a story of Phillips, as a Vietnam War Hero

harassed and disrespected by clueless racist teens. As others joined the fray, fact-checkers

revealed that he was in never Vietnam, and was thus, villified by veterans as a "professional

Indian" liar guilty of stolen valor. Closer examination revealed that Elder Phillips had never

claimed to be a Vietnam Veteran, and had described himself only as " veteran of the Vietnam

era". Records show that he enlisted in the U.S.Marine Corps and served stateside from 1972-

1976. His grandfather, and father also served in the military and two of his brothers were in

Vietnam. Such seemingly righteous critics, citing linear time and dates, might take some time

to seriously inquire as to exactly when our "Vietnam era" was "over" for families and their

descendants; of those who served over there.

According to Elder Phillips, he was concerned about potential violence brewing at the DC

event between a group of Black Hebrew Nationalists harrassing the Covington students. This

tiny sect does not have a physical church, and their work is primarily done in the streets; and

confrontation is their gospel. (John Eligon, nytimes.com, January 23, 2019). According to

several witness a group of five Blacks were hurling insults and vulgarities at the students, who

repsonded by chanting their school cheer. Some backstory here in that Covington Catholic

High School students are seen on the internet, in blackface, taunting African American players

from a visiting baskertball team; with apparent permission from their school. When asked on

"Fox and Friends" about this blackface photo, the students replied that they were just showing

"school spirit" and "we didn't mean nothing by it ". (Amanda Carlson, people.com, January 24,

2019).

Upon hearing the insults and the cheers, Elder Phillps says that he feared an escalation of

tensions, and entered the student group, drumming and singing in hopes of diffusing the

confrontation. He sang the Raymond Yellow Thunder song, as a prayer and honor of the

Ogala elder, brutally murdered by white vigilantes in 1972. (theintercept.com, January 24,

2019). As Phillips entered the Covington group, they appeared to mock and jeer with war

hoops and tomohawk chopping motions, while allegedy chanting "build the wall". In a later

statement, Phillips said; "Before anyone came here, we never had a wall. We never had a

prison. We always took care of our elders. We took care of our children. We always took care

of them. We taught them right from wrong. I wish that I could see that energy of that young

man and put that energy into making this country, really, eally great".

(conservativereview.com, January 19, 2019).

We can be grateful that the online conflagration surrounding this Rashomon incident, on

the steps of our Lincoln Memorial, did not break out into real-world violence. Plato's notion that

political regimes mirror the soul of their citizens and vice versa, is worthy of serious

consideration, now in Donald Trump's Amerika. As our social fabric is stretching thinner, we

have yet to agree as to how to facilitate free and democratic interactions among the citizens of

our multi-cultural society.