Obama observes Memorial Day at Arlington cemetery
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama avoided a racial controversy on his first Memorial Day in office by sending wreaths to separate memorials for Confederate soldiers and for blacks who fought against them during the Civil War.
Last week, a group of about 60 professors petitioned the White House, asking the first black U.S. president to break tradition and not memorialize military members from the Confederacy, the group of Southern states that supported slavery.
“The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African-Americans by slave owners, Confederates and neo-Confederates, through the monument’s denial of slavery as the cause of secession and its holding up of Confederates as heroes,” the petitioners said. “This implies that the humanity of Africans and African-Americans is of no significance.”
The White House ignored the request.
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Obama observes Memorial Day at Arlington cemetery
As a PROUD Son of the South, I have got to say, for the 1st time since the election, Barack Obama has actually done what I consider to be the right thing. In this particular action, my hat is off to him.
To those that believe the War of Northern Aggression, commonly referred to as the American Civil War, to say it was fought over the issue of slavery I say this, read your history. The war was fought over many of the same reasons we are seeing today, states rights and oppressive government control being first and foremost!
To those that KNOW the true meaning of Memorial Day and don’t seek to politicize it, to those that don’t buy into the denigration of the Confederacy offered by this group of professors asking the president to break tradition and not memorialize military members from the Confederacy, to you I say this, YOU are what is RIGHT with this nation, and those professors are an excellent example of what is wrong.
It doesn’t matter what color the soldiers skin was, it doesn’t matter which uniform the soldiers of the War Between the States wore, they were American soldiers and they gave their all, fighting, and dying, for their beliefs and the direction that they wanted this nation to take. A man can know no greater mission nor honor! I salute ALL of those warriors!
Kind of what I said, but you put it so much better!
That Fred is an eloquent SOB ain’t he? I am in agreement here….I applaud Our President for not giving in on this one…..someone seems to have overlooked the fact that some of the Confederate soldiers were black….and they didn’t go off with guns at their backs either….you cannot rewrite history….and propagandists and revisionists are about the two worst enemies of history and historical perspective…what we have here though is special interests trying to limit the historical focus…..Americans were killed on both sides…not to mention the fact that a great many of the Confederate Officers were West Pointers who had already distinguished themselves in earlier battles….both slavery and cotton would have gone away in the south….the writing was on the wall……and while slavery was a predominant factor the biggest factors were indeed STATES RIGHTS and TARIFFS imposed on the south by northern industrialists who controlled the government….
Someone asked me “Was there a black confederate soldier memorial?” My answer was “Nope, the war ended before we made them build one!”
History is lost on our youth, they are subjected to the liberal re-writing of history to suit their warped sense of reality… IF we as parents and grandparents don’t educate our youth with the truth, by the time 2025 rolls around the civil war will have been fought only by slaves vs those that tried to enslave them….
Good post Fred.
Well said Fred, very well said.
As long as blacks continue to call themselves “black Americans”, I will be be in non-recognition of them.
Maybe I should call myself a white American, or a white Texan?
No matter what color, or what foreign country you came from, or where your ancestors came from,,,, an American is what you should be called. You bleed American as long as you are a CITIZEN. Illegals, forget about it.
That is what I fought for, burned Cong hamlets every Memorial Day of 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964.
And with malice aforethought and to a moral certainty.
For Americans. All Americans
But not for the “hyphenated” types.
I have had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday in my waning years. I had a bonfire at home, just like I do every Memorial Day, starting in the year 1965!
I am glad that President Obama did not disgrace this day in his visit to the National Cemetery. I give him credit for this, even if he is not qualified due to his birthplace, and his father’s birthplace, as according to the Bill of Rights/Constitution.
Chuck, the blacks that died in the War Between the States didn’t call themselves Black Americans or African-American…
I too absolutely HATE the hyphenated ANYTHING description, Racism in America: The Hyphenated American, just use my search feature and enter Hyphenated American and it will bring up several more stories I posted regarding any hyphens of race or nationality followed by the word American.
I am thinking that the hyphen thing came about in modern times, and it may piss off some folks, but if it does, too bad, those BLACK soldiers, on BOTH sides, were fighting for their beliefs and their freedom.
They were soldiers. And ANY that would fail to honor them in that capacity has lost ANY and ALL respect from ME!!
This isn’t about Obama, his legality or any other issue, it is about honoring ALL American war dead.
Slavery did not become an issue for two years after the beginning of the Northern War of Aggression. The Lincoln Gatekeepers and Myth Builders would have you believe differently, but the history is there.
620000 Americans, not counting the civilians that Lincoln unleashed his dogs of war on, lost their lives. Each one was an American through and through. How many thousands more were mutilated and handicapped forever by the War. I believe Mr Lincoln has a special spot in hell, as we speak.
Good post, Fred.
Good post Fred, and well, Ok he did what the past presidents have done so I’ll commend him for not giving in to the AA hate Whitey crowd and breaking the tradition. I agree with Mr Chuck there.
However a little trip across the cemetery to personally lay the wreath would have really sent a message, but hey, he had to get to his all imortant golf game he spent the entire afternoon playing.(the way he plays he’s probably still there)
You know, that elitist white man game.
Here are a couple good links about Blacks that fought on the side of the South during the Civil War
http://www.37thtexas.org/html/BlkHist.html
http://www.forrestsescort.org/blacks.htm
Also, here’s a good article about Blacks who owned slaves.
http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slaveowners.htm
Well said, Fred. I appreciate your giving credit where credit is due.
Regardless of the color of a soldier’s skin, or his religion, he is and was an American first. In all of the wars this nation has fought, that one idea is and was the true unifying factor. And it is one of the reasons that has made the US Military an effective fighting force.
Well said, Fred.
On a side note, did you notice the affected look on his face while placing the wreath at Arlington? Just wonderin’ if I was the only one to note the forced expression…
Noted, and written off to him being the disgusting, soldier hating libberpuke he REALLY is…
Someone needs to tell our Supreme Court nominee that she is AmeriRICAN..not Puerto RICAN….