Weighing in on the Confederate Statue Issue

I don't normally delve into political issues on this blog as I feel there are enough forums to do this.  Every so often an issue pops that I feel that I need to state my piece about it and this is one of those.

Before I get too far into this, I am a Yankee.  I think the Northern cause of the Civil War was a good one even if for the most part that cause was just to preserve the Union.  I don't think that our country would be nearly as powerful and bountiful today if the Union had been allowed to break up.  There are some issues that are just fine for the states to deal with but there are many things that need a national backing.  That being said, here goes.

On April 12, 1861, the Confederacy opens fire on Fort Sumter and thus began the Civil War.  Almost four years later when General Lee surrendered to the Union at Appomattox, the war portion of the Civil War would be concluded but many of the issues leading to the Civil War were not.  Shortly after, the states of the North would began the program of reconstruction.  In many ways, this was a punishment of the South for attempting to break away even though it was supposed to be a process of reconciliation.  This period ended in 1877.

Starting in the 1890's, many of the states that fought on the side of the Confederacy started to enact what were known as Jim Crow Laws.  It was also during this period that many of the statues to Confederate heroes were starting to be constructed.  The Jim Crow laws were the legal forms of segregation (versus the cultural segregation that was prevalent in the North).   It was also during this time that the Ku Klux Klan started to emerge in an effort to segregate another race of people.

With the passing of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in 1965 (almost 100 years after the conclusion of the Civil War), the laws of Jim Crow would end but many of the attitudes that led towards them would continue.  It was in the decade (or so) prior to the passing of the Civil Rights Act that saw another wave of the South remembering their Confederate heroes.

Recently there has been a movement to remove these statues from public places.  In many ways, I can agree with that.  I can't imagine having to view people that tried to keep your ancestors as property.   However, these statues are a representation of our history.

I guess I would fine with the removal of these statues as long as they are put in a museum or some sort of memorial park where they are out of the way but can be remembered.  If people want to keep them in the public square, there should also be memorials to what they were fighting to preserve.

I guess as a corollary to this, it is really time for this country to have an honest discussion about race and race relations.  We have made great strides towards racial harmony but as evidenced by recent events we aren't quite there yet.  Above, I was pretty critical of the South but we in the North don't have much room to talk.  While the South was very overt in its treatment of different ethnicities, the North was more covert about it.  If you are a certain race and you go to certain towns, you would have a police car following you almost immediately.  If you tried to buy a house or rent an apartment in certain towns, you would be denied.  I mentioned the Ku Klux Klan above, some of the bigger groups were actually in the North.  It is for these reasons that I do not like the song "Southern Man" because we in the North are neck deep in it too.

I would love to live in a time when we can move past these issues and deal with other issues that are facing this country.