West Point removes Confederate statues, even of West Point graduates. In Ken Burns’ classic series “The Civil War,” there is a reenactment of Gettysburg by elderly veterans in the 1890s. As the two groups came together they embraced. Those who suffered and bled, and who lost limbs and comrades, could forgive. But we ingrates can’t?
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Only a vibrant republic could honor former rebels with statues, and even name military installations after them. But we are no longer a vibrant republic. We lack the self-assurance to forgive and unite. We forget that when Lincoln heard that Lee had surrendered, he ordered the band to play “Dixie.” We have grown so insecure that even statues of dead people frighten us. “The glory has departed.”
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