I’ll make this short. Promise. I do have a few things to say however when it comes to the despicable practice of naming U.S. Military bases after TRAITORS. Make no mistake – the Confederates who not only took up arms against our country but led large numbers of troops in our Civil War so they could preserve SLAVERY were freaking traitors. To a man. Not a one of them deserved the honor of having a U.S. military installation named in their honor.
We tried to fix that. A law was passed to rename installations named for these traitors. It’s a startlingly long list as you can see here. There were just too many racists in the aftermath of the Civil War to accept that slavery was evil, and more importantly that the Confederacy LOST the Civil War. Enough so that not only would they create a bullshit notion of a a “noble” “Lost Cause” and promote it into the 20t century, they instilled this same bullshit in their children. That’s how a bunch of bases, mostly in southern states got named for Confederate generals in the first place.
Although it never should have happened, and it took far too long to fix this travesty a movement to rip those TRAITORS names from bases grew to a point where legislation was passed. Places started getting renamed. Ft. Bragg, the huge army base in NC became Ft. Liberty for example. However stone cold racist Trump, along with his rapey and racist SecDef Pete Hegseth found a workaround. They started renaming the bases back!
It’s all a vile, disgusting wink-wink-nod-nod dodge though. In renaming bases back to honor TRAITORS the bases like Ft. Bragg, Ft. Lee etc. are being renamed by other mlitary folks who did something of distinction. When you see the BIG last name name on the signs, the person supposedly being on those signs has their first name in small print. Hegesth, Trump and the rest can lie and misdirect but we all know, we KNOW that for them and the “the south will rise again” asshats refer to Ft. Bragg they mean Confederate General and Traitor Braxton Bragg.
Same with Ft. Lee which is all about the near Jesus like worship Robert E. Lee. More than once when I lived in northern VA I called him the TRAITOR he was and had guys think about taking a swing at me. I still looked a lot like the Marine infantryman I once was and at 6’4″ they were afraid of getting their asses kicked but I don’t think insulting their mother would have upset them as much. Lee, lest we forget was Gen. Winfield Scott’s top pick to lead the Union forces starting with taking command of the forces assembling across the river from DC. Lee turned him down and instead went to Richmond.
My point is that this administration isn’t fooling anyone with their renaming for people other than whom the bases were first named for. They are trying but it’s pure bullshit. Senator Angus King of Maine noted when he took Hegseth to task he’s grown up in Virginia and was taught to revere Lee growing up. He grow past that, and he wanted an explanation from Hegseth on why the hell we’d go back to honoring Traitors who took up arms against our country to preserve slavery should be honored by having bases RE-named for them. You really should watch the exchange at this link. (Sorry, I couldn’t get the video URL to copy over)
One last point. Hegseth tried slinging bullshit about “legacy” to troops who trained at those bases and EVERYONE who trained/served on them just loved the original names. Of course, he’s a White Nationalist racist and rapey asshole so you’d expect those are the kinds of folks at those places or who have served at them who’d come up to him and say they are glad the names were changed back. Why do I feel like he avoids asking black people who’s ancestors were slaves, or white people he isn’t sure have MAGA leanings what THEY think.
Senator King hit the nail on the head refuting Hegseth’s rationalization, correctly noting we weren’t erasing history with stripping Traitor’s names from bases but recognizing it. Being honest about it. Well, as far as I’m concerned if we get back control of the White House and Congress we need to pass an updated version of the original renaming legislation. Put in a clause that states something to the effect that since racists and those who would honor traitors had found a way to get around the prior version of the law, not only can no U.S. Military installation be named after a TRAITOROUS Confederate General, it can’t be named after ANYONE with the same last name of one of these traitors.
To anyone from the old south, or elsewhere for that matter than disagrees with me I say go screw yourself. Sideways. Then do so again.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Bravo Denis! Well put and well said. I grew up in St. Louis, which was something of a Yankee town, and I’ve always felt that, while understanding southerners desire for independence, they couldn’t have picked a worse cause to die for than slavery.
Yes, and they also came up with that horrendous “spin” on naming things, like, oh let’s just call it “The War of Northern Aggression.” When it was the south that fired the first shot!
That doublespeak is alive and well in the drumph admin.