General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The South Lost [View all]Igel
(37,616 posts)After all, we lost.
I'd also point out that the people who were enslaved had also lost. Those who engaged in slave uprisings should be held in contempt and disgrace.
Really, let each group memorialize their dead. Many war memorials aren't just to the winning side, but to all those who died in the war under question.
It's been 160 years. I knew people who lost friends and family in WWII, who fought in those wars and were shot at and even wounded, who had more sympathy for former German and Japanese soldiers than many "liberals" have for kids who died 150 years ago. I've known German concentration camp survivors who managed to deal with and mourn the dead on all sides--those in the camps as well as the German kids on the front lines. They reserved their hatred for those who gave the orders, well aware that some of those who staffed the camps had the choice of being brutal to them or being killed themselves. Anything you personally experienced during the Civil War happened a long time ago and it's time to let it go--and if you weren't there then the vicarious hate is a bit overmuch, and probably less about the war than about a symbol, less about history and more about personal grievances or grievances felt to be personal.