Source: American Civil War Story
It turns out the memorials to the second American Confederacy are being cleaned out like pus from an oozing wound, and President Trump is digging in his heels when it comes to renaming Army bases such as Ft. Hood in Texas. I’m not sure which reason applies – perhaps some of his key allies still live in the Confederate dream, or Trump refuses to be seen giving into the sponsors of this legislation, which include his feuding partner Senator Warren (D-MA) – but the one given out by Press Secretary McEnany seems particularly disingenuous:
“He does, as I noted at the top of this briefing, fervently stand against the renaming of our forts, these great American fortresses where literally some of these men and women who lost their lives as they went out to Europe, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and all across this world to win world wars on behalf of freedom,” McEnany said. “A lot of times, the very last place they saw was one of these forts and to suggest these forts were somehow inherently racist and their names need to be changed is a complete disrespect to the men and women.” [NBC News]
And … she doesn’t address why the forts were named as they were. She doesn’t address why we name forts.
Names are given to such things to honor the people who bore those names. We accord such honors to men who went above and beyond the call of duty in serving the needs of society, and that should be all of society.
Fort Hood was named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, and while he suffered some horrific injuries during the war, the fact remains that, as a graduate of the United States Military Academy, he wasn’t just a treasonous man, a man bent on dividing American society, but a treasonous US Army officer. The most you can say is that at least he didn’t engage in subterfuge by remaining in the US Army when the Civil War began and engaging in sabotage, but immediately joined the Confederate side openly.
Why honor a treasonous man? The blanket pardon issued by President Johnson certainly didn’t remove the stain of treason, merely the punishment.
McEnany does not address this entire argument, because she and Trump have no effective rebuttal. Thus, the squirrel argument: don’t trample on the honor of the fallen who happened to have trained or been based there!
Well, by honoring treasonous officers, you already have trampled the the honor of the fallen, the Union soldiers who lay dead in the fields, and while Trump and McEnany are not responsible for the names given, they have the opportunity to erase that stain.
And they won’t.
