Obama Sidesteps Confederate Controversy
May 26, 2009 Military, Political
Obama was out doing his Memorial Day duties and he laid the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. He also had a wreath laid at the Confederate Monument. This is something that he was urged not to do as some groups of people want the tradition stopped. As a compromise Obama had a wreath placed at the monument for blacks who fought in the Civil War.
Why is it that some people cannot get it through their heads that the men who fought and died as members of the Confederate Army were as patriotic as those who fought for the Union. The men of the Confederate States left the Union because of state’s rights. The issue of slavery was NOT the reason for the war. Slavery was but one issue in a host of them dealing with state’s rights.
The Southern States seceded from the Union based upon the agreement that all states entered the Union willingly and could leave it if they wanted. The South was getting the short end of the stick and they did not like it so they went left the Union.
The flag they used was based upon the Union Jack and though it has been associated with racism and slavery it is nothing of the sort. Only small minded, uneducated people believe that flag is a symbol of racism. It is a symbol of people who were tired of an abusive government and who wanted the states to have the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
The war of Northern aggression was a war designed to force states to comply with what the government wanted regardless of what the people from the states wanted. The federal government attacked former states and former citizens of the US in order to force them to comply with the wishes of big government.
Slavery was a terrible and inhumane thing to do. It was legal at the time but that does not make it any less inhuman or wrong just as it is no less a murder (inhuman and wrong) to abort a baby just because the law does not define a fetus as a person. However, slavery as an institution was on the way out in the more developed nations. The others ended it without bloodshed and it would not have lasted much longer here even without a war.
The war was waged over state’s rights and slavery was a part of that. To get upset because we honor great people who fought for what they believed in and, I might add, were defending themselves against unprovoked aggression is to ignore the history of this country. Lincoln started the war. The South would have been very happy to secede and be done with it. They were compelled to respond with force because they were attacked.
It is right and just to honor those men just as we honor any others who have died in the service here. After all, they are buried in a national cemetery or does some group want to dig them up and move them as well?
The monument and the wreath are appropriate.
Any group that does not think so dishonors the memories of those who are laid to rest in that most solemn place and dishonors what they truly fought and died for.
Source:
ABC Political Punch
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Tags: arlington, civil war, confederacy, slaves, union