Are there any LIBERAL or National Public Radio types who respect the Confederacy or its military figures?

The Confederacy were traitors to the United States of America. Why should I respect them?

I’m not sure that YOU should do anything.

I DO remember a miniseries on PBS about the Civil War, which gave a great bit of history and detail about the battles, the people, the letters, etc. I remember studying it in College. I don’t remember any of them ranting. They were also the beginning of the Democratic party, too, if it matters—and the link was fairly steady up through the 50s and 60s civil rights movement.

I am not trying to insult—but America has been flavored by the polarization—and the history of the conflicts themselves are very rich in shaping our national identity—even our current day polarization. I’d like a Historian or Sociologist’s perspective on commemorating or preserving or eliminating this aspect of history. Left and Right didn’t just appear overnight

Of course academics and history buffs still exist.

It seems to me that the main issue with publicly commemorating the Confederacy is that a large visible/vocal segment of Confederate flag displays seem to be in terms of white supremacist, racist, or other seemingly lowbrow/degenerate/dangerous positions regarding the present situation. I think that limited perspective is magnified by the raised tensions from current events and the spectacular dumbing down (and intentional controversy-targeting) of commercial media.

And of course, wanting to not become confused for being pro-slavery.

As far as interest in the historical subject and even some sympathy for wanting independence from domination by the Federal government, states’ rights, and military history, I don’t see anything wrong with that. Apart from museums, monuments, parks and historical recreations, wargames, historical documentaries and books, though, what other expressions are you wishing for?

I don’t understand the issue. They lost their war, they don’t get to fly their flag.

South park straddled the line with the civil war re-enactment episode. Sorry that I can’t find the whole episode. South (Park) is gonna rise again is the name.

”...and the history of the conflicts themselves are very rich in shaping our national identity…”

Hitler helped shaped Germany’s national identity. Just sayin’.

The removal of monuments doesn’t erase the history, it simply helps to remove the daily celebrations of atrocities committed.

Who, in their right minds, would not respect the Confederacy and it’s military figures??? Myself, I respect anyone who fights for what they believe in.

@Hawaii_Jake The Confederates were not traitors to their states, and that what they fought for. There was no real “United States of America” at that time to be traitors to. It was the Civil War that made ALL Americans in these United States truly United. Up until the war ended, we were just so many individual states, like individual countries.

I’m with Condoleezza Rice on this one. There is a great distinction between Heritage and History. History is how we got here, to our heritage. It is also where we are going. We forget a lot of our history and get lost when we wonder how we have come to our present. We gain nothing by sanitizing our history. It is a step toward revisionism. It opens us up to lies about ourselves. It opens us up to not knowing our heritage, not knowing ourselves.

Recently, in New Orleans, they removed, in the dead of night and while wearing bullet-proof vests, the statures of Robert E. Lee from Lee Circle in the downtown area, the obelisk marking Reconstruction in Liberty Place in the French Quarter, the statue of the president of Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, from it’s pedestal in Mid-town, and the equestrian statue of General P. G. T. Beauregard from the entrance to City Park. I don’t remember any “daily celebrations” by rightwing nutjobs when I visited these places. City Park and Liberty Circle was where all the buskers like @Strauss were, the food stands and the shade trees to protect them all from that unbearable summer heat. It was where people of all colors met and mixed and where we went to buy weed, from hippie dudes like @Strauss back in the day. LOL.

And it is quite hypocritical of people outside of the South to want us to remove our Confederate monuments. If your family goes back far enough in this country, there is not one state, not one county, not one piece of land and not one person in this country that doesn’t have at least one ancestor who took part, stood by and watched, or benefited from some despicable, violent act of racism.

Should we demand that all those beautiful old missions strung along the California coast be torn down because our history tells us, with excellent primary documentation, that those beautiful missions were each the seat of tyrannical power that stole land, starved, murdered, tortured and nearly accomplished the complete genocide of the indigenous people of what we today call California —now a seat of liberalism in the US? Should we take down the capitol building in Sacramento because the people who built it basically finished the job the Spanish had begun?

