What happened to MY freedom of speech?

 There seems to be a great deal of debate all over the world today centered around the Confederate Battle Flag.  The vocal few are crying out forcing everyone else to succumb to their way of thinking.  One thing the vocal few always chant is “Tolerance”.  I am not feeling very tolerated.

Because history has been rewritten, many people think that the War Between the States was about slavery.  Because people think that the war was about slavery, they see anything that honors the Confederacy as a symbol of racism.

The war was not fought over slavery.  Northern states were oppressing Southern states and refusing to allow most imports to enter through the Southern states because the Southern ports were the major ports of entry for newly arriving slaves.

When Lincoln was elected as president, that was the last straw for many Southerners and South Carolina seceded from the union.  President James Buchanan recognized the Confederate States of America as being an independent country when he met with delegates from the South.  England and France also recognized the Confederate States of America as a sovereign and independent country.  Therefore, there was no United States civil war since a civil war is one fought amongst the citizens of one country.  Two nations cannot fight a civil war against one another.

Most United States troops had been withdrawn from forts and other installations located in the Confederate States of America. One hold out was Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor.

The commander of Fort Sumter was awaiting orders to withdraw when a resupply ship approached the fort.  South Carolina troops opened fire on the fort. This started the War Between the States.

Most Southerners did not own slaves.  Slaves were owned by the very rich, not the average person.  Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, owned a slave.

Why would poor Southerners fight a war for the right of rich people to own slaves?  That would be the same as your average person fighting for the right of the rich to own a business.  How many people do you think would lay down their lives for Walmart’s right to own stores or Amazon’s right to own robots?  What sense does that make?

Let’s face it, slavery was never right.  However, no one alive in the United States today was ever legally held as a slave in the United States.  No one alive today in the United States of America ever legally owned a slave in the United States.

Why do you never hear about the Irish slaves in America? They suffered worse oppression than most blacks did.  Oh, I remember; it is because many of them were held as slaves in the North, after the war.

But, you as Americans do support slavery.  If you have clothes on your back that were made in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China, Korea, or any other country like that you have supported slavery.  In these countries, people are forced to work long hours under poor conditions, with no breaks and for practically no wages.  These people are treated like cattle. They are threatened constantly with bodily harm or termination if they do not work under these conditions.  If you own even one item made under these conditions, you are a racist.  The conditions these people work under are often far worse than most Southern slaves endured.

There are numerous stories written by slaves who had recently been freed from slavery where the slaves talk about the love they had for their former owners.  Many former slaves continued to work for their former owners.  Does that sound like they felt oppressed?

Let’s do away with all forms of racism.  This means that questions about race, ethnicity, national origin, or gender can no longer be asked on any form.  Food stamp benefits cannot be increased because you are an illegal alien as they are now.  The NAACP would not be able to hold events on public property.  Scholarships could not go to “minority students”.  There could be no black history month.  

We honor Dr. Martin Luther King who inspired race riots with his plagiarized speeches when he could take the time away from cheating on his wife...  We should do away with all monuments to him or any other civil rights leaders because these things are racist, too.

In the past,  I have not chosen to fly the Confederate flag only because I did not feel compelled to do so.  People believe that removing the flag will ease racial tensions.  However, many Southerners will feel the need to lash out because we are not allowed our freedom of speech.  South Carolina, if you remove the flag from the state house grounds, you must also remove all monuments to the civil rights movement because they are equally racist.

I am not a racist.  I believe that all people are created as equals and that any type of oppression is wrong.