Today is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. This date doesn't have to conjure up the antipathy of 150 years ago, but I'm sure it will because the people over whom the war was fought are in a unique position to speak their minds about it in a way they could not even 50 years ago. People like me.
I can't abide hearing historians, Civil War enthusiasts and Southerners describe this war as "the war between the states" (well, duh -- what else is a civil war?) or a war over "states' rights". It begs the question -- states' rights to do what? And that question inevitably leads back to one answer: To legalize slavery. Of my people.
For the life of me, I don't understand how fighting a war for the right to enslave other people is anything to be proud of any more than fighting a war to engage in a genocide is something to be proud of. At least some Germans have the good sense to be ashamed of their role in World War II.
Don't tell me celebrating one's ancestors who fought for the Confederacy is "heritage, not hate." It is a heritage OF hate -- people who hated my people so much that they fought for the right to enslave them. Lord knows they didn't fight for the right to enslave my people because they loved them. And this great-granddaughter of a slave is going to tell it like it is on this 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
"Heritage, not hate"? I call B.S.
There's your Happy Anniversary.
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