To Honor the Confederacy or Not?

Governor McDonnell of Virginia is certainly not wasting much time in making sure he makes changes that many of his constituents want. What has he done you may be asking? Well McDonnell recently publicly (and therefore officially) declared that April would be known as Confederate History Month in Virginia. For a number of years, Confederate History Month has been recognized unofficially all across the South however it hasn't been recognized by state leaders for a number of years since many are afraid of what supporting the Confederacy (and therefore the Confederate flag) means for many people.

Now arguments have been made that the Confederate flag isn't necessarily a racist symbol. Although it was the rallying flag of the states which seceded from the United States of America during the Civil War, many contend that it isn't a racist symbol. Never mind that one of the leading causes for the decision to secede was the fact that the government was pushing the Southern states to end slavery and many saw this as the government overstepping their bounds and subsequently led to the war between the states. But that's not what McDonnell chooses to commemorate the Confederacy for. Rather he'd prefer that people remember it as when Virginians stood to defend their homes and the Commonwealth. Never mind that it was due to the fact that they didn't largely agree with the intervention of the federal government into the affairs of the state which did include the issue of slavery (a population of 500,000 that made up nearly a quarter of the population in Virginia at the time).

I find it highly suspect that McDonnell makes this declaration now considering the fact that there is growing support for the Tea Party movement and rallies against the Federal Government. I may not agree with everything that the Federal Government is doing right now but when has anyone ever approved of everything the government is doing. Let me tell you that during the eight years that Bush was in office, I didn't really agree with much and I can tell you that despite his claims that he was helping me (I like to think of myself as an average American), I didn't get any benefit from his tax cuts or from his student loan schemes or any of the other dozens of things he did for the 'average citizen'. I definitely don't count myself among the upper strata of society nor am I rolling in dough but even though I didn't agree with much Bush did (or didn't do) I never once called for secession from the United States.

Now that Obama is in office, I don't expect that many will support everything (or in some cases anything) he does but I find it reprehensible that people are talking about seceding from the country as a means of avoiding the Obama administration. Doesn't anyone else find this growing movement to be a little disturbing? I mean I know that not everyone should blindly agree with what the government does but people are starting to take it a little too far. More and more often these days I feel that this country is changing, and it isn't all for the better. People are so resistant to change that they seem to be taking us back in time rather than forward. We need to grow up as a country rather than revert to the old ways that never really got us anything.