This is not about Confederate monuments. They just happen to be on this year's tear-down list. The reason being used to take down Confederate monuments is sure to be applied to other similar monuments: The Civil War is deemed to be a bad war for a whole host of reasons. In some circles they want all plaques, monuments, signs, and statues commemorating the losing side in that war destroyed.
I guess that means we need to start determining good wars and bad wars, and then we'll take down the memorials to bad wars. But it seems that the winners always say their war was a good war.
If we consider recent wars, it's hard to find a good one. The Gulf War to destroy the non-existent weapons of mass destruction, or the never-ending war in Afghanistan? It's hard to find a war that is justified except for the Second World War. And if we check on all war monuments, signs, and statutes, we'll find almost every war has its share. What do we do about these pieces of history? Do we attempt to remove the bad war monuments? I don't think so.
I believe the destruction of any monument that was erected in memory of a fallen soldier is wrong, and when we start down that path there is no end.
Certainly we can look at the Civil War and without question it is our country's greatest tragedy. However, how about the Mississippi mother who lost three sons at Gettysburg, and after the war was over, helped raise the funds to erect a memorial to her fallen Confederate soldiers? Can you imagine that mother's grief as she stood on a courthouse square and watched as the statue of a Confederate soldier was unveiled? Do we have a moral obligation to keep that monument, or should we just destroy it?
But let's go a step further: Millions of Americans believe the Vietnam War was immoral and wrong. There were not only 50,000-plus Americans killed, but as many as 2 million Vietnamese. Should we tear down all the memorials to that war? But before you answer, can you even imagine the pain of a father or brother as they trace the name of their fallen soldier on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? It belongs alongside other monuments in Washington, D.C.
What we must do is consider the loss of American lives and its impact on our people. If we look at each of our war memorials as a tribute to a fallen soldier, the rush to erase history will diminish. Only when we put the personal feelings in place of a piece of granite can we realize that when a piece of stone was dedicated to the fallen of any American war, there are families and friends who stood and looked at that dedication moment and mourned the loss. When we do that, we will put aside the good and bad war idea, and only look at the monument as a tribute to a fallen American hero.
A monument in Germany to Hitler shouldn't be allowed, but a monument to the German soldiers who died in that conflict should be. I agree slavery was a horrible part of our Southern history, but 90 percent of the Southern soldiers who fought in the war never owned slaves, and many of our nation's founders owned slaves, even George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Surely we wouldn't try to erase our heritage by removing any reference to them.
How many of the founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence were slaveholders? The answer is 41, including Benjamin Franklin. Do we cut their names out of the Declaration of Independence? Of course not.
Surely that should put to rest any idea that owning of slaves is a reason for banishment. It seems we Americans are swayed by current events to respond irrationally to a tragedy by doing something, and many times later, after cooler heads reflect on the actions taken, they are reversed.
The Civil War stirs deep passions in some people, and the idea that the breaking up of a statue would cause a mentally unbalanced individual to do an irrational act is enough of a reason to leave the monuments alone.
Let's take a look at all the monuments around our country, not just the Confederate ones. I believe they have one similarity: They exist as monuments to those who gave their lives in battle. An American who gave his life on the beaches of Normandy, in the jungles of Vietnam, at Bull Run, and at Gettysburg fields of Gettysburg and died, are all American heroes, and if a group of Americans want to build a monument to their courage and memory, they should. And no one should remove it.
Richard Mason is a registered professional geologist, downtown developer, former chairman of the Department of Environmental Quality Board of Commissioners, past president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, and syndicated columnist. Email richard@gibraltarenergy.com.
Editorial on 02/18/2018