Recently read something written by a fellow veteran that shocked and saddened me. It has taken quite a bit of thought, but I have finally formulated an answer.

My much respected fellow veteran wrote in defense of Confederate monuments, noting that said monuments honored patriotic Americans who died fighting for a cause they believed in.

This was specifically noted in regard to moving the Confederate monument from the front of the Tampa courthouse, and relocating it (respectfully) elsewhere.

However…what does this romantic view of the Civil War do to the memory of the men who died fighting to preserve the Union (i.e, the United States of America) and to free men and women from bondage? I would even venture to call this the original Blue Lives Matter. Call me crazy, but as someone who proudly wore the uniform of the United States of America, venerating people that KILLED AMERICAN SOLDIERS is a slap in the face. Erecting monuments to the cause that kept human beings in chains and starved captured U.S. Army troops at Andersonville so that they were literally picking undigested grain out of their own feces to survive is beyond egregious to the memory of those that served and died.

Imagine a world where there was an organization called “The Sons of Tory Patriots” that put up monuments to the British soldiers who died defending the Colonies for their (technically OUR) king popping up in front of courthouses in Boston. What might you think if you drove by a huge Union Jack flying just outside of that city in a park dedicated to our proud past as subjects of the king and part of the important Slave, Rum, Sugar trade triangle?