The Second Civil War Erasing the First

Photo by Dave Lowe on Unsplash

Growing up in Texas and Virginia, I fell in love with the United States of America and its history. I remember learning about the Civil War in 5th grade and then taking weekend trips with my mom and dad to see those historical sites, in Virginia. I asked lots of hard questions to my parents and questioned what it might be like to live during a war or revolution. Loving to learn about where our nation was founded and the conflicts that arose in it, I was able to acknowledge the evils that had occurred in our country while appreciating the America I know today. In this increasingly polarized political system, I have started to question the generalized statements that the media business and social media users are making about the country I grew up loving.

Since I started paying attention to politics, my political views have always been conflicted. I saw the appeal of socializing a lot of systems; college was expensive, and I wanted everyone to have equal opportunities. On the other hand, I also grew up in the south with conservative views and loved the idea of federalism. With my views of seeing the general benefits to both sides, I didn’t understand why either side thought the other was completely wrong. Now, it is clear that I was so conflicted because both sides showed clear hatred for each other in biased ways. Left hated right, and right hated left. As a person who generally believed in the good of people, I couldn’t understand how political issues were so polarized. Now, ever since the murder of George Floyd, my political views have been challenged more than ever.

Back in March, the world started turning everything upside down. In a time of being unemployed due to the Coronavirus and being back home with my parents, I have noticed the world shift these past three months more than I have in my entire life. Maybe I am just now learning about the world from various perspectives, but even my mother claims she’s never seen the world like this. These shifts are beginning to act as possible limitations to our constitutional rights. Just two months ago, people who were protesting the “stay at home” orders because their livelihoods and incomes were on the line were being shamed by elected officials.¹ Yet, now some elected officials are praising protesters of racial injustice and police brutality for congregating in much larger groups. I want to clarify something; I have no problem with any peaceful protests. I do however have a problem with elected officials deciding what acts of free speech they are willing to support compared to others. Free speech and the right to protest are rights that all Americans are born with, so praising one group for using their rights while condemning another goes inherently against what this country stands for.

Flash forward a few weeks, and now under the guise of racial injustice, people are gathering in groups of hundreds and tearing down statues of Confederate generals, Union generals, and founding members of our country. Yet it seems like no one is being punished for their crimes, and yes, destruction of property is a crime. My personal opinion on the matter: if you hate a statue, sign a petition and attempt to get the statue legally removed through the system of democracy that our country was founded on. Do not illegally tear down a statue. We don’t need dangerous acts of anger causing a statue to land on someone’s head.² The overall uproar seems like what is one person’s righteous anger is another’s chance to destroy public, federal, and private property.

Now, as a young kid who loved learning about historical events like these, I was so curious about what living in a time like this might be like. As a nearly twenty-year-old college student, I can say this is almost exactly what I thought it would be. I always imagined myself to be at home living my day to day life like nothing’s changed. The only thing I imagined that would be different is that outside my house would be battlefields and gunshots constantly. Now 30 minutes away from my house, riots and protests were occurring about two weeks ago, but these minor differences don’t differ too far from what my nine-year-old mind thought. Day to day life is not changing for the average American because we all either have work, summer school and taking care of our families to focus on. I do not see many 50-year-old moms and dads tearing down statues. I see restless teens and twenty-somethings, who are unemployed due to a pandemic, tearing down statues of Ulysses S. Grant who was apparently too racist of a Union General.³

Living in a time of monuments and statues being removed, riots happening, and an autonomous zone, I fear for the future of my country. When referring back to 1984 by George Orwell,⁴ I see many similarities. We are removing statues that tell the story of our nation’s history. When declaring that because George Washington owned slaves in the 1700s, he is no longer worthy of a statue as our first president or commander of the Revolutionary War, I fear we will erase the ideas of our nation’s founding. I believe our nation was founded on principles of freedoms and rights, like the rights of life, liberty, property, freedom of speech and so many other wonderful things. Yes, our country was created in a time where slavery was a worldwide issue, Jim Crow Laws were a terrible and racist way of life, and racist people will always exist because the world will always have some terrible people. But, our country has improved over time while we still see acts of injustice today. The world will never be perfect so if we keep trying to correct all the wrongs that have occurred, no one will even acknowledge the goods that came out of some of those wrongs.

I know that there are issues I will never understand, but I also believe that our country was created to be good to its core. My views and imaginations of war in America from childhood might have been somewhat accurate to what I’m seeing today, but I never thought we would be fighting our American brothers and sisters again. I urge each of y’all to remember that while tensions are high, our country was founded on freedoms and rights and opportunity. Though not everyone has been afforded those rights throughout the entirety of our country’s existence, it is important to not forget how we got here. So let’s not erase the awareness of all the bad things that have occurred in America too, because we all need a reminder of how far we have actually come.

¹Nancy Pelosi says people protesting stay-at-home orders is ‘really unfortunate’

²Man injured in toppling of Confederate statue in Virginia

³Ulysses S. Grant statue toppled in San Francisco

⁴George Orwell wrote this quote in the novel 1984: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”