The long-standing controversy over glorification of the Confederacy and its
part in the War Between the States that ensued as a result of its declaration
of secession from the Union has boiled over under the Donald Trump presidency
as a result of the administration’s arguments—and redoubled arguments—favoring
monuments to the leading proponents of slavery and the continued use of the
Confederate stars and bars flag as an acceptable symbol of pride among the
staunchest supporters in his base. I’ve
tended to oppose that position as divisive and improper at a time when we
should be moving toward less animosity among Americans rather than more, and
toward genuine racial equality and justice in a country that used to pride
itself on being the “greatest democracy on earth.”
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| John Wilkes Booth equestrian model |
As growing calls have come for the removal of all symbols that continue
to glorify the cause of slavery, which led to a tragic conflict in which
hundreds of thousands of Americans were slaughtered, I, like all thoughtful
citizens, have had to weigh indoctrination against genuine history and challenge
learned ideas regarding the validity of any historical interpretation that in
any way praises or immortalizes the leaders and symbols of a nefarious movement
to continue to enslave an entire race of people, even at the cost of the
dissolution of the United States of America.
I’ve concluded and argued repeatedly that we have to stop glorifying the
Confederacy, which was a seditious anti-American movement that sought to
overthrow the United States and form a new country whose basic founding tenet
was the enslavement of Africans and African Americans. I’ve posited that officers
of the US Army who rose up against their commander-in-chief and formed a new
enemy army that engaged in civil war against the US were traitors and deserved
execution rather than glory.
I have also proposed that requiring the African American soldiers and
officers who today wear the uniform of their country to serve daily on military bases
named after generals who enslaved their ancestors and fought to keep them
enslaved forever is a gross injustice. And that forcing black children to play
in parks named after—and in the shadows of monuments to—the very leaders of a
seditious and illicit Confederate association that, if it had had its way,
would still be enslaving them today is perverse. I’ve also expressed my
conclusion that flying the flag that symbolizes the Confederacy in the United
States is tantamount to flying the swastika in Poland.
However, some people on the social media continue to take me to task
for being a vile revisionist who wants to re-write history and cut out the parts
I don't like. To them, I argue that they are mistaken. I have no desire to “sanitize
history.” On the contrary, I feel that it is sanitized enough already. I just want
history to be history, rather than a fairy-tale designed to exculpate the white
majority and to whitewash (pun intended) a part of our history that should be a
source of abject and unmitigated national shame and that seeks to make it seem
as if there were "some very fine people" on both sides of the
conflict, which, perhaps, “wasn't about slavery after all.”
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| John Wilkes Booth fountain model |
But okay. I've always been willing to keep an open mind in the course of
debate. And maybe, for the sake of argument, I should try admitting that my
critics are right. Maybe we should just “get a life”, stop looking for
controversy at every turn and take a very kumbaya
attitude toward the Confederacy, its symbols and its heroes. Maybe we should continue
to honor them for fighting for what they believed in (albeit slavery), even
though it ripped the country apart and left us with a legacy of racial hatred and
violence that continues up to the present day.
In fact, maybe like President Trump, we need to double down on this kind of acquiescence
to racism and the causes of the long-defunct Confederacy. So I have an
egalitarian proposal to make. And if there are some among you who have the
gumption, I think it might be a good idea to create a petition to try and get
the president involved. I think you might be pleasantly surprised if you do,
since it’s not unreasonable (nothing is anymore) to think that he might act on
it.
So here's the idea: How about, in order to honor the sensibilities of
the president, his entourage and his base, if we build a monument to a truly
unsung hero of the Confederacy? More concretely, let's petition President Trump
to use taxpayer dollars to give credit where credit is due and commission a
large equestrian statue or fountain as a monument to John Wilkes Booth, the
pro-slavery gentleman who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln—certainly
one of the most important events of the entire Civil War era.
And in order to ensure fairness to the Confederacy, we (the people)
should suggest that this work of historical art and significance be placed at
the foot of the steps to the Lincoln Memorial. Fair is fair, and Booth was,
after all, a real hero to many of the people of the Confederate South who had just
been cruelly defeated by the Union under Lincoln, who, through the Emancipation
Proclamation brought an end to the golden age of the slave-holding South.
Any takers?
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