A surprising discovery beneath a Confederate monument

View in browser   December 27, 2021 Good afternoon, and I hope you enjoyed a relaxing and Omicron-free holiday weekend. I went on a couple of hikes, ate Chinese food, and caught up on some sleep. Now, I'm settling into that beautiful post-Christmas, pre-New Year's interlude during which "working" is more a vague and idle state of being than a call to productivity. A group of workers in Richmond, Virginia, is certainly having a more exciting Monday than I. A crew dismantling the site that until this September held a statue of Robert E. Lee discovered a time capsule, right where historical documents suggested it should be. The copper box from 1887 likely contains dozens of pieces of Confederate memorabilia, and, darkly, a picture of Abraham Lincoln in his coffin. But this monument has already fooled historians once. Last week, conservators opened a different time capsule that had been found embedded in the monument's granite base. The small lead box didn't match historical descriptions of the time capsule and contained far fewer artifacts than expected: three books, an envelope, a silver coin, and a photo of a stonemason who worked on the pedestal, suggesting that the capsule might have been placed by the people who erected the monument. In a tweet today, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam assured the public that the latest discovery is "likely the time capsule everyone was looking for." It could be opened as soon as tomorrow, welcoming the new year with a solemn reminder of the past. —Abigail Weinberg Advertisement   Monsters: Cars, Which Are Killing Us and the Planet Automobile deaths keep rising, and we keep doing...absolutely nothing. BY TIM MURPHY SPONSORED POST   Farmers Are Seeding a Regenerative Future Faced with the realities of climate change, farmers are implementing regenerative agriculture to weather the storm. THIS CONTENT WAS PAID FOR AND SPONSORED BY AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST.   'Tis the season for wasting tons of food BY ARIANNA COGHILL The Grinch has a new name: Omicron BY TOM PHILPOTT Monsters of 2021: Fancy government charts with no raw data BY RYAN LITTLE If you think "Don't Look Up" is just an allegory about climate change, you're missing something BY TYLER AUSTIN HARPER Advertisement   "This Is the Time to Have That Purpose Again": Revisiting the Front Line of Second-Wave Feminism Through Photographs Fifty years ago, Nina Hamberg participated in and documented the women's liberation movement in San Francisco. For the first time, she's revisiting that work. BY NINA HAMBERG AS TOLD TO MADISON PAULY   Read Monika Bauerlein's fearless column, "What if Media Covered the War on Democracy Like an Actual War?," and please consider supporting Mother Jones' hard-hitting journalism with a year-end donation to help us reach our urgent $350,000 December goal and keep charging hard in 2022. Donate Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by forwarding it to a friend or sharing it on Facebook and Twitter. Donate Subscribe This message was sent to franchmaverickk.secretwords123@blogger.com. To change the messages you receive from us, you can edit your email preferences or unsubscribe from all mailings. For advertising opportunities see our online media kit. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today. www.MotherJones.com PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755