Thread by @l78lancer

It's not really all that hard. It's a matter of whether Americans want to face the truth about ourselves and this nation.

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There really isn't much to be said for real about preserving monument, statues and mementos of the Confederacy because the conversation is silly. They were traitors many of whom we supposed to been executed, but they were pardoned by a slave sympathizing president.

But pardoned is not exonerated. And, pardoned is not redeemed. That's why within short order upon the end of the Civil war, they reestablished systems in Jim Crow, Tenant farming and other mechanism that were for all purposes slavery.

And enforcement of that system was provided courtesy the Klu Klux Klan. They sere scoundrels before the war, and they resumed their apparent normal state almost immediately after the war.

There is virtually nothing honorable or genteel about Southern history or culture. It's a myth. Therefore, the removal of Confederate memorabilia is non-negotiable.

But there's a certain amount of fantasizing and romanticism about us as a nation concerning our founding, values and and national identity. Almost universally, there's a tendency to promote the good and ignore the bad. It's denial, maybe even shame.

But it can no longer be ignored while we pretend to have a good faith conversation about the flaws of our national character.

The founders held certain high and noble ideals and philosophies, but they were in direct conflict with their reality, and they all knew it.

Otherwise, the Compromise of 1808 would never have come into existence. Slaves could have been freed at that moment, or any time afterward. But they chose an accommodation for appeasement that perpetuated institutionalized hate and white supremacy for another six decades.

The theory behind the compromise was maintaining national unity while the politics behind it were a power struggle over taxation and representation for dominance while now permitting citizenship for the very people the struggle concerned.

Yet, there never was any serious contemplation given or calculus made concerning the freedom of black people. So the very premise behind the compromise was disingenuous. America is and always was intended to be unequal.

Every single direct proponent, of slavery, every non-owning supporter, and every signatory in support of the compromise then perpetuated the institution of hate. Where then is the honor and glory in that? Each and every figure that time is of historical importance.

They should be studied and analyzed. But there is a difference between study and reverence. None of them deserve to be represented by statues, otherwise that makes the very existence of black people in this nation a perpetual and indelible lie.

Their greatness is diminished by their actions. Every founder's statue represents doctored versions of history - and lies - intended to hide their culpability in creating one of the greatest atrocities known to mankind. It's a kind of tranquilizer to assuage national guilt.

Their nation's greatness was built was built on the backs, the blood sweat and tears of my great great grandparents in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. And while their labor was stolen, they fought and died alongside the whites to preserve that very union.

Yet the idea of reparations is reprehensible to many Americans. Meanwhile, many confederate soldiers somehow got pensions for treason.

Why do white figures who promulgated the Fugitive Slave Acts as a measure of their greatness deserve homage in history while the people who did the work get dismissed?

We heed history. We need records and a good long-term memory so that we don't err the same way ever again.

The issue is not about sentimentality or promoting feel-good mythology. We've done that long enough at the expense of people and their descendants who have paid and continue to pay - a stiff price. And none of that is necessary to promote patriotism, duty or honor.

We do not need statues that perpetuate lies for any of them.

The Three-Fifths Compromise was also part of the delusional attempt to deal with the slavery issue, and while they called it "bound to service," they couldn't even call slavery by it's name.

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