Southern States, Tear Down This Man

As the Civil War was coming to a close and Union Victory was imminent, Lincoln in his 2nd inaugural speech said, "with malice towards none and charity for all".

He did not say, let's romanticize, glorify or celebrate.

Let's be clear, the Confederates were traitors, not patriots. The patriots of the American Revolution, had they been able to capture Benedict Arnold as they had his partner John Andre, would have hung him along side Andre.

We have no monuments erected to Benedict Arnold, history has done its job in correctly judging his role, no one has forgotten him, his place in history nor has the role he played been erased - it's still there to learn from.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were traitors not patriots, they were caught selling out our country to the enemy and though some will argue they are not sure if the electric chair was what they deserved, you'll find no one who believes we need to erect a monument or a statue to help history remind us of their deeds.

The Southern States, along with their political and military leaders were indeed our brothers and sisters. But they not only walked away from our family, they drew first blood. Many lives were lost and there was nothing romantic, glorifying or celebratory about those losses. The cause for which the Confederates fought was no cause to be romanticized, memorialized or glorified either - A State's right to decide the issue of slavery - isn't something that those who embrace the phrase "created equal" or the right to life, LIBERTY, and pursuit of happiness would approve of.

The journey of how we got to singing the praises of Dixieland and the Southern man is quite an interesting story and one that led to vilifying the Union and their general who led them to victory and called for celebrating the "heritage" of the South. It was in a sense, an attempt by those involved, to erase and rewrite the true history of their treasonous act; cession from and war against the United States of America.

Taking down a Confederate monument is not erasing history, it's acknowledging our error of erecting a statue that serves only to romanticize, glorify and celebrate the treasonous acts of those who no longer wanted to be a part of our country or pledge allegiance to our flag. They were lucky that Lincoln was so forgiving or many of those men sculpted in stone, just might have been hung.

If people feel that these gigantic monolithic statues and memorials are absolutely necessary in order as they say, "to remember and learn from the past" then lets put them in a museum where people go to learn about history, not in a park or city plaza where they are a constant reminder to the descendants of those whose ancestors were enslaved, oppressed and even killed by those men.

Imagine being an African American and having to walk the plaza streets of your town or taking your children to a park only to have a more than life size image of the very men who fought to keep your ancestors a slave staring down at you. "Mommy, who's that man made out of stone?" "Oh he's a confederate soldier and former member of the KKK."

All of us would cry foul if statues of Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, Mengele, lined any city plaza or parkways. Yet we clearly have been able to remember their history and hopefully have learned without such monuments.

Slavery beginning with the horrific middle passage and ending with master's whip, stole the lives of more people than did the Nazi's and the Holocaust. Why on earth would we think it necessary, let alone appropriate to erect monuments to the leaders of such a crime?

If your response is, well Jefferson and Washington had slaves, do we get rid of those too? My response is, 1 they were wrong and 2 they didn't commit an act of treason against the United States. They didn't try to secede from the Union. They didn't draw first blood against their own brother's and sisters. So no we don't need to tear down the statue of every founding father who was a salve owner. I do however, believe we need to start telling a more honest and accurate version of history. Own the mistakes we made and learn from them. We know better, it's time to do better.

I feel for the South and their past history that they must work harder at reconciling with, than those of the Union. Lord knows, no one likes to be on the losing side. However they have a chance to be on the right side of history by acknowledging and reconciling with their past in a way that doesn't serve to romanticize, glorify, or celebrate what was a very dark time in our nation's history. They have a chance to lead the way in helping this nation heal, by taking down monuments made to celebrate men who fought for the right to enslave others, so as not to appear that they still believe and celebrate that ideology today.

They have the chance to lead the way in achieving the words that Lincoln left for us. These words.......

"With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."