Memorializing A Traitor

Noted in the post below is the President's recognition of the 70th anniversary of V-E Day, marking victory over the Nazis and fascists in Europe in World War II.

2015 is another historic milestone:  the 150th anniversary of the surrender of Confederate forces to end the Civil War.  In important ways, however, the war continued on:  Southern segregation, the KKK, Jim Crow, lynchings, and, in the 1970s, the "Southern strategy" of Rethuglicans to recruit Southern "Dixiecrats" to form a radical conservative movement.  Every Confederate battle flag incorporated into a State flag, every "commemoration" of the battles fought by the forces of the South, and every monument to their leaders and soldiers is evidence that, after 150 years, many refuse to acknowledge the treason that was committed by the South, solely for the benefit of the plantation class and the businesses linked to them.  That's why we favor action to strip U.S. military installations of the names of Confederate generals (Ft. Bragg, Ft. Lee, etc.) and to remove statues of the Confederacy's leaders from public property.

At the University of Texas-Austin, at least students have the right idea:  they are calling for the removal of a century old statue of traitor Jefferson Davis, former President of the Confederacy. The statue was defaced in the past few days with signs like "Emancipate UT," but don't expect removal of the statue, not in today's reactionary political climate in Texas.  No one would think of erecting a statue to Benedict Arnold, but Jefferson Davis?  Yee-haw!