I don't need to rehash the events that occurred in Charlottesville Virginia these weekend, as it should still be fresh in everyones mind. The worst parts of this country ripping at very fabric of the nation. I blame both the left and the right for the altercations that have occurred since the election. In this case however, Alt-Right White Supremacists are by far the most to blame.
What we are feeling to day are the ripple effects of the Civil War, probably the most prolific war in American history. For five years, 1861 to 1865, we tore ourselves over slavery. It has been argued that "States Rights" were a major cause of the war, and there is truth in that, but slavery was the primary reason it was fought. The affects of the war reverberate to the modern day, it reshaped out culture and who we are today.
Following the end of the Civil War came a short lived period known as Reconstruction, Lincoln's plan to bring the South back into the Union. The purpose of Reconstruction was to rebuild the Southern infrastructure and economy, and protect the rights of freed slaves. The South was divided in large military districts to help facilitate this effort. However, when it ended in 1877, racist sentiment still existed and rights of African-Americans were still curtailed and that wouldn't be full addressed until close to a hundred years later in the 1960s. It was also during that time, many of the Confederate statues that are the center of the current controversy were built.
When I first heard about the removal of the Confederate statues, I was irritated by it. As a proponent of studying History as unbiased as possible, and heavily against revisionist historians, I found the idea of tearing down these monuments as repugnant. It looked like plot from the left to rewrite our history that was comfortable with their sensibilities. After some arguments, soul searching, research, and events of this weekend, I am behind taking Confederate monuments down.
To be clear, however, this does not include museums, they are places of learning, and must look history as unbiased as possible. I had a long conversation on Twitter concerning this, we need to preserve history, not bury it due to people's sensitivities.
Back to the issue at hand, the statues the commemorate the Confederate cause should be taken down. As I said, slavery was the main cause of the war, this was a rebellion to keep that institution intact. We shouldn't be celebrating people who fought to keep this crime alive. Many of these statues were built following the end of reconstruction as a way to legitimize the Confederate cause, they were constructed even as recent as the 1930s.
In response to the calls to have the Confederate statues removed, many right leaning groups have posted memes asking why statues of FDR aren't being torn down because of the Japanese interment camps during World War II. While some left leaning groups have called for the removal of of the Theodore Roosevelt statues in New York and even blowing up Mount Rushmore. That is a loss of focus on issue at hand, we're talking racism and prejudice here and people threw the nation into war to keep those beliefs. I'm not sure how many times I need to repeat that.
To conclude, this nation needs to do some soul searching. The comments of President Trump represent a nation that still believes (to a good extent) in the myth of the south and not the truth. They are offensive and inappropriate if they to finally leave the Civil War in the past and learn the lessons from it instead of being doomed to repeat it.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Era
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/10/attended-1936-dedication-robert-e-lee-memorial-dallas
https://www.romper.com/p/what-is-antifa-the-anti-fascist-protestors-are-being-blamed-for-violence-in-charlottesville-76857
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/17/vice-editor-lets-blow-mount-rushmore/
