There are times when I am given an assignment and I jump into it with both feet. There are other times when I do what I have to do and let it go with that. Then there are the times when I get an assignment and the more I get into it and the deeper I dig, the more the “light bulbs” pop on in my aging brain. Recently, I had one such assignment. It came to our attention that the mural at the post office here in Madison had been covered with what seemed to be trash bags.
I began doing some investigating and after a series of “no comments,” I received a wordy “no comment” type comment from a public relations representative for the postal service. At that time, I felt that may be about as far as I might be able to follow the story. Then, I received a message from a gentleman with a great deal of interest in old post offices. Some people are interested in old trains, other people are interested in old post offices, I suppose. This gentleman had seen my article about the trash bag-covered painting in our post office and it was a subject that had become the target of his attention.
In exploring this subject, this gentleman has discovered that there are 16 post offices across the nation in which murals are covered or are in the process of being covered. I can only imagine that they are covered with what seem to be trash bags.
My often curious mind is struck with a question that should be obvious. Why? I have heard of people who do not like the mural in the post office in Madison. Why? The mural depicts men working hard preparing cotton to be shipped. In my understanding, it is a historically accurate depiction of a major segment of life for Madison County in the late 1800s and early 1900s (before the boll weevil decimated the cotton industry in Madison County, which ushered in greater tobacco farming in the county). I have heard that people are offended by the fact that the workers depicted in the mural are Black people. Why is the depiction of Black people working considered offensive? I wasn't alive at the turn of the 20th century, but I would imagine that many, if not most, of the workers preparing cotton to be shipped were probably Black. This was well after the time when Black workers were forced to toil against their will. I was taught at an early age that all work, even manual labor, was honorable and worthy of admiration.
Perhaps, if we choose to view all work as being worthy of admiration, we might be able to view a piece of artwork that honors that work with more appreciative eyes. Perhaps we would be able to see the hard work of those who went before us as paving the way for future generations to achieve greater things. It's a lot easier to imagine that when seeing depictions of hard working Americans than it is when seeing trash bags.