Generations ago the country came to an understanding. The South was to have its memorials and symbols to honor its soldiers and should not be demonized for such. In return, Southerners have served in the military in numbers far exceeding their % of the population and have been some of THE most patriotic and devoted Americans anywhere. We won 2 world wars and a long Cold War.
Now the Left wants to go back on the deal, endlessly malign all things Southern and spew constant hate at the South, before moving on to trashing the rest of America’s history and culture on the way toward building their Marxist utopia.
We should all look with great suspicion on any “Conservatives” who support this agenda in any way. It is ahistorical and poisonous to the unity of America.
That is certainly true, and they were much closer to the circumstances at the time than we are today. But there is another dimension to the understanding reached in the 1860s.
Slavery may have only existed in the southern states at that point, but many a northern fortune was made as a direct result of the labor of the slaves. In fact, Lowell Massachusetts was formed to make cotton cloth from the cotton picked by slaves. All of those early Massachusetts businessmen made their fortunes off of the labor of slaves.
So should we stop flying the Massachusetts State Flag? Should we no longer have a city named Lowell? And what about Lawrence, MA, and its founding as a center for textiles?
The now pious liberals of Massachusetts and other northern states have just as much of a history with slavery as do the residents of the south. However, unlike the people of the south some of the residents of Massachusetts are still spending the trust funds that were created with money earned from making cotton picked by slaves.
Of course the leftists looking to revisit history and destroy traditions aren't about to look at their own ancestors' part in the whole situation.