Here’s some quotes from the Commandant’s letter banning
Confederate symbology.
All
of our installations have regulations prohibiting the display of symbols
related to hate speech. (1)
So, apparently, pride in one’s heritage is now hate speech?
…
help cultivate an environment which promotes unity and security by limiting
offensive or divisive displays. (1)
What about homosexual displays? Those are most certainly divisive and
offensive to many!
Leaders
must always act thoughtfully when enforcing these provisions because they
directly impact a precious constitutional right—the right to free speech. (1)
Listen up, Marines!
You have the Constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech … as long
as it exactly duplicates what the Commandant says.
I
must identify symbols or subcultures that degrade the cohesion that combat
demands of us. (1)
So, rather than allow any individuality, any displays of
historical pride, any celebration of heritage, or any freedom of speech, the
Commandant has made it his mission to stamp out any symbols or subcultures …
unless, of course, they’re ones he, personally, approves of.
Now, before any of you begin banging out your indignant,
outraged protests and condemnation of my support of slavery (I know, many of
you already have), note that I haven’t actually said that I support
slavery. I also haven’t actually said
that I support the display of Confederate symbology. What I’ve said is that I note the
classification of some types of symbols as hateful and divisive while other
symbols are deemed okay despite also being hateful and divisive.
Frankly, I don’t have any idea why Confederate symbology
would be displayed in the Marines.
Perhaps there are units that trace their lineage back to the Confederate
states and units? I have no idea.
What I do know is that who we are is the sum of all
of our past experiences both good and bad.
Trying to eliminate all historical record of periods, actions, and
attitudes we find disagreeable, however appropriate and typical they may have
been for their time, is horribly wrong.
We need to study, understand, and learn from our entire past not
just the selected bits we deem ‘good’.
We must never forget the Nazis, the Holocaust, slavery, or any other
evil act. Instead, we must study them
and constantly remind ourselves of what they meant and what they mean to us,
today, in terms of lessons learned.
When we try to tear down statues of Confederate heroes we
are editing our history and that is never a good thing. When we try to remove all reference to Thomas
Jefferson (President and founder of the University of Virginia) from the
University of Virginia because he owned slaves we are editing our history. This also reminds us that most events and
people in history are neither all good nor all bad. To discard parts of our history because some
particular aspect of it was bad is to lose all the good that went with it. To tear down George Washington because he
owned slaves is to lose the lessons of all the good that he did and all the
good he represents.
With all that said, there are three takeaways from this discussion:
- Embrace history, don’t fear it.
- Be consistent. If you want to ban symbology, ban all symbology not selected symbols that you personally disagree with – that’s just hypocrisy.
- If this is what the Commandant is spending his time on then we have the wrong Commandant.
Note: I know this touches on a charged issue. If you choose to comment, be absolutely certain that it's about something I actually said, not something you think I said. Failure to do so will result in a deleted comment.
Update
Note: I'm shutting down commenting on this topic as I can already see that the comments are headed in an unproductive direction. I had hoped that the larger issues could be discussed logically and objectively but it's apparent that comments and discussion will devolve into comments about slavery. Commenting will resume with the next post. Comments remain open for all other posts. Thank you for your understanding.