It's Confederate History Month in Dixie

[PanzerJaeger]

True, but that is exactly why any such attempts to commemorate the Confederacy should be treated with caution. I think we can all feel sympathy for Johnny Reb who went out and died to prevent Northern Aggression, but we also have to consider why the institutions which allowed him to fight were created. They were created due to a clash over states rights, on the issue of slavery. Ergo, the Confederacy was fighting for slavery, and so was Johnny Reb. He may not have been fighting for slavery in his conscience, but in the bigger picture, that is the only thing he was fighting for. As slavery as an phenomenon is indefensible, so are the institutions which uphold it, and that includes the Confederate States of America.

In that case, we should cancel 4th of July celebrations and American history as a whole should not be commemorated, as the nation was essentially created through aggressive expansionist policies and the destruction of hundreds of other nations. A more mature view, in my opinion, is to realize that these commemorative holidays celebrate the positive elements of a particular group's history, and that the vast majority of people are intelligent enough to be able to separate the good from the bad. In that vein, I do not believe anyone seriously views Confederate History Month as a celebration of slavery.

Those seeking to make hay over this are a) the typical black profiteers that come out of the woodwork every time anything even vaguely related to race comes up and b) Democrats seeking to score some political points against Governer McDonnell.

Commemorating the Confederacy is in many ways similar to commemorating Imperial Germany. Although Fritz von Boche may not have been fighting to extend germany deep into Ukraine, it is undeniable that the Imperial German Government was, and that the German Empire was an imperialistic, militarised and aggressive state. Any commemoration of the German Empire and it's culture/citizens is thus tainted with those qualities, as any commemoration of the CSA is with slavery. To put it another way, I think we can all agree that the world was better off for the Central Powers losing WWI. Likewise, we can be glad that the South lost the American Civil War.

Couldn't disagree more!