Odds are you’ve run across those who can’t understand why people are so upset about a bunch of old statues. (About those statues...)
It’s part of our history they say. It was about people fighting for freedom, their way of life. It was about resisting economic oppression. It was about asserting the right of states against an overbearing Federal government. They say Lincoln wasn’t all that concerned about freeing the slaves, that it was all about holding the union together, and a thousand other rationalizations.
Bullshit.
These are all lies told to salve the feelings and the guilt of those who lost and deserved to lose the right to keep other people in slavery. It’s a scheme to justify the unjustifiable. That’s where it begins and ends. The video below by Army historian Col. Ty Seidule lays it out, demolishing all the lies and myths. Watch it, share it, and don’t let this history be rewritten.
Note: My family had people who fought for the Union and shed blood for our country. It’s not a heritage I’d had more than academic interest in for a long time — but now I’m damned proud of them. I have family members in the service of our country today. These things matter. They’ve always mattered, but now as much as at any time in our history.
Lt. Col. Robert Bateman (ret.) has a no-holds-barred write up of What Robert E. Lee’s Broken Oath Means. If you want moral clarity on all this, read that and share it as well.
Thursday, Aug 17, 2017 · 4:20:43 PM +00:00
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xaxnar
UPDATE 2: At Saratoga Battlefield near Schuylerville, NY. Regarding monuments, there's one here for Benedict Arnold. Before turning traitor, he helped win the critical battle of the American Revolution and was wounded in the leg. He has a monument here but his name is not on it — just his wounded leg.