If you erase the history books, then it never happened!...right?

Obviously, you didn't get the meaning of this...

That's fine. I hate plenty about our government, I support my fellow citizens. But the Confederacy was about destroying our country to continue owning other human beings and surprise! The good old US of A won. Now be part of the nation or leave. Pretty simple isn't it?

Please understand, i harbor no goodwill towards slavery of ANY kind...it is the worst thing any human being can do to another...however, i do not consider the civil war as being ONLY about slavery. If you study the intricate reasons behind the war, you will find that the southern states were more angered by the federal government attempting to dictate to individual states how to govern themselves. My personal feelings are that the secession by the southern states was the last time the american people had the belief and the will to stand up and even die for their right to self-govern! Think about it...most of the confederate soldiers were poor farmers that did NOT even own slaves, they just didn't want the federal government involved in their personal lives!

Study it closer. The secessionist were the extremely rich plantation owners that were also the power brokers in the south. They wanted to continue earning money off of slavery and its side effect of keeping wages for free people low.

I use to live in the south and while my father came to America in 46, my mother is a sweet southern belle. I use to believe in the whole southern pride argument, but once I realized it's a means of separating us as a nation I stopped.

It's the UNITED States of America. We are strong because of it. We can disagree politically, religiously, or even sports (SEC!) and still be fellow citizens.

Now for that reason I support your right to fly the battle flag of Virginia as a private citizen, but it has no place on government grounds unless it's a museum.

It's not wanting to erase the past of our nation, but to continue moving forward as a better nation.

If you re-read my comment, you'll see that i stated that " most of the confederate soldiers" were POOR farmers...i did not say that the "secessionist leadership". My inference in this meme is that the general population is no longer willing to come together and defend their beliefs, they are content with being coddled by the " powers that be"... And are being surrepticiously led to a politically correct future, free from independant thoughts and actions.

I think you choose a bad example. The poor farmers rose up and died defending the very people that wanted them to not think for themselves.

You want independent thought? Excellent! The first step in that is a proper education that doesn't erase the uglier parts of our history, but instead examines all factors that lead to it.

Now ask yourself if you support education. My wife works in the education field and I can tell you no one wants to pay for schools anymore. Teachers are now ridiculed more than they are celebrated and wages have stagnated while their own continuing education requires have increased.
i also have a ton more on what's wrong with our schools, but this is going long.

First off, kudos to your wife for choosing such a noble profession! I do indeed support education, but am not convinced that children today are entering the adult world with an adequate enough education to improve upon preceeding generations...i do not blame this on teachers, but on substandard parenting. Making children believe that everything in todays world is equal and fair is doing them a disservice...i work with many young people that believe they deserve promotions and pay raises just for showing up! Their parents have never explained to them that they must outperform fellow employees if they want to get noticed. Instead, they are ( thru parental inaction) led to believe that if they complain loud enough, long enough that they will get their way, without actually doing anything to deserve it. This is not a better future( in my opinion) than what we had in the past.

And this is why we need to talk and not yell at each other. I agree we are too soft on children today. I hate nanny state types and incouraged my kids to get out and play away from supervision as that builds character. Sure they will make mistakes and sometimes get hurt. I sure as hell did growing up.
But yeah, parents need to be front and center. I see first hand the my child is an angel that can do no wrong types and I know the kind of workers they grow up to be.
But schools matter too. Best class I ever had was an English class were we studied language use in commercials. I was fortunate to also have history teachers that relished debate. Now it's teach to the test.
Excuse me, shift change. Got to run.

And true! Upvote!