Here's Congress' Detailed Plan to Get Rid of Confederate Base Names and Monuments

MY COMMENT:

How are we supposed to be responsible for other people's FEELINGS about names? Why is there no historical CONTEXT applied to this ramrod approach to capitulating to "woke" social justice snipers? This is a cultural DRIVE-BY. "Traitors?" "Slave owners?" "Betrayed our country?" Does anybody know or care about the real story of how the Civil War ended and what reconstruction was supposed to be about?

At the end of the Civil War, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, Grant told his troops to "refrain from celebrations in the field," and that "the Rebels are our countrymen again."

Our countrymen again.

Let that sink in.

In Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address he mentioned binding up the wounds of him who bore the battle; his widow and his orphan. These words were not qualified. He did not say to bind up only the wounds of Union soldier's, or care only for the Union soldier's widow and orphan. His speech was inclusive, conciliatory and forgiving in its word and tone. Had he lived and then overseen reconstruction he may have said how much more challenging it was than the war itself.

Years after the Civil War, when the ten bases in question were named, the names reflected the sensibilities of AMERICANS who lived where the bases now stand. When the two Civil War generals surrender clasp fell, the Confederacy ceased to exist. There were no traitors among them. There was no more betrayal. There were no more Rebels. Only AMERICANS.

To rename these places would be to re-live and re-fight the Civil War in a most divisive and destructive way. Can none see that?

We must MOVE ON from our battles, kinetic and social and emotional and psychological and economic and any other way one could fight another.

There is too much at stake now. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and will not stand if we cannot get a grip on our ideology and emotions. We need to RELEASE what we think we know about the past and use reason and rational thought to rescue ourselves from any bitter divisions.

As an educator of 35 years I have always been careful not to reveal too much about my personal thoughts or feeling to my students over the years. I consider this scenario a "teachable moment." I would hope that after revealing more facts about the issue that the prevailing opinion would be to keep the names, if for no other reason than to avoid ERASING THE PAST. For if we erase the past how can we hope to see where we are going or what path to take? We would lose our bearings.

I cannot imagine taking students or Boy Scouts, or my children to Gettysburg and there not be any confederate monuments or memorials. Confederates were also Americans. And after the war they were just Americans. Forgiven, embraced and accepted, like the Prodigal Son returning from sin and who was greeted with love.

If Congress moves forward with this desecration and discrimination you will start to hear words that haven't been used with meaning in decades, like "Carpetbagger," "Yankee," "Northerner." And from the other side, some already spat forth in this article: "Slave owner," "Traitor," "Confederate," "Rebel," "Betrayal."

Don't do it. Just don't do it. There are far better things that can be done with $2 million than studying how to humiliate the sensibilities of fellow Americans, some of whom still pine for their lost loved ones.

NOTE: I am the ancestor of several Union soldiers who fought and some died in the Civil War.