It's going to be funny when the mob comes after Barack Obama's statues, public office building, and school buildings to tear them down. Democrats are going freak out.
Remember, Barack Obama opposed Gay Marriage in his first term, and throughout his reelection into his second term.
That is a fact. And just remember, Vice President Dick Cheney, the new Hitler to these same Democrats, supported Gay Marriage.
Not to mention, FDR's forceful internment of American citizens from Japanese families into camps during WWII. I guess he gets a pass because he's a democrat?
Look, you want to take down a Confederate soldier's statue, fine. Have a city council vote, or whatever. Cities are going to take them down pretty soon, and they should.
I think Confederate statues on public land are stupid. If you want to have them on actual National Battlefields, I think there is a case to be made there.
However, no matter how well they commanded their armies, their cause was unjust at its core. The continuation of slavery in the United States.
You can talk to me about about State's Rights, and sovereignty all you like, but that's not the real reason, and you probably know that, deep down. There may have been a few folks here and there who hated slavery, but fought for their southern states. There were those people, I've read their writings. Ultimately, what their side fought for was keeping slavery legal in the south.
So why did these activists topple a statue of US Grant? You know the general who lead the Union to victory and effectively ended slavery in America?
They say he was a slave owner as a young man, and they are right, but is that what Grant's life was about?
Grant was raised by abolitionists, in Ohio, but was not a real abolitionists in his early life. While he was a young man in the Army, he married his best friend's sister from Missouri, her family owned slaves.
Grant was given a slave as a wedding gift by his father in law along with a small farm. Grant was not a good farmer, the farm was kind of on poor land, and he went broke. He could have sold the man back into slavery, and surely he could have used the money, but he didn't. He freed the man.
As the Civil War started, and then as he became more involved with the subject, he became very anti-slavery.
He understood the other side, he knew their men, knew their thinking, and knew they were wrong.
When he wrote about his meeting Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House for Lee's surrender, Grant wrote;
"What General Lee's feelings were I do not know.... Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us."
One of the worst parts of all this craziness right now is the failure to understand the thinking of the times. Past and present.
We look upon slavery with our 21st century eyes. Evil, and horrible. Absolutely.
No one is pro-slavery in the US. Well, there are 330 million people, so you could probably find a few dozen or so complete idiots, maybe.
In 1859, when Grant freed his slave, there were plenty of people who thought slaveholding was fine. It was just the way we have always done things they thought.
Thankfully, there were two thirds of Americans who saw slavery as evil and would fight to end it. Even though there were plenty of non abolitionists who didn't really care about the plight of blacks, they wanted America to remain under one central government. They did not want to see the south secede. They fought too.
As with most things, it's complicated. Tearing down statues you hate is not. It's just anarchy. You do it to make you feel good.
Now, you may look upon Barack Obama's anti Gay Marriage views, and think of them as I do.
Obama needed the mostly Christian, Democratic suburban housewife vote to win election. They were not in favor of Gay Marriage at the time, or not a majority to be sure, so he was anti Gay Marriage. As soon as he was reelected, he 'changed his thinking' and told the nation what I think he believed his whole adult life.
So, here's the lesson you are going to have learn, and quick. Things are complicated. History is complicated. People are complicated.
Just wait a few more years until the FBI files and recording of MLK Jr. come out. The left will say they are unimportant, and the work he did is what we need to recognise, not his personal failings.
I'm completely cool with that, let's just try to make that a universal thing.
Also, let's stop building statues to people.
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