Confederate Monuments Have No Place Today

     It is astonishing that this needs to be said, but, while the BLM protests have faded from their height in June and July in terms of media coverage, the glorification of traitors and racists continues in a very public fashion, and Confederate monuments have no place in any country that dares call itself civilized. 

     The Civil War was indeed about states' rights, but states' rights to what? The North tried to compromise in 1820 with the Missouri Compromise and 1850 with the Compromise of 1850, but the South only saw a path of dominance rather than coexistence. They insited and were granted in the Fugitive Slave Law that slave catchers could come to Northern states, blacks were allowed no right of due process, judges were paid more if they ruled a black an escaped slave rather than a free man, and people who refused to participate in slave posses were tried for treason, a capital offense. Still, the South, which only represented 20 percent of the population, demanded that their voices supercede the rest, and in 1861 they seceded. Former president John Tyler, former VP John Breckenridge, and former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis were just a few of the famous officials who betrayed their country for the sake of their states. 

     Monuments to these traitors and others such as Nathan Bedford Forrest, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson reached a height during Reconstruction and in the early 1900s at points when racial tensions also reached their peaks. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a founder of the KKK and Robert E. Lee whipped slaves who worked at his plantation. Monuments serve no educational purpose whatsoever, for anything that can be found on an expensive and public piece of metal can be found in a book. This is not erasing history, merely ensuring that it is expressed in the light it deserves to be seen in rather than in the light of these men being heroes. They were on the wrong side of history, and the world deserves to see THAT.

     To Trump's sarcastic comment regarding Al Sharpton, there is a huge gap between he and leaders of the Confederate States of America. From musical icons like BB King and Elvis Presley to inspirational heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. and a plethora of others, the South is a treasure trove of famous and impactful people, and saying that the only notable people are racists who mounted a rebellion 150 years ago is, quite frankly, insulting to the people. Places like Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas remain favorites of mine. It is time for us to move on, and, rather than dwell in the past, move to the future. A nation that admits its mistakes and stops glorifying them is a crucial part of that vision.