No Stone Unturned? CSA Memorial Too?

After 5 yrs of war & 500K+ deaths Lincoln told Grant to “let ‘em up easy” before imposing peace terms on Lee’s beaten CSA. Could plan to kill the “healing” Confederate Memorial in Arlington be a worse idea than sending slaves back to Africa?

Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb suggeted as much in his WSJ op ed titled “Save the Confederate Memorial at Arlington,” and before the DOD & a “woke” commission tears it down by year’s end; that is, thanks to a sweeping National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 that empowered the commission to “remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments & paraphernalia that honor of commemorate the Confederate states of America …” Besides the “overbroad” delegation of power in that law, the Senator gives numerous reasons to save the memorial created soon after the Spanish American War. Of course, it was primarily created to belatedly unify the still VERY divided NORTH & SOUTH & recognize the 250K devoted confederate soldiers who died also “suffered … sacrificed …” if for a terrible cause. Mr. Webb cites the familiar stat from black historian John Hope Franklin that 95% of the South’s soldiers owned no slaves & thought they were fighting for “Independence” like their forefathers in the American Revolution. Not sure THAT really helps, though.

Nor does Mr. Webb address the utter “hatred” the slaves had (& many descendants still do) feel for the inhuman institution. But, he does conclude on this persuasive note: Removal of the reconciliatory Confederate Memorial “would send … a message … of a [still] deteriorating society willing to erase the generosity of its past, in favor of bitterness & misunderstanding conjured up by those who do not understand the history they seem bent on destroying.” Let’s take it a step further, Jim: Jesus also sent us all a clear message of reconciliation: “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you YOUR trespasses.”

Davd Soul