‘YOU CAN’T WHITEWASH HISTORY’

          All this here hate for the Confederacy bull hockey has done got plumb ridiculous, lately, and I think it’s about time I spoke my piece on the subject.

It was bad enough back when ‘those people’.... and, yes, I am using the same term General Robert E. Lee used when referring to the enemy, and I feel it will suffice as well, today, as it did back then.... let us continue. It was bad enough when ‘those people’ were all going after the Southern States for having the Confederate Battle Flag or similar such Confederate influences incorporated into the designs of their state flags.

Bed-sheeted pinheads

          They insisted that the Confederate Battle Flag stood for nothing more than racism, hatred, and bigotry; a hurtful reminder of the Old South. That.... because white supremacists had flown it before, during, and since segregation.... it was an evil symbol; guilty by association alone. What ‘those people’ forget, though.... or just plain ignore.... is that at every gathering of those bed-sheeted pinheads and rednecks, you will also see, and always have seen, the Star Spangled Banner being flown, as well. So, under that rationale, our beloved United States flag would also be considered a symbol of racism, hatred, and bigotry.

Current Georgia State Flag
& the 1st National Confederate Flag

                       Still, they kept on about it here in Georgia ‘til that bunch down in Atlanta changed ours, not once but twice. As a historian, I can’t help but shake my head in amazement at the final state flag design that ‘those people’ agreed upon. And as a Southerner, I simply smile and softly chuckle. We went from having a state flag with the Rebel flag on it, to a replacement that’s basically the 1^st National Confederate flag with the State seal dead-center of the ring of stars. LOL

Then, when that crazy little Klu-Kluck-wannabe shot them poor folks’ church up, in Charleston, SC, a few years back, ‘those people’ decided that the Battle Flag was to blame for that one idiot’s evil doings. So, the next thing you know, theBottom of Form Governor of South Carolina ordered that the Battle Flag be taken down off’n the State House grounds there. As if that t’weren’t enough, amid all the media-driven hoopla during the time, the U.S. National Park Service took it upon themselves to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from.... of all places....  the Civil War battlefields where it used to fly. Really?? If that old flag belonged anywhere, surely it would have been on the battlefields where it had originated from.

SC State Troopers reverently fold the removed Battle Flag

Did this help bring folks closer to one another in the aftermath of such a heinous tragedy? No, ma’am. No sir. Not, at all. It only rekindled the debate between those for who claim the flag carries hurtful connotations and others for whom it represents family and the land they love.

Now, ‘those people’ are back at it, again.... only they’ve upped the ante a bit. This very week, in Virginia, North Carolina, and also here in Georgia, Confederate statues have been defaced and damaged, and now, there’s what they’re calling a ‘nationwide’ push to erase all mention of Confederates everywhere.

Without an ounce of regard as to how the rest of us feel about the matter, this small minority of the population, with the media as its megaphone, are going after those beautiful granite and marble statues and memorials that were erected long ago to honor the achievements of our Confederate ancestors, saying they, too, invoke racism and are hurtful to people of color, and so, must now come down, removed from public view, erased from history.

'Progressive' protesters tear down and destroy a Confederate monument,
in Durham, NC 

          They march, they protest, they demand. When they don’t get their way, they act as unruly children, pitching a tantrum.... resorting to harassment, destruction, and even violence.... all the while vilifying those that disagree with them, calling them racists, hate mongers, and intolerant.

The Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument, in SC

In doing so, millions of good Southern folks.... some black, some white.... now feel that they’re being deliberately humiliated and made to pay for something that they did not do. It’s nothing less than a cultural purge of the South, something historically associated with tyrannical regimes, such as Nazi Germany did back in World War II, and most recently like ISIS has done in Iraq. Not only is this ‘purge’ wrong, but it’s unworthy of a free nation.

The  Peace Monument, in Atlanta, GA, covered in paint;
               saved from destruction when a lone police officer placed
              himself between the protesters and the monument 

Too immature to recognize the true significance of these memorials to our Nation as a whole, all that these young narcissists seem to be able to focus on are their ‘feelings’, which, in reality, are unfounded and nothing more than how they’ve been told they should feel, by someone else.... most likely a liberal college professor or a social agitator on a FACEBOOK post.

These ‘young progressives’, as they are often referred to, are so callow; so inexperienced in life.... so sure they know all that they need to know about everything.... yet, are so obviously ignorant of our American history, that it makes us older folks somewhat ashamed and sorry for them.

It is said the South seceded to perpetuate slavery.... yet, six slave states sent men to die for the North, and the Southern states rejected an offer from President Abraham Lincoln that would have made slavery permanent in exchange for their return to the Union. In addition, although most Northern states had ended slavery by 1860, many had also passed “black laws,” a forerunner of Jim Crow, which placed tight restrictions on blacks and often forbade them from even living in the state.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President
            of the United States of America

In August of 1862, President Lincoln wrote to newspaper editor Horace Greeley, " 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 let's not forget that West Virginia was admitted into the Union as a slave state, in 1863.... DURING the middle of the War.... and slaves in that and other Northern and border states had to wait until 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, for their freedom.

Folks, slavery was more than just a Southern problem; it was an American problem.

This 'Moment of Mercy' sculpture depicts a Confederate soldier, who, during
              a lull in the Battle of Fredericksburg, VA, risked his life to give water to Union soldiers
            who were lying wounded and dying in a "no man's land" between the opposing armies.

         In 1861, our nation came apart because both sides were focused on differences rather than commonalities. Today we see a similar situation, with skin color increasingly emphasized and the lessons of 150-years ago seemingly unlearned.... perhaps because some are only telling part of the story.

Instead of removing all vestiges of the Confederacy, how ‘bout we use these statues and the names inscribed on them to start a new conversation, one that acknowledges the roles of everyone involved and offers hope for our nation and its people, both black and white.

"Nothing is more unfair than to judge of the sentiments of one age
         by the improved moral perceptions of another." 

          America’s history.... both good and bad.... has much to teach us, but those lessons are lost when their physical symbols are erased. This type of cultural cleansing, itself a form of intolerance, debases both America and its people and sets a dangerous precedent for our civil liberties.

          You can’t change history. You can’t whitewash it. You can learn from it, though, and that is exactly why our Confederate memorials should stay in prominent, public places.... to remind us all where we’ve been, what we’ve endured, so that we could get where we are, today.