Celebrating America’s enemy

It’s said that history is written by the victors, thus they draw the outlines of how events are remembered and retold. Well, I think that’s not quite right or, at the very least, something has gone wrong when it comes to The War of Northern Aggression — otherwise known as The American Civil War.

I may be stereotyping, but it seems that many of the people that support American militarism and unapologetically celebrate what some critique as American imperialism, prefer to stand with the losing and treasonous side of the American Civil War, rather than with the Union.

I’m offended every time I see the so-called rebel flag plastered on bumpers, t-shirts, caps or unfurled in the median of a New England highway (or in the middle of any highway, for that matter). Do the people proudly displaying this treasonous symbol not realize that it’s akin to flying the Nazi flag? Do they not realize that, in spite of the misguided and romanticized version of the Confederate South that still lingers, that that flag represents an odious enemy of America — the country that many of them would claim to love?

Not only is the Confederate flag the symbol of a declared American enemy, it is also the anti-thesis of a founding American value: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The apologist for America’s enemy will likely respond, Well, the Civil War was not about slavery. It was about economics.

To them I say, Bullshit. The American soldier — the Union solider — does not fight and die for the nation’s GDP, or for the promotion of an industrial versus an agrarian economy. No, the American soldier fights and bleeds for their fellow citizens and for the common values that bind us.

The Confederacy, its army and its supporters everywhere — all declared enemies of America — not only committed acts of treason against the American government; but, by turning their back to the call to form a more perfect union, rejected America, its values and their fellow countrymen.

Amazing that to this day, America’s enemy is still celebrated, even by elected government officials:

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia’s governor has brought Confederate History Month back to the state for the first time since 2001.

Gov. Bob McDonnell designated April to commemorate the secessionist, slaveholding South. His two Democratic predecessors had refused issue the proclamation sought each year by Confederate descendants.

Richmond was the Confederate seat of government.

McDonnell’s 368-word declaration does not mention slavery. The Republican governor said Tuesday that his intent was to honor the sacrifice on Virginia soil and promote tourism.

Since then the Republican governor of Virginia has gone on to include mention of slavery in his commemoration of the Confederacy. However, again, celebrating the Confederacy is akin to celebrating Nazy Germany. Thus, I ask, would mere acknowledgment of the concentration camps be sufficient to permit the commemoration of Nazism? Of course not. Therefore, how is mention of slavery sufficient excuse to carry forward with the celebration of the Confederacy?