Scott Coner Music: Monuments to Men

By Scott Coner

Nashville Recording Artist, Songwriter, Performer, and Author

The other night my family watched “Monuments Men.” It is a movie directed by and co-starring George Clooney. To be honest, I would have passed on the show altogether, but our oldest daughter has been studying art history in class, and the story has been a topic. Mr. Clooney has a bit of a mouth on him when it comes to political opinions, but I am more than willing to keep my thoughts to myself. Everybody has an opinion anyway so what does it matter?

We watched the story unfold, and I have to admit it was touching, to say the least. The characters came to life before our eyes. The art seemed to leap out at you from the screen. The screenwriters, as well as George Clooney, made a movie that told a part of history that should not be forgotten by any of us. I went to bed that night with the show's message weaving through my mind. I begin to wonder if we are that far apart if you get down to the brass tax of it all. Our country has been through so much to get where we are. We are allowed to stand anywhere within our borders and proclaim proudly and surely that we are the greatest nation in the world. But are we the greatest people? I think we are. Our people grew this nation with the common goal of being proud and committed Americans. During the industrial age, I don’t think people were coming here to divide us or try to kill us. They came here to chase a dream. They wanted to be American. Of course, they would still hold on to their own heritage. As a matter of fact, they would share it with the rest of us. But make no mistake. The people that built this country wanted the American way of life.

Scott Coner performing "Line In It"

Here we are all of these years later divided right down the middle. The difference is we have news media telling outright lies from both sides of the fence. If you will agree with their news, they know you will be back the next day for more of their version of the “truth.” We all buy into it myself included. I may go to the gym early in the morning and see CNN twisting a story around to the point that I can’t believe it’s even legal to say such nonsense. Later that same day, I might here Rush giving his take on the position of our world. You can pick and choose pretty much any news contributor you want. I watch Fox in the mornings when I can, probably because they seem like they are giving basic facts for the most part. But, later in the day they sure like to give you their opinions as much as any of the others. It’s a slippery slope, to say the least. But with magazines, newspapers, radio and media coming at us all day and night, we begin to find ourselves joining one team or other for sure. Maybe in the midst of it, we lose our true identity. Maybe we give up the part of ourselves that knows what is right and what is wrong. Maybe if given a chance, we could find common ground. We may not be all that far apart.

Scott Coner's music video to "Line In It"

“Monuments Men” seemed to remind me of this. George Clooney obviously has a passion for art as well as people. That fact just spills out of the screen. He also feels very differently about certain parts of our constitution than I do? It doesn’t matter, does it? He is just one man with a pretty loud microphone. You may be a woman or a man from a different view than me. But do we need to be enemies? Do we have to have such a great divide? Do we have common ground we can meet on and start from there? What about these people representing both sides in Washington? How can our country find it’s way back? Obviously, I am not qualified to answer that question. But maybe, if we tried to find the good in other Americans rather than waste energy being full of hate, we could move towards one another.

We have some big decisions to make as a generation. If we look at our country like we look at our little families, we might make sense of some of it. For instance, every night before I go to bed, I lock the doors and set the alarm. Then I tell everyone in the house, “I love them and goodnight.” We do our best to make sure our kids do well in school. We pay our taxes. We watch our budget, so we don’t go broke. We try to help those around us that need help when possible. We take care of ourselves and try to stay healthy. We want our kids to have a promising future. We want them to love and appreciate others. We want them to keep Jesus in the center of all things. We want to celebrate our lives and our passions. We buy local when we can. We take care of our home. We love our country and her people. What part of this can we not agree on? Better yet, where in this short list can we find common ground? The condition of the country at this moment in history is going to wind up being part of all of our legacies. We can all do better. I’ll start with me.