Paul Sassone

The Confederacy died 152 years ago.

Yet, it still is killing people today.

Its latest victim is a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia.

She was attending a protest against a neo-Nazi, white supremacist rally when a car allegedly driven by a 20-year-old white supremacist rammed into the protesters on purpose.

So, while the Confederacy may be dead its hateful message and meaning unfortunately live on.

One of the ways it does so is through the statues of Confederate soldiers, generals and politicians that pollute the southern landscape.

These statues honor men who committed treason and who fought and killed thousands of Americans.

And why?

To defend, promote and expand human slavery.

Ever since the Confederacy was destroyed the southern propaganda machine has sought to portray slavery as not so bad. Just look at the slaves and their relationship to their masters in “Gone With the

Wind.”

But the real face of slavery was ugly — beatings, lynchings, murders, rapes, families separated.

And the end of the Civil War did not end these horrors. When U.S. Army troops were withdrawn from the south in the 1870s, the whites in power passed laws that attempted to keep black people as de facto slaves.

The fight against these laws and discriminatory practices continues through today. And only very recently have southern institutions begun to remove the statues of Confederates.

America has progressed in 152 years, But, lately it seems there has been an increase not only in hateful speech but hateful actions.

People who once kept their hatreds inside somehow now feel it is all right to openly express their prejudices.

Some blame President Donald Trump who, through his intemperate ethnic, racial and religious comments, have uncorked the bottle and liberated the evil genie of bigotry.

And the President’s wishy-washy initial comments on what happened in Charlottesville lend credence to this view.

I suppose it is naive to think racists will give up their hateful views without a fight.

But what a sad day it is when a woman dies over long-dead, long-disgraced men and ideas that should have died 152 years ago.

–Long-disgraced men, ideas should have died 152 years ago–