We Don't Need Southern Men Around Anyhow

Robert McDonnell, the governor of Virginia, is aware of his state's history, and he seems to be bent on honoring the past by living in it.

McDonnell issued a resolution reinstating the celebration of April in Virginia as Confederate History Month in honor of the people of Virginia "who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth." He called for Virginians "to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present."

Oh yeah, and he forgot to mention that Virginians fought to preserve the sanctity of slavery.

What planet is McDonnell on? He wants to cast the Civil War as a conflict between the states over "states' rights," but he seems to forget that the Southern states started the war as a reaction to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. The South opposed Lincoln's policy not allowing the extension of slavery to the frontier. (He had no intention to abolish slavery where it already existed, because he didn't have the authority; ironically, the Civil war gave him the ability to do so.) Although McDonnell apologized for failing to acknowledge the horror of slavery and said he never meant to condone it, it's worth stressing that the Southern states seceded from the Union. The idea of the Civil War from the Southern perspective was to form a new country, the Confederate States of America, not preserve state sovereignty within the framework of the Constitution.

McDonnell has only gotten many prominent black Virginians to speak out against him, including one of his own supporters from last year's gubernatorial campaign, Black Entertainment Television co-founder Sheila Johnson. The Republican party to which McDonnell belongs looks even more out of touch with people outside the Tea Party movement, and he may have sunk his own presidential ambitions.

Speaking of the Presidency, did you know that Virginian John Tyler, the nation's tenth president, served in the Confederate Congress just before his death?

I do agree that Virginians who fought in the Civil War for their country should be honored, though. So let's honor George Thomas, a hero of the . . . Union. (Thomas is famous for having destroyed a Confederate army under the command of John Bell Hood at the Battle of Nashville in 1864.)