Posted on 08/20/2017 5:16:19 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
When the news came out that a Civil War reenactment scheduled to take place at the Manassas battlefield in Virginia was being cancelled due to fears over possible violence from leftwing groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter, I saw a tweet from some guy saying something to the effect that “The Civil War was 152 years ago – why can’t black people just get over it?”
Now, I’m a conservative and I’m pretty sure I had ancestors who fought for the South in the Civil War, since both sides of my family came into this country in the late 18th/early 19th centuries through North Carolina, but I found that tweet quite offensive, and can only imagine how offensive any descendant of slaves might find it. But we see that argument expressed quite often by those who, for whatever reason, feel the need to continue reenacting Civil War battles, flying the stars and bars out in front of their house, and defending the need to keep statues of Jefferson Davis on some university campus or on the grounds of some other public building.
I often wonder if these folks ever consider the other side of that same argument, which is this: “The Civil War ended 152 years ago – why can’t confederacy defenders just get over it?” Seriously, think about it: isn’t 152 years long enough to honor the leaders of what was in fact an armed rebellion against the United States of America? Does it really take more than the six or seven generations that have passed through your families since 1865 to get those resentments out of your blood?
Seriously, take a step back for just a minute and think: Does it really matter to your life if that statue of Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee keeps standing out in front of your local courthouse? Have you ever stopped to think about how it must feel to descendants of slaves who surely live in your community to walk by that statue knowing that their tax dollars help pay for its upkeep and public display?
And please, don’t give me that crap about the Civil War not being about preservation of slavery. If you’re one of the people who uses that line, I want to personally challenge you to take a few hours out of your day to read each state’s articles of confederation. If you do that, you will find that all 11 confederate states listed the preservation of slavery as a reason for their decision, and 9 of the 11 states listed it as the first reason. Save that argument for someone else.
Then there’s the argument about “we have to preserve our history!”, and with that one, I’m in full agreement. But keeping a statue of Stonewall Jackson out on the courthouse lawn for 120 years doesn’t really teach anyone anything about history, does it? Not without the provision of context.
Our biggest problem in the current hysteria from the political left over these monument is that we now have two full generations of young people who haven’t been given any real context about any of this in our schools and universities. The teaching of civics and American History was de-emphasized during the ’70s and ’80s, after the radicals of the ’60s came to dominate our education system, in favor of indoctrinating our children with all sorts of leftwing nonsense.
Unless they took American history or civics as an elective, the only thing anyone under 40 or so has ever been taught about Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson is what they get from the news media, and the only message they get from the news media is that they were eeeeevil, which of course is not true. They were just men, products of their time and place, doing what they believed to be their civic duty. But the public lacks that context – all they have in their minds is that simplistic notion they’ve learned from the media.
And so, when they walk past these statues they have an emotional reaction, because they have no understanding whatsoever of who those men really were and the things they did with their lives outside of the few years of the War.
It seems to me that the biggest problem about this entire controversy is that both sides are reacting out of emotion and ignorance. How can we expect to be a unified nation if so many of our citizens know next-to-nothing about what this nation even is?
In all of this controversy, there is an opportunity here for President Trump to take initiative to prove he is a different kind of leader. A good approach to helping the nation heal would be for Republicans and Democrats to work together to remove all Civil War-related statues – Union and Confederacy alike – from taxpayer-funded public places in an organized, systematic way, and establish a series of Civil War museums around the country where they could reside.
Perhaps establish a bi-partisan commission to then develop a curriculum to be taught in guided tours through these museums that would actually educate attendees and provide context for the people depicted in the statues. Seems to me this could become a centerpiece of the President’s Infrastructure proposal.
I know that’s a pipe dream, since the Democrats seem to be hell-bent on continuing to divide this country along racial lines, but I keep hoping they might wake up sometime soon and realize this is a huge loser of an issue for them. Every poll taken on this question proves that to be the case.
Regardless, this would be a constructive approach for President Trump and his Education and Interior Departments to take to the matter. Take the initiative here, Mr. President, and demand the Democrats explain why they refuse to work towards a peaceful solution to such a divisive issue. Provide the public with some context here, both politically and historically.
Just another day in lack of context America.
That is all.
True, but there may be no alternative with the entire swamp/uniparty united to negate the voters and import ever more illegal aliens to increase their support for perpetual rule.
Yyyyyyyep.
They largely evidently have if polls are to be believed, as 40% say that Confederate monuments should not be disturbed, and another 11% don’t care either way.
As usual the source of discontent is primarily the MSM.
Why not just put the statues on Civil War battlefields
That is a natural location for them
At the same time declare antifa a terrorist group....because they have been since their inception in the forties
Finally people have to grow a spine. Such clucking when the Taliban or ISISdestroys icons and yet none for this
Blow it out of your fake Southern hole! punk.
Precisely
bump
“The Civil War ended 152 years ago – why can’t confederacy defenders just get over it?” Seriously, think about it: isn’t 152 years long enough to honor the leaders of what was in fact an armed rebellion against the United States of America? Does it really take more than the six or seven generations that have passed through your families since 1865 to get those resentments out of your blood?”
The people who died in honorable service to their states, they had pledged their lives to their neighbors.
Even the survivors are dead.
The people who put up the statues are dead.
The people that fought them are dead.
People who fought them put up statues as well to heal the nation are dead.
The people alive today weren’t there, why can’t we leave the dead alone? Why can’t we leave history alone?
Post of the thread. Should end there.
I thought you folks might find this blog piece ... “interesting.”
There’s a reason you don’t see Jews demanding the Holocaust museum be destroyed. People ascribe meaning to historical momentos and sites, and art. Let them give meaning to them all, whether positive or negative. That’s why they were created.
This is all a manufactured Alinskyite war.
As the based black-woman said on the infamous CBS interview, "I wasn't born then and you wasn't either."
Sounds like she's a whole lot smarter than you are Dave. Either abandon your principle (that we must preserve our history) or abandon your conclusion that it's ok to deracinate the artifacts from that history. But you can't have both.
Far more people visit the Roman Forum than read Cicero.
You can't keep the good parts of history and excise the bad parts of history.
Yeah - that’s the ticket. If the targets kneel to the violent thugs, it will make everything better....
“...... Historical reenactments are part of history and help to instruct the public.”......
Earlier American history is a thing of the past as the facts and significance is removed from everything the liberals disagree with. School history books no longer contain the stories and facts of what it took to make this country what it WAS and is NO LONGER. I hate what this is doing to cur country, HATE IT and those who keep pushing for its remove.
I learned my lesson with the Confederate flag in Columbia. Months and months of take-down-this-flag-you-racists before they reached a “compromise” with the explicit promise of “do this and we’ll stop boycotting/protesting/etc. and everybody will be happy. The compromise in question was to take the flag off the State House and display it in a reasonably nice memorial on the State House grounds.
Less than three days later, the boycott and protests were back in effect because the flag was still on the grounds. I will never trust a liberal compromise again.
A week has gone by and the Nazis didn’t get me!
Mr. Blackmon is a fool.
L
“don’t give me that crap about the Civil War not being about preservation of slavery.”
OK, you provided evidence that it was for the south - now provide evidence that it was for the north.
Crickets.
They couldn’t care less about slaves per se. They simply did not want a split-up country, and that’s why it’s commonly called the “Union” on the yankee side.
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