You Can’t Change History

Slavery is as old as human civilization, and is not unique to any race. Throughout history slavery has adapted fluidly to a changing world order, as it continues to do today. There is a crusade in the United States to remove all statues of generals of the Confederate States of America. They also want to remove all monuments connected to the Confederate states, and to take down all Confederate flags. This is all because of their association to slavery. This country, the United States of America, was founded on slavery. Fourteen of the founding fathers owned slaves. Furthermore, twelve presidents owned slaves….eight of them while serving in office.
Okay, so y’all want to remove statues and monuments. Well, I suggest the first place to start would be the George Washington monument. George Washington, the father of our country, was a big slave owner, and at the time of his death, his estate. enslaved three hundred and eighteen people (all of them black). We also honor the man by putting his likeness on our currency: the one dollar bill, and a twenty-five cent coin called the quarter. But let’s not stop there! How about the state of Washington? It’s obvious that that can’t be moved, so a name change will have to suffice. Also, in the name of this great slave-owning man, there are counties, townships, forts, parks, neighborhoods, institutions, geological features, municipalities, and many streets, here in the United States, and around the world. There are also many other statues and monuments scattered around the United States that honor leaders and heroes that helped to build this country who were slave owners.
So…..do we take this enormous task of removing and renaming, or do we just admit that the removal of all Confederate mementos was a bad idea, and forget the whole thing?

The past has already happened. We can’t change it.

Floyd H. Smith, Jr.
April 20, 2016

Tags: Confederate flag, Confederate States of America, George Washington, monuments, slavery, slaves, statues