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I mean, I've read numerous interviews and speeches over the years from minority servicemembers and veterans who talked about how it made them feel to join the military, go off to training, and wind up at a base named after a traitor general who fought to keep their forefathers enslaved. When black veterans talk about serving in segregated units, being discriminated on-base and off during the first half of the 20th century, being denied benefits everyone else got like the GI Bill, and more, the Confederate naming issue a lot of times has popped up.
But they were probably making it all up anyway, right? I mean, who could actually care about this issue (other than the people telling you they care about it)? Better to just dismiss it all out of hand, rather than give a few seconds of actual thought to it.
Serving in segregated units is one thing. Simply enlisting and being stationed on a base that has a name like Bragg that probably that service member had no idea who it was... this beggars the imagination.
Since you bring up discrimination, it should be noted that the U.S. armed forces were the first institution to get rid of segregation, back in the 1940s. In fact it was an executive order from President Truman, and there was resistance from the top officers at first.
But then they observed how a division of thousands of black Marines comported themselves in Korea, fighting courageously and competently. This persuaded them that these men deserved integration, that integration would succeed, and so they stopped resisting the idea.
For decades, the single most influential institution for uplifting young black men, providing them with literacy and professional skills and self-respect, was the U.S. Army, and probably it's true still to this day.
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Last edited by Rachel NewYork; 11-21-2020 at 09:35 AM..
Reason: Personal attack. Keep it civil, please.
I didn't say they couldn't or wouldn't only that I think they shouldn't. The defense news was to show that this is still under discussion, not a done deal yet - no analysis needed. I have a lot of knowledge of how this stuff works, having been involved in this type of process many times before.
The military is under the executive branch, whether you like it or not. The military doesn't take action based on peeps feelings or polls, the chain of command is through the executive branch. I know the Legislature has the power to control this through funding and legislation but I wish they wouldn't.
I really don't have a dog in the fight whether the bases are renamed or not, I just think it is a knee jerk reaction and would be best if congress did not get involved. BTW - not that it matters but I have been to more than half of these bases.
For the third time, you're accusing me of being mistaken or wrong, about something I addressed in the OP.
Please read the OP, this is getting tiresome.
I've expressed zero opinion or preference as to which branch the military should be under. When the Prez is the Commander-in-Chief, it should be pretty obvious.You're raising a straw man.
Renaming of roads like Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway, is currently a contentious issue in Va, as is the renaming of schools in Va, and to a lesser extent in DC and Md.
Monument Ave. in Richmond has seen some big changes this year.
This article gives actual responses to the call for the change.
Quoted from linked article:
Quote:
Discarding them, their memory, and the sacrifices they made (made not for slavery, but for their fellow citizens), is to treat them the way so many treated Vietnam Veterans returning from a war they fought because their country called on them to do it.
I would not compare Confederate soldiers to Vietnam Veterans. The above statement represents the logical fallacy of argumentum ad passiones.
I think it is all a bunch of silliness. No one really knows who these people were. Fort Sill? Who is Sill? Fort Bragg? No idea. Moultrie? Probably some French Kenigit.
I think they tried to name the Forts after generals who were from the states the forts are located in. Some states did not have any well known generals so we got some obscure names. In other cases we got forts like Bragg and Hood, who were well known full generals but who were terrible in command of large armies (Hood in particular destroyed his own army by repeated frontal attacks).
Politics probably played a role too. Fort Benning in Georgia is named after Benning, a minor general instead of the far more well known General James Longstreet, one of the best corps commanders of the Civil War.
Why? Both men were from Georgia but Longstreet made the cardinal sin of supporting equal rights for Black Americans after the Civil War. So Longstreet became persona non-grata for many years in the South which is why Fort Benning is named after such a non entity as Benning instead of Longstreet.
99.9% of people don't even know who the bases were named after. Probably one radical thought this up, then it went viral.
If 99.9% are clueless it is an easy change then. There are plenty of non-Confederates to name military bases after. If only 0.1% cares and puts up a fuss, then maybe they are the radicals.
If 99.9% are clueless it is an easy change then. There are plenty of non-Confederates to name military bases after. If only 0.1% cares and puts up a fuss, then maybe they are the radicals.
Renaming historical landmarks, tearing down statues, altering the language, condemning famous historical figures... if only 0.1% care and put up a fuss, what's the problem?
... if only 0.1% care and put up a fuss, what's the problem?
Poor education.
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