Are We Really Thinking This Through?

Although I am not from the South, I think I know just enough about the history of the Civil War and slavery to get me in trouble.

Well here goes..the history lesson..the vast majority of southern soldiers who fought in the civil war didn’t own any slaves, in fact, had they own twenty or more slaves, they would have been exempt from serving in the war. They weren’t fighting for slavery because it would not benefit most of them one way or the other. Many, joined (about 80% of them), because they saw an invading force wanting to conquer their homeland, but more importantly, the "poor" whites which were the predominant fighting class, found a way to send money home to their "starving" families back home. Over the course of the war especially near the end when President Jefferson Davis's Government couldn't even afford to feed their troops let alone "pay" them, it is estimated that close to 108,000 southern men "quit" the war and went back home to help their starving families survive the harsh winters. Ironically, to the poor sharecropper's wife left to provide for her family while her husband was off fighting the war, it made no difference what-so-ever whether the soldiers that approached their small farm or ranch were wearing blue or grey, either way, they both came to, strip them of any "editable" food or livestock for the good of their troops; couple that with the huge demands from the landlord who owned the land they worked and there was little to nothing left to feed her starving children. It is no wonder that "hidden" underground storm shelters became the norm and a place where food could be stored away from the greedy hands of the invaders (North or South), so upon their departure, the mother could draw rations from the underground food supply to at the very least, keep her children from starving until the next crop cycle.

To say that the majority of southern soldiers were fighting for the survival of slavery is to be ignorant, very ignorant of actual historical facts.

Now, for the subject at hand, it is my contention that these statutes of civil war figures are not remembered or revered because they fought on the side of slavery but because they were great War Generals and Officers. Go ahead and look (while there are still some standing) and read the inscriptions on them...you will be hard pressed to see any of them that mention “slavery", instead they mention the heroics of the individual in a specific battle or in Robert E. Lee’s case.. "He Commanded the Confederate Forces".

In its four-year span, 620,000 American soldiers died in the Civil War not until the Vietnam War added 63,000 causalities did that number eclipse all the American casualties of all the wars that would follow it. Excuse the expression but to think a "ragtag" fighting force with one-tenth the resources and men with little or inferior ways to transport the same, could have come very close, not once but on several occasions to defeat the most formidable forces of the Union Army could muster is amazing.

The "Johnny Rebs" as they were called survived on courage and unity with their brothers who proudly wore the "gray".

There is a battle story that goes something like this... A Union Officer came upon a "shoeless" rebel killed in a snowy field where a fierce battle had just taken place. The officer saw that the young soldier, still clutching his musket rifle, couldn't have been any more than 15 or 16 years old... reaching into the young man's pockets, hoping to find a picture or something that would give him a clue to whom he was so he might be able to find some way to write a letter to his loved ones back home, found instead, in one pocket unspent rounds and in the other, acorn nuts. Well, that Union Officer did write that letter but to his wife instead, in which he said after reflecting back to that shoe-less young boy who lied motionless in that frozen field ... "my love, I fear that this may be a long war".

The ancestors today of those that fought and died on both sides of that war look at their respective flag and remember a time when too many good men on both sides, regardless of their reasons, lost their lives and for the first time brothers could meet on the battlefield staring down at each other over the sites of their musket rifle, one wearing blue the other wearing gray.

When we tear down statutes, we tear down history, as awful and hard to take as it is, it's still "our" history and a remembrance of how far we have come as a society.

As despicable, grotesque, and utterly disgusting as I find the Neo-Nazis, Fascists, or KKK or their ilk, we must give them a platform, we must not silence them.

If you have or ever had a loved one or friend that served in our military and sadly even given his or her life, then you have to be reminded of the oath they took, or at least the pertinent words... “that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States", you see, that means “free speech” sure there is "ugly" hate speech but even that must be protected.

We can’t pick and choose what we like and dislike in our Constitution, if you want to change it, then lobby your elected officials in Washington to do that, it’s called “amendments” and we already have plenty of them.

Instead of tearing down Confederate statues, we should be erecting statues of the likes of people like George Washington Carver (what an amazing life story and man) Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman just to name a few.

Sadly, history, our history as a Nation is being rewritten by a select few who refuse to write it as it really was but distort it to suit their means.

Our children are losing if they haven't already lost how this Country was formed (the good and the bad) and even though we are one of the youngest nations on this planet, what we have achieved in the short span of 240+ years, is the envy of all other nations on Earth, even if they don't admit it.

It was called the "Civil War"... but there was nothing "civil" about it.

How can we right the wrongs of the past if we are not even willing to acknowledge them?