Alexandria — To the Editor:
Although historical fact is close to objective, historical interpretation is very subjective. As painful as a lot of American history is, as Americans we need to be regularly reminded of it to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
When the Supreme Court imposed same-sex marriage on the country, despite 31 states, often as a consequence of referendum, not recognizing it, no one called for the offended states to secede. This was not accidental, but because the Confederate flag serves as a reminder of the adverse consequences of doing so.
Were it to disappear into some dusty museum case, instead of a few times a year being in our faces, in a few generations most Americans would understand our civil war as vaguely as they understand WWI today. And when, a few generations hence, the Supreme Court imposes something as “morally objectionable” as a substantial segment of our population finds same-sex marriage or abortion, will the pulpits ring with calls for secession? If the Civil War is caricatured as a “war to free the slaves,” instead of a multi-faceted, multiple-causational conflict, like nearly all civil cataclysms of such magnitude, will future secessionists see no nexus?
Mayor Euille is quite right to call for us as a community to take some time to think about this topic, but City Council’s recess is far too brief to parse the varying shades of gray between the Appomattox Statue, historically appropriate displays connected with local historical figures such as Robert E. Lee and Samuel Cooper, and streets named for renegade war criminals such as a William Clarke Quantrill. Ideally, City Council should appoint a broad-based committee to parse these differences and make appropriate recommendations.
Dino Drudi
Alexandria