Paul Sassone

It was 150 years ago this month (April 9) that Lee surrendered to Grant. How long do you think it will be before the Civil War ends? I ponder this question since I’m kind of a Civil War buff.

Oh, I don’t mean that I cram myself into a Civil War suit and pretend to shoot at gray-garbed accountants and plumbers, but I do read a lot about the conflict.

And over many vacations I have:

• Walked across the Gettysburg field that was the scene of Pickett’s charge;

• Stood in the Bloody Lane at Antietam;

• Visited the courthouse where John Brown was tried; and

• Listened to the stillness of The Wilderness where 100 years ago men fought and shouted and screamed.

These places and others I have visited. So, I know a little something about our Civil War. Except when it will end.

It goes on, I believe.

And I fear the Confederacy might be winning. The Civil War was fought over slavery and states rights.

Well, the war abolished slavery. But the battle for civil rights for African-Americans has been fought ever since.

Today, 32 states have voter ID laws. Proponents of these laws claim they exist to prevent voter fraud, but can point to very few instances of such fraud. Others (including me) see these laws as a way to discourage minorities and the poor from voting.

These laws are generally passed by Republican-dominated legislatures because minority and poor voters generally cast their ballots for Democrats.

The irony here is thick. In the mid-19th Century, the Republican party was the anti-slavery party. The Democrats represented the slave power.

And we see today a renaissance in the argument that the right of states trumps federal law. Most recently, the Alabama Supreme Court refused to obey a federal court order permitting same-sex marriage. Not much has changed it seems since 1963 when Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama to prevent federally ordered enrollment of black students.

And how many of the so-called religious freedom restoration acts passed by state legislatures are a way to use states rights to thwart federal law on same-sex marriages?

Allowing that there were fewer states in the 19th Century, have you noticed that a political red-states, blue-states map of America, the red states part looks a lot like a map of the Confederacy?

I’m just saying. It seems to me that in some ways the Civil War goes on.