Erasing the Confederacy -How Far Would you Go?

[The Mikado]

I don't feel it's a matter of "erasing" the Confederacy. The Civil War and Reconstruction are important eras for understanding how our country ended up the way it did. Public scorn for celebrating the legacy of the CSA is completely appropriate and I'm glad to see the public is adopting it and attempting to shame those who still glorify the Lost Cause, but that is not in any way the same thing as "erasing" the Confederacy.

Put simply, I don't want the government in any way praising the actions of the states that seceded or their military forces, and private individuals and companies that do so won't have my support and I hope others will likewise turn their backs on them. That is not hoping for erasure of the CSA, that's hoping for a more critical examination of what it was and what it stood for.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_geosec.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_texsec.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp

Note that all these documents from 1860-1861 make it perfectly clear what the South was seceding to do: protect slavery from Northern Republicans and abolitionists. The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is one of the most vile causes any man on this continent has ever fought for (Indian Removal might rival it), and why should we celebrate old Bobby Lee's "brilliant" maneuvers and orders at Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville? Why should Lee be celebrated, or Stonewall Jackson, or Braxton Bragg (not only a Confederate, but a loser, and one who has a U. S. military base inexplicably named after him), or Nathan Forrest? Why should we still have cities and counties named after Jefferson Davis?

[The Mikado]

Again, "eliminate" or "erase" really are the wrong words. I don't want to erase the memory of the Confederacy, it's important and useful to remember. The problem is nostalgia for the Confederacy, not memory of it.

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Old times shouldn't be forgotten...but we shouldn't look away from what was going on in the land of cotton. The time of looking away from the horrors of Dixieland are over.

[The Mikado]

I don't feel it's a matter of "erasing" the Confederacy. The Civil War and Reconstruction are important eras for understanding how our country ended up the way it did. Public scorn for celebrating the legacy of the CSA is completely appropriate and I'm glad to see the public is adopting it and attempting to shame those who still glorify the Lost Cause, but that is not in any way the same thing as "erasing" the Confederacy.

Put simply, I don't want the government in any way praising the actions of the states that seceded or their military forces, and private individuals and companies that do so won't have my support and I hope others will likewise turn their backs on them. That is not hoping for erasure of the CSA, that's hoping for a more critical examination of what it was and what it stood for.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_geosec.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_texsec.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp

Note that all these documents from 1860-1861 make it perfectly clear what the South was seceding to do: protect slavery from Northern Republicans and abolitionists. The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is one of the most vile causes any man on this continent has ever fought for (Indian Removal might rival it), and why should we celebrate old Bobby Lee's "brilliant" maneuvers and orders at Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville? Why should Lee be celebrated, or Stonewall Jackson, or Braxton Bragg (not only a Confederate, but a loser, and one who has a U. S. military base inexplicably named after him), or Nathan Forrest? Why should we still have cities and counties named after Jefferson Davis?

I had it right two years ago. It's not about forgetting the Confederacy, it's about stopping the celebration of it.