Recently, cities across the US have begun taking down Confederate flags and monuments from places of honor and here's what I have to say about it...It's about damn time.
Now it's true that the Civil War wasn't strictly fought over slavery but slavery was a huge reason for secession. Southern leaders were afraid that Lincoln would abolish slavery and they couldn't handle that they couldn't keep him out of office. Yeah, they and their apologists claim it was about state's rights but outside of the right to enslave people of a different skin color, what rights were they worried about losing?
The war itself was a different story...slavery was a factor but people in the North owned slaves as well but didn't leave the country. The war started when Confederates fired upon a Union fort, Fort Sumter. That's treason. Even if you buy into the idea that they were acting as agents of a different country instead of firing upon their countrymen, they attacked the United States.
No one is talking about taking mentions of their deeds out of history books and, to my knowledge, they aren't destroying the statues. They're taking them down from places of honor...period. Does it make sense to honor traitors to the United States? Are there statues of Benedict Arnold up all over the place? Critics are blowing things out of proportion by saying it's removing history. Those statues simply belong in museums and at historical sites...not in places of honor in a country they fought against. Learning history is a must and museum trips are a must for a child's upbringing but giving reverence and honor to people who attacked the United States is not only stupid, it's unpatriotic.
If you really wanna get down to it, if not for Lincoln's compassion and desire to heal the nation, they could've all been charged with treason and hanged. I don't think we have monuments up to celebrate other criminals. Is there a Timothy McVeigh monument in Oklahoma City?
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