— The Darkside Of White-Washing the American Civil War, and its Monuments

There is no doubt that the Civil War was rough. battleofchattanooga It pitted American against American; and family member against family member.  It was about keeping the nation together, and States Rights, – Yes, largely due to some states wanting to allow the ownership of people.  Abraham Lincoln, and the Republicans fought to end the practice,  while the Democrats favored it.

Today, we are confronted with a vocal minority of Americans who are willing to erase our collective history.  I get it!  It’s not a pleasant memory (even though we weren’t there).  They feel that it would be better to not have known it ever happened.  Just like, not knowing about the Holocaust might be preferable to knowing the horror that actually happened in reality. Despite America recognizing that slavery was wrong and fighting a war to end the practice; some modern Americans, can’t accept that both sides of every civil war battle, were Americans — and they have no issue with attacking them now (that they’re all long dead and unable to defend themselves).

Many of the people who want to erase this history are often the people who readily suggest that white people “erased the history of other cultures in America’s history.”  They monument vandalizeddeclare that America was based upon genocide and slavery… They will swear and testify, to how harmful the process of altering history was regarding the slaves and the American Indian cultures… and now they sit, attempting to do the very same thing!  They are attacking monuments, flags, Elementary School names, ect.  They want to do away with anything that is associated with the Confederacy (such as Street names, military base names, government bldg names, parks, cars..).  Most of them cannot answer the question of; who gets to pick which monuments go, and which stay?

‘But just know that you people involved with this, are extremely dangerous to history, also to the 1st Amendment, and to our nation’s isis-destroys-mosul-artifactseducation and culture.  You fail to see the irony, that you are doing exactly what any dangerous person or group would do.  You are re-framing history to support your own current beliefs because you don’t like what the truth is/was.  Hitler and the Nazi’s did the same thing (No, I’m not calling YOU a Nazi).  The Soviets did it also.  The Communist Chinese  did it as well.  Saddam did it.  Hell, ISIS is doing it right now to Christian relic and historic antiquity.  They are sweeping away history such as buildings that pre-dated the Bible.  They are destroying Iraqi and Syrian monuments throughout the areas they capture.  You, apparently, are ok with doing exactly the same thing!

Look, I do understand that you may not like it.  I do understand that this part of history is NOT something you want to be confronted with, but beware!  If that is the way you choose to show, learn, and treat YOUR history, you are missing the forest for the trees.  Obviously, the people who are lobbying to remove these monuments, flags, and statues, don’t think Mickiewicz_Monument_(1940)they are as bad as any of those above listed dictatorial, socialist, or communist entities; and neither do I [YET].  They believe that by getting rid of things like Confederate street names, that there will not be ANY negative impact.   But ask Europeans (specifically Germans).  They have been going through much of the same debate regarding how they’ve attempted to minimize the conversation about the Holocaust and the Nazis to the point that if someone says “heil Hitler” in Germany today, they can be thrown in jail.  Now, 70-80 years later, the young and less-educated generations of Germans, are living under the impact of not having learned this history as it occurred.  They don’t have an intimate understanding of the horror that occurred during WW2.  They know it happened!  But they don’t learn about it as much as they should, and Germans are beginning to collectively forget the horrible reality.  It has been said that: “If you forget your history, you’re doomed to repeat it.”

       And these people attempting to remove Civil War history, are doing the very same thing,

Who Does This

What kind of ANIMAL does this?!?!

‘and unfortunately, they are dooming us to a future confrontation. You cannot minimize the value and heritage of past Americans, and vandalize monuments, including cemeteries, and think it will all be OK.  ISIS is vandalizing cemeteries as we speak (watch this video) Yes, Americans are doing the same crap that ISIS is doing!!!  To believe that some Americans will forgive the disrespect directed at them and their families, is foolhardy.  It can only place a further divide between us Americans.  It just may be more advantageous, smart, and wise, for you to use these monuments as a means of teaching, not only history, but right and wrong, and/or good and evil.  ‘But to cowardly hide history from view… is tragic and stupid!  And again, ignoring it doesn’t mean that our Civil War didn’t happen.

In the end, If you support this attack on our history, you shouldn’t be surprised when everything that you think is important now, is one day be removed, destroyed, or vandalized by others who don’t like what you stand for in the future.  Imagine if 200-something-odd years from now, future Americans stopped thinking the Civil Rights movement was valuable… and started removing those monuments because they didn’t see value in them any longer.  Imagine if they renamed MLK street to Main St?

The purpose of a monument, is NOT to “like” the physical monument, but to remind the observer of it topic.  You cannot hide from history, whether good or bad!!!

But sadly, what you can do… is to ensure your kids are more ignorant than yourself.  This is exactly why these monuments are being attacked NOW.  We’ve reached the point, where the stupid people, don’t even know they’re stupid!

Kali Pinckney





This entry was published on January 13, 2016 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Random. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

One thought on “— The Darkside Of White-Washing the American Civil War, and its Monuments

  1. Great article, I like how you put the mirror in our faces. Definitely food for thought.

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