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I guess I'm a little irritated at the sneaky way this whole thing was done. It stinks of cowardice.

No one is suggesting that slavery was a good thing. Every nation has black marks on its history, and slavery is one borne by the US as well. By the logic of some, we need to quit flying the US flag. After all, Jefferson was a slave-owner himself. Should we stop flying the US flag? Of course not. We look to the Stars and Stripes and think of the good things it represents. Some of us also look to the Stars and Bars and think of the good things that it represented. Justshutupandtakeit comes off as an extreme hypocrite for these reasons. Some other interesting historical tidbits:

Lincoln wasn't the great guy everybody thought he was either. His one and only objective was to preserve the Union. This was a worthy goal, but thinking of him as the quintessential anti-slave crusader isn't the historical Lincoln:

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. --Abraham Lincoln

General Robert E. Lee had this to say about slavery: "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil."

The issue is not as simple as some would have us believe. The bottom line is that if the South was a fascist, evil state then the Union was too, for it was guilty of the same crimes. Now if God were to abolish and destroy every culture, regardless of its good traits, that did something dopey or stupid in its history, then I submit to you that we would all be screwed.