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I'd say that unlike a 'normal' war between countries this was a civil war. This was a brother vs. brother, father vs. son battle. Over 600,000 people died in wh

I'd say that unlike a 'normal' war between countries this was a civil war. This was a brother vs. brother, father vs. son battle. Over 600,000 people died in what was pretty gruesome conditions (lead bullets, the first gattling gun, 23K people killed/wounded in a single day of fighting, etc.). Blood was spilled, homes were burned and not everyone agrees on who the 'heroes' and 'villians' were in this conflict. Most of the conflict was fought in the south. After the war, there was a need to bring together a divided nation. The divisions were not all territorial. The need to show the courage of the men who died and remember the fallen needed to be done before that generation passed away. Today the symbols of the south (the confederate flag, monuments, street names) are all reminders of many Americans that their parents struggled though slavery, abuse and poverty. Other Americans that don't have that legacy don't necessarily see the same things and I think the challenge that this article presents, is how to get some Americans to see these problems today. The sterotypes are not real. Not all southerners owned slaves, most were conscripted, many didn't want to be there, many were kind, many were courageous. I visited a statue of a southern solider that ran out into a hail of bullets to the rescue northern wounded in the "no mans land" and bring them to the northern lines. George Washington was a slave owner and so was Thomas Jefferson, both unarguably 2 of the most influential men in American history. But, as with so many things in life, the backstory is more complicated than the picture hanging on the wall. The civil war was and is a divisive issue. In my personal opinion, like in our own lives, we should recognize and acknowledge were we are wrong and strive to be better. We should also seek to make the future better place to live and leave the skeletons were they're buried. Digging them up will do few people any good.

philistine 6y ago
You are focusing on only one aspect of why the statues exist. There is another reason, insidious and evil, and people wish those statues to go not because of your reason, but because of this other evil one. Is a statue of a losing racist general erected long after the war was over as a counter against the fight for civil rights really a good way to honour soldiers? If your statue doesn’t unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people, you’ve got a problem.
- pdonis 6y ago
  > If your statue doesn’t unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people, you’ve got a problem. By this logic, we should tear down all statues, since it is impossible for a statue to "unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people".
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  > If your statue doesn’t unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people, you’ve got a problem. I'm not sure that even a statue of Gandhi could meet your standard.
drewcoo 6y ago
It's now been a generation since the Cold War ended. By this logic and pattern, we should erect statues to our nation's traitors during that time. To help bring the world together. Clearly that wouldn't be about slavery, but about "healing," right? Our Aldritch Ames statue and the statue of the unknown KGB mole can join world icons like the British Cambridge Five statue, Philby evasive even in statue form. No. Somehow that logic only "works" with the US Civil War, after which the United Daughters of the Confederacy waged a multi-generation propaganda campaign to convince us all that the war was not about slavery and that the south would rise again.
- mcguire 6y ago
  Other countries have faced similar contradictory situations. The post-apartheid South Africans have completely failed to exterminate the white minority, there are still Hutus in Rwanda, and the German military was needed for a possible Soviet invasion. (Wait, that last isn't a good example.) Reconciliation was necessary if you didn't want the United States to go the way of, say, Mexico. The "Lost Cause" business just went too far, freezing the process for a hundred years.
x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
Your post is Lost Cause apologia. >....Today the symbols of the south (the confederate flag, monuments, street names) are all reminders of many Americans that their parents struggled though slavery, abuse and poverty. No, that is not at all what those symbols mean, of why they were put into public society. Do you really think the whites that put up these confederate flags had parents that "suffered through slavery"?
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Read the statement again, he's talking about two different groups of Americans.
UncleMeat 6y ago
We aren’t digging up skeletons. It isn’t history past buried. The symbols and ideas live among us today. We are challenging the modern state of the world, not dredging up the dead to attack them for the sake of it.
- mistermann 6y ago
  In the process of "dredging up the dead", it seems to be having the side effect of people forming strong but inaccurate perceptions about the degree to which literal racism exists in America and the world today, which has the side effect of causing serious polarization and unrest in society. This isn't to say we should or should not do these things, but being mindful of what is actually occurring might be worthwhile.
  - UncleMeat 6y ago
    In my experience talking to academics, the majority population dramatically underestimates just how pervasive racism is in the US today.
    - mistermann 6y ago
      Are these academics under the impression that they have a means of measuring the amount of racism that actually exists? If so, I'm quite curious to know what methodology they've come up with.

philistine 6y ago

You are focusing on only one aspect of why the statues exist. There is another reason, insidious and evil, and people wish those statues to go not because of your reason, but because of this other evil one. Is a statue of a losing racist general erected long after the war was over as a counter against the fight for civil rights really a good way to honour soldiers? If your statue doesn’t unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people, you’ve got a problem.

pdonis 6y ago
> If your statue doesn’t unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people, you’ve got a problem. By this logic, we should tear down all statues, since it is impossible for a statue to "unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people".
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
> If your statue doesn’t unequivocally reflect only one good message to all people, you’ve got a problem. I'm not sure that even a statue of Gandhi could meet your standard.

drewcoo 6y ago

It's now been a generation since the Cold War ended. By this logic and pattern, we should erect statues to our nation's traitors during that time. To help bring the world together. Clearly that wouldn't be about slavery, but about "healing," right? Our Aldritch Ames statue and the statue of the unknown KGB mole can join world icons like the British Cambridge Five statue, Philby evasive even in statue form. No. Somehow that logic only "works" with the US Civil War, after which the United Daughters of the Confederacy waged a multi-generation propaganda campaign to convince us all that the war was not about slavery and that the south would rise again.

mcguire 6y ago
Other countries have faced similar contradictory situations. The post-apartheid South Africans have completely failed to exterminate the white minority, there are still Hutus in Rwanda, and the German military was needed for a possible Soviet invasion. (Wait, that last isn't a good example.) Reconciliation was necessary if you didn't want the United States to go the way of, say, Mexico. The "Lost Cause" business just went too far, freezing the process for a hundred years.

x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago

Your post is Lost Cause apologia. >....Today the symbols of the south (the confederate flag, monuments, street names) are all reminders of many Americans that their parents struggled though slavery, abuse and poverty. No, that is not at all what those symbols mean, of why they were put into public society. Do you really think the whites that put up these confederate flags had parents that "suffered through slavery"?

chrisco255 6y ago
Read the statement again, he's talking about two different groups of Americans.

UncleMeat 6y ago

We aren’t digging up skeletons. It isn’t history past buried. The symbols and ideas live among us today. We are challenging the modern state of the world, not dredging up the dead to attack them for the sake of it.

mistermann 6y ago
In the process of "dredging up the dead", it seems to be having the side effect of people forming strong but inaccurate perceptions about the degree to which literal racism exists in America and the world today, which has the side effect of causing serious polarization and unrest in society. This isn't to say we should or should not do these things, but being mindful of what is actually occurring might be worthwhile.
- UncleMeat 6y ago
  In my experience talking to academics, the majority population dramatically underestimates just how pervasive racism is in the US today.
  - mistermann 6y ago
    Are these academics under the impression that they have a means of measuring the amount of racism that actually exists? If so, I'm quite curious to know what methodology they've come up with.