EmilyStrode

I love history. When I was 13, I traveled by subway down to the Metropolitan Museum to view Hammurabi's Code, and touch it. The thought of laying a hand on this ancient artifact so central to the past had me so excited. I knew nothing about Hammurabi or his people, their beliefs and practices: it was History! I was expecting for the crowd around it to be impenetrable, but there were just a few people. It was roped off, but I saw that I could reach far enough to put a hand on it, and as I stretched out I saw a small placard that read "Facsimile." I was crushed.

I was also crushed to read about ISIS needlessly destroying ancient sites. Why? How could they? Such things were, in a way, sacred to me, to all of us. It is our shared past and something like chopping down our family tree and using the wood to make toothpicks. Likewise, and maybe wrongfully, removing the monuments in New Orleans seems inappropriate to me on a gut level, no matter how understandable. But I fear such actions, when condoned for no matter what supposed high moral reason, is an attack on humanity. It is door to whitewash the essential lessons and ways of the Past.

S***ery is a great evil and those monuments can be seen as symbols of that great evil, especially since they were mostly erected by Southern Societies bent on honoring the Antebellum South. However, there is more to those monuments than their intentions: there is us as a people and individuals with differing beliefs, ideas, and loyalties. To me, that needs to be honored and remembered. I will make enemies of the Liberals here most likely, yet this is just my honest feelings about history, not r****m.

okie don

Your 100%right Emily. It's our nation's history. The prime reason for the civil was unfair taxation. The North was placing unfair taxes on the agricultural south.taxation without representation.

America Only Loc: From the right hand of God

Those statues should be left alone. The i***t lefties 'PRETEND' the statues are some gravely wrong doing. They are historic.

okie don

The same thing happened with the British causing the Revolutionary War. The Boston tea party is well known.
This s***ery is part of the Alinsky divide and conquer destroying us.

EconomistDon

I'm with you Emily. These do-gooder liberals are showing nothing more than their ignorance and lack of respect for history. Nobody can accuse me of supporting s***ery or r****m. My great-great-grandfather and two of his brothers died in the civil war. My great-grandfather grew up without a father or a step-father. My family always supported conservative values and individual rights. Those statues do not offend us; we have no guilt feelings about our role in history. And I think that that is the crux of the problem for liberals. They DO have guilty consciences about the actions of their ancestors and the continued r****t feelings of their own. They need to rid themselves of the symbols that inflame their feelings of guilt.

Raylan Wolfe Loc: earth

Don't forget about your hero, taking a bow to his superior!

EmilyStrode

Those statues and monuments represent more than simply s***ery. To reduce that whole culture and people to this single issue is a gross distortion of fact and decency. Noble ideas were on the line as well, and courageous loyalty to those principles and family.

If it is true that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, where does the attempt to obliterate the past lead?

Rainrider Loc: Lovington NM

Libtards, just like islame, think that if they can remove any and all things that remind us of how great this nation can be, then they can rewrite history. In doing so, they think they can remove the facts, and we will no longer be a divided nation.
I have always found history to be somewhat suspect. You see, for a person to really understand it, and know the t***h of it, they must look at all sides of it. Being as history is always written by the victor, the other side of the story is often hard to come by. Let me just point to Lincoln for an example. They teach that the civil war was all about s***ery. Yet as Okie pointed out, it started out over taxes. You never hear that Lincoln once said, "If I can persevere the union without freeing one s***e I will." His desition to free s***es only came when it looked like the north was going to lose. By freeing any b****s that would fight for the north, he brought in fresh fighting men. Then by making it more about s***ery, he had s***es risking their lives to get to the north and fight to free their family's.
If a person doesn't like our past, or the monuments that represent it, they have the right to look the other way. Yet if we let them remove them, even if some don't like them for what ever reason, then we have nothing left for the ones that do love them. Also if we sit back and do nothing, we send a clear signal that we can be walked on.
When a person's rights go beyond the rights of another nether has the right to go further. There are times when 2 parties must simply agree to disagree, and move on. Nether party has the right to infringe on the rights of the other. If you want to fly the stars and bars, be my guest. Just don't get mad at me when I fly old glory.
The war between the states is a fact, a reality we can never change. One we should hope to remember always. One that should have all sides told, and any reminders preserved. I my-self, have never liked the idea of s***ery, yet when the whole t***h of the civil war was made clear to me. Had I lived then, I would have had no choice but to fight for the south.
I know I am going to get all kinds of hell for that one.

Rainrider Loc: Lovington NM

Most likely to a repeat of the war. The signs are all around us, this nation is ready to blow a gasket.

EmilyStrode

I am deeply afraid this seems likely, RR. Unlike in the 1860s, pretty much isolated, we did not have to worry about other major powers taking advantage and taking us over. Today if we had a civil revolt akin to the Civil War, we would be divided subjects of other powerful nations. America would be no more and the dream of liberty would be dead.

PeterS

Didn't you know, winners write the history? You won't see any statues of Hitler or the N**i's in Germany. There is a reason for that and for that same reason we should never build symbols honoring the south. Had they won they could put up all the statues they like...

PeterS

No, conservatives are ready to blow a gasket. The nation is doing just fine.

And if you conservatives would like to blow a gasket then go ahead but a dollar against your nickle that the end result is the same...

Loki Loc: Georgia

There were more than 10,000 free b****s in New Orleans. Some 28% of them owned s***es, as opposed to the less than 5% of the white population who were s***e owners.
People who are offended by statues of Confederates are selective in their outrage. Robert E Lee voluntarily freed his s***es.
Ulysses Grant, the Union Commanding general, was married to a woman who owned four s***es and kept them s***es until forced to free them by the ratification of the 13th Amendment; yet these same morons who object to statues of Lee and Jackson, both of whom opposed s***ery, have no problem with statues of s***eholding Union historical figures.

rebob14

I totally agree! The civil war was both a cultural and an economic war. S***ery, while a most terrible evil, became central to its cause after the war was well underway. The modern day iconoclasts see nothing beyond their immediate emotional and tribal needs.

EmilyStrode

That is what I was trying to say, Loki.