Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Honesty about history heals us

History concerning the Civil War is riddled with factual inaccuracies, most of which are easy to dispel. But some people choose to believe them, for reasons only they know.

The truth is, by the early- to mid-1800s, Britain, Germany, France and many other countries had abolished slavery or were in the process of doing so. Meanwhile, in America, the South insisted on fighting the bloodiest war ever on American soil to keep slaves and their way of life.

To quote William T. Thompson, designer of the second Confederate flag: “As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause. Such a flag … would soon take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations, and be hailed by the civilized world as the white man’s flag.”

So if the Confederacy fought for white supremacy and to keep slavery, and both reasons are wrong, doesn’t that mean the people who fought for the South were wrong too? And if they were wrong then, how could they now represent our cultural heritage and national pride?

Because they don’t and never did. The national pride people have been tricked into defending is white supremacy. It’s OK to recognize the truth, better late than never. Now, why is this so hard to accept? We can’t learn from our mistakes and move on if we can’t acknowledge them to begin with.