LETTER: Reschenthaler to be commended
It is not often that I get to commend Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, but I will do so now. His vote to remove Confederate statues from the U.S Capitol was the right thing to do. Too bad most of his fellow Republicans voted against the measure. Many of the said Republicans made references to “cancel culture” and “critical race theory,” both of which are the current conservative scare du jour. However, one need not conjure up either of those topics, which I doubt most detractors can define in the first place, to make the case that the statues need to go.
There is no doubt that that the Confederate statues are symbols of racism. Please remember that as members of the Confederacy, those “heroes” immortalized by the statues fought to preserve the institution of slavery. A refresher on slavery: a person owns another person as PROPERTY. It doesn’t get any more racist than that. The Confederates fought to preserve slavery – as in a war, complete with mass killing. Who did the Confederates kill to preserve slavery? Soldiers in the United States Armed Services. The Civil War remains the bloodiest war in U.S. history, and Confederates killed more Pennsylvanians than Nazis did. That Confederates killed many U.S. service members in defense of slavery is unambiguous, despite what “Lost Cause” mythology and other revisionists say. The only ambiguous part of the Confederacy lies in the legal status of the Confederates. Were they rightful U.S. citizens, which would make them traitors, or were they soldiers from another country who fought a war against the United States of America? This hasn’t definitively been settled. However, it appears that states cannot secede without the consent of the government of the United States. Therefore, Confederates were traitors. Even if one can make the case that Confederates weren’t traitors, the default is that they were the enemy of the United States of America. They should not be honored in any way, shape, or form.
Summing it up, Confederates committed treason (a crime against our country) to maintain slavery (a crime against humanity). That vile flag of treason, the monuments, and statues need to go away. Defense of the Confederacy is a defense of treason.
John Moretti
Claysville