The Confederate battle flag is being removed from places of honor in Southern government installations.

Removal of this flag, brought back from oblivion in the mid-20th century to symbolize defiance of federally ordered racial integration, must be the start of a discussion of what in our history should be honored and what is shameful and should presented as such.

It is unfortunate that the Civil War and the Confederate battle flag have defined the identity and group loyalty of a major part of our population.

As contemporaneous documents show, the Civil War was a rebellion fought primarily to preserve the right of Southerners with sufficient money to buy, sell, exploit and abuse their fellow human beings.

Slavery was an ugly institution under which, in the words of the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision, black people, “as beings of an inferior order, (were) altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

The government of the United States represents me, and I do not want it to respect men who do not deserve respect.

Currently, the U.S. Army honors 10 leaders of the Confederate rebellion with military posts named for them. I could find only three Union generals so honored.

I had Army basic training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, named after Gen. John Brown Gordon, an early leader of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan. Its name should be changed, perhaps to that of a loyal Southern black fighter.

We can recognize the bravery of foot soldiers fighting in an immoral cause without honoring the military leaders responsible for carrying out the bloodiest war in our history and for the brutal suppression of blacks.

It is time for the U.S. Army to cease honoring its enemies.

Meredith N. Springer

Scarborough

Copy the Story Link