Should we take up all the track on the Union Pacific Railroad because of the brutal treatment of the Asians laborers who put that railroad throught the Sierras? In Weaverville, California, during one of the many raids over the years by white citizens upon their Chinese quarter, they used Asians as target practice.

Should we destroy every state and city monument, including the University, build since the liquidation of the monoarchy of Hawaii? What we did in Hawaii wasn’t an atrocity?
During the gold rush period of the 1850’s when building was booming in San Francisco and the lands just north of that city were being clear cut, raped and what indigenous people who were left were run out—should we now comb that city for statues now honoring those same city founders and destroy them?

Should we destroy every monument to the military leaders of every town in the west and mid-west because they too committed atrocities that we all now benifit from?

It wasn’t just the South, my friends. It was everybody. None of us are innocent. All of us can serve as each other’s scape goats.

Know your history. And that is my point.

I agree with Corvus about this “war on history”, that it’s hard to find places in America that were not affected by or serviced by racism and oppression. At the same time I believe that if the people of a town or state collectively decide they don’t want a confederate flag flying at their government buildings, they have a right to decide that. There is history and there is heritage, and there is also the fact that neo-Nazis embrace the Confederate flag (if you see one here in California that’s what it’s likely to mean) and if people don’t want to associate with it, they don’t have to. I also don’t personally have particular respect for the Confederacy, which, according to Jefferson Davis and other Confederate leaders, was founded on the principle that black people were inferior. That’s my personal opinion and I’m just stating it. I don’t have to like the Confederacy.

That said, I can admire the tactics of Confederate military leaders and I’m always fascinated by the history of it all. It’s for this reason that I don’t like seeing history “censored” the way it is essentially being done when statues and monuments are removed and names are changed. Covering up the past doesn’t help us learn from it.

@DominicY Relax! The statues will be kept in a museum for all to see! And no pigeon shit!

I was at the burial of the last Confederate serviceman in Mobile Alabama in 2007. It was a memorable, good humoured and respectful occasion. Musket shots were fired over the grave by men in Confederate uniform and women were dressed in period costume for the day.

It was an enjoyable event and had something of the poignancy of a farming country of sunshine and rivers standing up to the industrial north. There were no white supremacists present, they would have spoiled the mood of the occasion.

I was very aware of the abomination of slavery which underlay everything that day but history is complex and shouldn’t be forgotten or ignored.

I wouldn’t describe myself as liberal, but I listen to NPR…

I respect those from that era. I understand that people thought differently then, and I can guarantee that the civil war was about more than slavery. To think that millions fought, so that a small percentage of the population could own slaves is pretty foolish. It’d be like fighting for the wealthiest people to be more wealthy… My understanding is that most fought for state’s rights… Although I clearly wasn’t alive to say for sure.

What General Sherman did enroute to victory would be considered war crimes, if seen on TV today. Certainly, in my mind, the Union was not the “good guys,” by any stretch of the imagination…

It’s important to remember that a very short time (forget exactly) after the emancipation proclaimation, Lincoln ordered the execution of hundreds of native Americans. The US government still abuses the former owners of the land they built an empire upon… So, there is NO argument to be made about fighting for freedom. The Union didn’t want to lose the land, and it’s resources. That’s why they fought the war. Simple, but neither side was fighting for justice necessarily. So, one shouldn’t vilify either army.

It was a sad, pathetic really, chapter in US history. But both sides should be respected.

I would add that some confederate statues, flags etc were erected ,seemingly, in direct response to the civil rights movement of the 60’s. Not all are relics of history. Some were in spite of a change in culture. In those instances, NO respect is warranted.

I suppose that I would say that I personally respect the confederacy, as much as the current US government. Neither deserves more than the other.

However. History is written by the winners. So. If all remnants of the confederacy are wiped from history, it wouldn’t be the first time a different culture was snuffed out….

I thought I would pass this on. It is from a blog by historian David Kaiser and has to do with the removal of the statues in N.O. and the position of the Mayor for doing so A Civil Rights Milestone An interesting read and pertinent to the question.

Something is a symbol to a person if they allow it to be. The Confederate Flag is a symbol of white supremacy and slavery about as much as it is for clean water, iphones, and grits. For me. American masses have become so easy to control. Beware; this is being observed by those would harm us. Please use those brains.