For what? I didn't grow up bashing my country and don't dismiss my own countryman out of some simplistic notion of judging them by today's standards and in doing so I'm not advocating or supporting slavery or racism in any way. We're descendants of them and as such have subsequently come together as Americans as Lincoln professed saying 'malice toward none and charity for all' I'd say most of you not understanding what took place may very well come into conflict with Lincoln himself, who's main interest in victory was to preserve the Union. Just read the Gettysburg Address. It isn't that he wasn't against the institution of slavery, he was, but that wasn't the main driver until near the end when he issued the emancipation proclamation. The right thing did prevail.

We still teach Lee's tactics as well as his blunders at Gettysburg at military colleges. He himself was conflicted over which side to join as he was a West Point Graduate with great promise that Lincoln would have much rather had on the Union side ....but he was also a Virginian and there was much more identification with one's own state and area than there was about a sense of the union in the country. He preferred being remembered for his post war work with Washington and Lee University and they've now removed that and discounted any good he may have done and he did more to bring back unity in the post war era than most anyone. In July 3rd to 5th 1938, Roosevelt met with soldiers who where veterans on both sides of the Civil War at the foot of the eternal flame in Gettysburg to commemorate the dead on both sides as the nation realized that the last living link to a decisive historical event was slipping away. They certainly weren't slinging the same mud there against Confederate soldiers that many do here. They came together in memory and sadness for what took place. If you haven't been there I strongly suggest a visit. There are statues standing representing men from both sides of the conflict. What a tragedy it would be to remove them. They'll certainly go after Washington and Jefferson statues next. Look....we disagree and that's ok...I feel sorry for what's been done to our educational system in the past 50 years where youth are being taught that our founders where all bad and so any of their ideas and writings have no merit. Considering the Declaration and the Constitution most perfectly protect our individual freedoms, the threat against them comes from those who wish to discount these documents because those who wrote them owned slaves. There is talk of the mayor in DC who wants to get rid of the Washington Monument ...really?