For a few days, I've been walking around thinking and commenting on Virginia's Confederate History Month. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of "the commonwealth" of Virginia. I think it's worth mentioning that commonwealth is defined on Wikipedia as "a political community founded for the common good." Anyway, before last week, I wasn't a fan of Virginia for a few different reasons: (1) the drivers suck overall; (2) the police officers seem to be fulfilling the highest quotas possible and the justice system is "cruel and unusual"; (3) the laws in the state are severely outdated and the justice system takes too long to overturn inhumane laws -- i.e. a husband could legally rape his wife in the VA until 2002 and can still do so with a lesser penalty than raping someone other than his spouse; and (4) the cost of things in VA is usually exorbitant and I mean everything! Virginia's only redeeming qualities, for me, have been the beautiful landscape of the mountains and valleys in southern VA and my education. I attended Washington & Lee University (named after a Confederate general) and one of the reasons I chose to go there was its physical beauty. I will be graduating from George Mason in a few weeks, which is also in Virginia, but after this degree, I hope to limit my ties and activity in the state to a minimum.
Now, I passionately hated Virginia before April 2010. I read that Cucinelli, state attorney general, wanted to rescind state school policies that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, based on a technicality. Who does that? Prejudiced people such as those elected in Virginia. This is when I began to despise the current administration. Now, they've given me yet another reason to look forward to getting out of Virginia as soon as the ink on my diploma is dry: Confederate History Month. Most people know that last week, Virginia's governor, Bob McDonnell, declared April "Confederate History Month" -- the twist is that most people know and care about his proclamation because he did not mention slavery in his proclamation of how important it is for Virginia's confederate history to be "studied, understood and remembered". While I absolutely believe that slavery is the direct cause of the Civil War, this is not my particular issue with the proclamation. My issue is the fact that there was any proclamation at all. As far as I can tell, no one has forgotten about Virginia's confederate history, particularly Virginian citizens. It is still included in the history books and taught in school. In fact, this may be the anger and disappointment talking, but I would even venture to say that a lot of the present-day racist behavior in Virginia makes it impossible to forget Virginia's confederate history. Why is it necessary to remind people of such a painful history? Why is it so important to this administration to do that? And why do they think this declaration will welcome many more tourists to the state for the anniversary of the Civil War? I absolutely disagree that racism is disappearing but I did think we were moving away from major racist declarations such as this. Who does Bob think he is to make such a divisive declaration and then to amend it with a "condemnation" of slavery? It's like he's saying, "remember the good ol' days when we thought we could legally keep slavery alive and thriving? Even if we can't get that back, let's just celebrate that time when our national moral conscience was literally warring from opposite sides. A time when we were a separate country, entirely." I'm so angered by this that I'm inclined to call Bob something other than his name... It really annoys me that one state could be so backward in its policies, attitudes, voting trends, etc.
The Civil War, and the Confederacy, were absolutely about states' rights, as so many defenders like to say. My response is that they were about states' rights to own slaves. They were about slavery -- without that hot topic, there would have been no Civil War or Confederacy. To celebrate this major scar in our national history at all, let alone for an entire month, is insulting.
I am thankful to the "commonwealth" for a reputable education, and for the "lows" in my life without which I couldn't truly appreciate the "highs". But if we never have formal ties again, I'll be more than fine with that.
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