Written by Emma Weber<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here I am, in the Bison\u2019s 99th edition during Harding\u2019s 100th year of school writing to a body of students about my opinions. So hear me when I say, I don\u2019t care about the Centennial. I know by publishing this I am putting myself on the blacklist of Harding, so if this is my last article, know I loved you all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think history is great. I\u2019ve spent many hours scouring the Brackett Library\u2019s archives with my friends Randi and Helen simply for my own enjoyment. If you\u2019ve looked in past copies of the Bison or The Petit Jean, you can see the rich history that Harding holds. What I see happening with the Centennial, however, is a celebration without much acknowledgement of failure. We, the Harding of today, are the keepers of narrative, so when we only present one side of the story we lose the unique opportunity to admit missteps. Harding is an institution that has failed many times and will continue to fail until its end. This is because it is not God, it is an institution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am not the only Opinions Editor to hold this belief. In 1958, one author addressed the college using very direct language:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It has been often observed that Christian and American ideals are continually preached here, but rarely practiced. If the Golden Rule and the Bill of Rights were less often memorized and more often synthesized into action, Harding College would be a freer, happier, more productive citadel of uninhibited truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is commentary on the rampant Nationalist Christianity and political agendas of presidents that were invading the walls built by pacifists to foster religious education during that time. Although this conversation was not directly related to the integration of Harding \u2014 a result of the pressure from administration to end discussions \u2014 it is implied in other articles that the events of Little Rock were in the forefront of student\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, President George S. Benson actively fought against many things: communism, the financial crisis Harding was in, and integration. Benson spoke openly about his opinions on the school\u2019s segregation and seemed to have a hand in the silence of the discussions The Bison <\/em>desired to have, although this can only be inferred from archives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I hear stories like this, I wonder what we are supposed to do. Benson passed away holding the hand of a close friend and mentee, a native from Zambia, Rayton Sianjina, who spoke of Benson\u2019s redemption story. But does that negate the fact that Benson was an active participant in something so harmful to Harding\u2019s community? How do we honor the experience of Sianjina who said, \u201cHe took his last breath as I was holding his hand. The last person he saw on this earth was a Black man as he parted this life to see the face of God. From seeing a Black man to seeing Christ Jesus is a testament to the redemptive story of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that our role in history is complex. As ever-changing humans, we need to recognize and honor the complexity of the scope of what we can know. The culture of the time was different, yet the hurt and consequences were and still are real. When we refuse any conversation on the failure of leaders, we are continuing a cycle in which the hurt are further silenced. When we spend this 100th year celebrating our accomplishments, where is the discussion of what we did \u2014 and maybe continue to do \u2014 wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is just one example where this is the case. When the privileged are in charge of promoting the narrative, there is always the opportunity to provide a chronicle that holds only one side. It is hard to have complex conversations where we both affirm the harm that was committed against different communities on campus, such as the Black community, and the fact that Benson did good things for Harding. This is a conversation that is too large for an infographic or phone booth in the Brackett Library. That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not a conversation worth having.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As students and faculty and the community of Harding today, we are responsible for honoring the stories of Harding that may not be told in chapel. We must look at the past with honor, without revering it as holy. Harding is an institution that has failed, and I don\u2019t believe institutions are worth blindly celebrating. When we think deeply about things, we may find a deeper appreciation for the struggle that many have had in their dedication to make Harding better. This is something worth celebrating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Emma Weber Here I am, in the Bison\u2019s 99th edition during Harding\u2019s 100th year of school writing to a body of students about my opinions. So hear me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15225,"featured_media":19058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19059,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057\/revisions\/19059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}