Confederate statues need a little ‘truth in packaging’

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPCL), a group I’m proud to support, reports there are about 2,000 statures, building names and other honors to the Confederacy scattered across the Ol’ South. There coming down slowly as Republican state legislators are passing laws protecting them as fast as they’re passing racist laws not protecting the votes of likely Democratic voters.

I’m not a fan of removing offensive memorials as the list could include just about any honored person from the past. As Joey Brown exclaimed at the end of ‘Some Like It Hot’ when he found out his love interest, cross dressing Jack Lemmon, was a man, “Nobody’s perfect”. But we should no more honor traitors seeking succession from the Union than Germany should honor Nazi war criminals.

If they achieve protected status, we should, at a minimum, require truthful and honest descriptions. A huge monument to Confederate soldiers inside the entrance to the Austin, Texas State Capitol, proclaims “Died to protect states rights under the Constitution”. How bout, “Died seeking to destroy the Union to protect slavery”?