Statues, protest and Southerners---

White Southerner people today and white southerners in 1860 were not bad people.
Slavey had existed throughout human history and one's morals were not defined so much by feelings toward slavery prior to 1860.

Take down all the Confederate statues if you want--if you have standing to take them down. Change the flags. Rename the streets and buildings and towns if you like. It doesn't change history.

The facts forgotten are that these symbols were created by a defeated people. A race of people. (A race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society. The term was first used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations.)

This race of people created a nation of 9 million people--only 5.5 million free, the rest slaves. Of those 5.5 million, approximately 500,000 were casualties of the war they started to separate themselves from the USA. (some say only 350,000 but others say more than 500,000). You read that right----about one in every 10 white people living in the South or all ages were casualties in that war. In no other war has a North American race suffered that many loses. None. Imagine that--if half the 5.5 million were women then over 25% of the men of all ages were casualties. There were only 326,000 slave holders of all races (one the largest slave owners in Louisiana was a "free man of color").

It was a very rare family in the South that did not give up a man in that war.

After the war the men that survived the war could not vote for a time. The women couldn't vote either. They lived first under military rule. The free slaves were mostly uneducated and had never earned a living on their own but they with their carpetbagger backers ran the South. (Watch the first academy award winning film "Birth of a Nation" filmed in 1915 when the war and reconstruction was still fresh in the minds of the country. Woodrow Wilson had it shown in the White House.) The wealth of the region was completely gone. The currency worthless the Southern banking system collapsed. Crops were destroyed. It was a horrible time for all races in the South.

From that poverty, slowly the South started to rebuild. As they rebuilt and the economy began to grow it was natural they built monuments to the cause they lost. They gave their sons and fathers to the cause whether it was right or wrong. I can't find the facts but I suspect most of the monuments were financed by Confederate veterans groups and groups formed by their families and heirs. It was from mourning and pride these statues were erected---not hate. Sure politicians seeking favor in the South named forts and towns after Confederates seeking votes but that can't be called hate.

Slavery was a horrible institution that I wish had never existed in America but it doesn't change the fact that it existed and that good people supported it. I suspect most of them really did not believe blacks were capable of free lives. Certainly no one visiting Africa at the time could come away thinking that. It was black African chiefs and kings that facilitated the travesty.

So forgive my long post but I hope readers prone to do so will please quit bashing our Southern ancestors with your modern day morals.

It was wrong and the concept of the CSA was wrong but good people at time felt otherwise.

Racism, unfortunately, will be with us forever. Cultural differences will assure that. We aren't going to change it fighting over statues. Cultures that tolerate violence and lawlessness among their community will always face ridicule from those that think society should be more civil and property should be respected.

I long for the day people quit insisting on defining themselves by color of their skin. No one should experience discrimination or expect special treatment based on their skin color.