Dear G:
In an effort to understand your position, I've outlined your argument (as I understand it) against taking down Confederate flags, and statues of Confederate generals, as well as ‘heroes’ of the so-called Indian Wars.
Do you agree with the following bullet points — and if you only agree with some, can you take a moment to identify those you don't agree with, and explain why?
- Hitler’s Holocaust was a genocide that wiped out most Eastern European Jews (at least 6 million) along with other ethnicities, plus dissenting intellectuals, the old and infirm, and so on.
- Stalin presided over a genocide, with current estimates suggesting that he killed as many as 20 million Russian citizens -- far more than even Hitler -- via the Ukrainian famine, show trials, mass executions, and the Gulag (and Hitler apparently learned techniques for efficient mass-murder from Stalin — see Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands" and "Black Earth").
- A succession of American leaders perpetuated a several-hundred-years-long genocide — American slavery -- which in its way was as horrific as the Hitler and Stalin genocides -- and perhaps worse, because its habits, attitudes, and behaviors were so fundamentally a part of the formation of the earliest American culture, that our system partially formed around them.
- The slaughter of Native Americans by our government was another genocide.
Do you agree with the following:
- Though our country was rhetorically founded on the principle of equality among people, the Constitution asserted this principle without addressing a horrific, foundational flaw. When the text spoke about men, the word did not include Black American slaves, women, Native Americans, or (for the most part) people without land. The Constitution made explicit that slavery was fully sanctioned by defining Black American slaves as only 3/5 human.
- Roughly 80 years later, this astonishing flaw was partly corrected by the Second American Revolution (the Civil War), and Constitutional Amendments that were passed during and after, driven by Abraham Lincoln, to recalibrate the definition of equality by declaring Black Americans to be fully human, and explicitly eliminating the right to enslave them (or anyone).
- Other facets of the Constitution’s original sin were corrected in later years, via Amendments that granted women the right to vote, etc., and by a gradual cultural and legal shift which, among other things, led to the recognition of Native Americans as fully human (which led — haltingly — to revisiting treaties broken by past administrations), passing laws that ostensibly protect Americans who are not wealthy landowners, and, most fundamentally, passing Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws to eliminate slavery-by-another-name: Jim Crow.
If I was wrong in believing that you were suggesting the following, please, please correct me. I thought you were saying that:
- Statues and Confederate flags that celebrate the treasonous American leaders and generals who supported the genocide against Black American slaves by embracing Southern secession, should be left intact and in place as important historical artifacts, and to support the First Amendment rights of the significant percentage of Americans who continue to regard Black Americans as sub-human (often along with Jews and other non-Christian ethnicities). (Question: while some Southern leaders and generals did indeed fight and die bravely, does their physical courage override their belief that the South had the right to continue to treat Black Americans as sub-human, and to continue to enslave them? NOTE: Many Nazi's and members of Stalin's armies and secret police also fought and died bravely.)
If what I’ve outlined above is substantially accurate, can you tell me whether you agree or disagree with any or all of the following logical extensions — and if you disagree, why?
- Any statues of Hitler and his generals erected during WW II and placed in prominent places in German cities, should have been left in place after the war -- both as important historical artifacts, and out of respect for the rights of unrepentant former Nazi Party members, who were repatriated as citizens of post-war Germany.
- The statues of Stalin, erected in many prominent places in Russian cities, should have been left intact after his death -- again, both as important historical artifacts, and out of respect for the views of pro-Stalin Russians, including ex-KGB members, who continued to live among the Russian population.
- The statues of American generals who fought and died in the so-called Indian Wars (another American genocide) should be left intact, again both as important historical artifacts, and out of respect for the differing views of Americans who continue to believe that "Manifest Destiny," as one example, was a valid reason for slaughtering Native Americans who, in the opinion of some even today, remain sub-human.
I’ll end this note with another question: as a Jew, and supporter of retaining Confederate flags in public spaces, how would you react if you visited Berlin and found Nazi flags flying in prominent places? Would you, indeed, regard this as a valid preservation of important historical artifacts, out of respect for the differing views of German citizens who continue to support Nazi ideology?
Look forward to any clarifications. Thank you!