Right wing apologists ask when the statues of George Washington will meet the same fate as the confederates? After all, George was a slave owner.
Well, indeed he was, but in his will he ordered that his slaves should be freed upon the death of his wife, Martha. Martha, fearing that the slaves might try to hasten her demise, freed them early.
George knew his place in history, and he tried to set an example for those who would follow him.
On the other hand, the heroes of the confederacy fought to keep the black race chained in perpetuity. Slaves were little more than beasts of burden, unequal to the responsibility of citizenship. This was the mindset of all those generals and politicians in the so-called “war of northern aggression.”
In these United States, statues should honor those who risked their lives and reputations to advance the cause of freedom, knowledge and human rights, not those who fought to deny them.
This is very good explanation of why the so-called Alt-Left and the Alt-Right are not moral equivalents: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/what-trump-gets-wrong-about-antifa/537048/
Good article to begin a dialogue on left versus right violence. Trump’s blunder was his usual lack of timing. Failed leadership 101.
I disagree. Trump’s blunder, rooted in his upbringing, is in his profound lack of the most basic tenets of our democracy and the inevitable progress of our nation towards “a more perfect union.”
This is not some new movement on either the part of fascists or those who would oppose them, and it certainly isn’t any near-equal dialogue between the two. Our country, and the entire world, has spilled immeasurable blood and treasure to hold the asinine philosophy of the repugnant racial and religious supremacists at bay.
The timing of his statements are immaterial; he has chosen to defend the ugly, bigoted underbelly of our society, and in doing so, he has challenged the overwhelming majority of American citizens, and the world, to oppose him.
The assbag bigots we saw in Charlottesville are pretty much their entire movement; the “alt-left”, as he calls them, were but the tip of the spear in a nation profoundly opposed to their putrid illusions.
George Washington was a slave owner, true, but he was not a traitor to the United States of America, nor raised arms against this great country.
Therein lies the difference, Donald Trump, you mental homunculus.
My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Davis, a distant cousin of Jefferson Davis. As you can see in the following article, efforts to remove his name from public monuments have been going on for some eighty years. Sorry, Cousin Jeff… http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/sd-me-confederate-monument-20170816-story.html
Time to change the name of Fort Bragg, named for a Union officer who went over to the rebels and fought for the South in the Civil War.