Should the United States of America Emulate the Soviets?
I am upset and disappointed that the U.S. Military (U.S. Government) is not planning to rename ships that recall Confederate heroes and victories – the cruiser Chancellorsville immediately comes to mind.
But slavery – which the Confederacy fought to preserve – was such an abhorrent practice that the U.S. Military also should rename ships that honor slave owners: The aircraft carrier George Washington and the attack submarine Jefferson City, that locale having been named for another slave owner.
Also, we must determine if any U.S. military bases or installations carry the names of Confederate heroes. Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Benning, and Camp Beauregard come to mind all named after Confederate Generals. Then of course there is the tradition of the military to name equipment after Confederate heroes; i.e. M3 Lee medium tank named after Robert E. Lee and the M3 Stuart light tank named after J.E.B Stuart. I am sure there are more.
And, overseas schools operated by the Department of Defense must be purged of any text books that mention slavery – we must not expose the children of service personnel to such a reprehensible practice.
If there is any doubt about how to purge these names, places, and practices from our history, one need only look to the methods that the Soviet dictators employed to rewrite that nation’s history. They had text books and encyclopedias rewritten, deleted disgraced heroes from photographs, renamed towns and cities, etc. Dissidents were executed, jailed or exiled to Siberia. Should we; the other % of the population allow this to happen? I say no. How do you learn from history if you erase the past?
