REWRITING HISTORY

I will start this column by stating unequivocally that I do not now, nor have I ever owned a slave. In fact, as I have stated in the past, had I lived during the time of slavery in our country, I am much more likely to have been a slave than to have owned one. I will also state for the record that I oppose the owning of any human being, even politicians. But, and this is important, times have changed. What was commonplace three hundred years ago is not commonplace now. For example, I don’t go to my barber for a bloodletting to cure ailments. Times change, hopefully for the better but not always. I didn’t live then and neither did you. Slavery was a perk of wealth. The very rich owned workers who worked and produced the wares that made them rich. Many of our Founding Fathers were among those very rich who lived during this period and many of them owned slaves. Today’s rich seem to prefer just owning politicians. That’s one of the ways they protect their wealth.

So, we had this war. It was called the Civil War. Essentially the North decided that the South had a competitive advantage in the production of cotton and tobacco and thereby were becoming too wealthy and subsequently too influential. This was blamed on the use of slave labor. Since I didn’t live then, and neither did you, we can only trust the history books for the truth of the situation. What happened next is nothing for either side to be proud of. Tens of thousands were killed and injured in a war that pitted brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. In the end, the North prevailed and the South was defeated. By proclamation, slavery was then ended in the entire country.

During this ugly war both sides had their heroes and their champions. They named cities and streets after them. They erected statues to them. It was and is a way people honor their heroes. Most, if not all of those honored, had other accomplishments other than their war fighting ability like being a Founding Father for example. Like you, I didn’t personally know any of them, but they are a part of our history.

And of course, some of our founders owned slaves. It was a way of life back then. Today, some groups have decided they don’t like our history so they have decided to rewrite it. They want our history erased apparently believing that the removal of statues will somehow change history. They want to rename cities and streets. They live in a fantasy land and do not want any memory of truth left behind.

It is easy enough for thinking people to ignore this nonsense but not for the “politically correct” who seem to thrive on controversy and disruption. They are lining up to support the idea of forgetting or ignoring history. You could say that the “pc” group is now owned by the agenda-driven history deniers.

A poll was just conducted and fully seventy percent of those polled want the statues and relics of our history left intact.

We are rapidly approaching a time when nonsense needs to be identified for what it is, just nonsense. ESPN is re-assigning a sports announcer because his name is Robert Lee. They are worried that his name might be offensive to some of their viewers. Just when I think I have seen the height of stupidity something like this happens.

Those who choose to forget history are doomed to repeat it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to repeat a lot of our history. I just want it to serve as a lesson to live and learn from. Those who are offended by a statue of Robert E. Lee should remember what Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can offend you without your permission.”

Ron Scarbro