Destruction of Civil War Statues:
I recently watched destruction of statues of Civil War southern military men such as Robert E. Lee. I had seen such acts before, but this time I was troubled. Previously I had seen theses acts as destruction of history. History is important. It records the path along which our nation has moved. It should be preserved.
I then watched George Floyd’s murder, and began to think differently about the history of black people in America. I was born and have spent my life as a “northerner”. I think of the Confederacy as a mistake, which was corrected by the Civil War. Recently, however I am beginning to see the Confederacy, in its support of slavery, as wrong. For the first time I have put a value judgment on the Confederacy. Any government, which allows the devaluation of a group of human beings so as to consider them slaves, is wrong.
I have received new insight. Insight comes from God. I now understand that statues paying public tribute to warriors in a war to preserve slavery should not stand.
