Dead Confederate and Union soldiers lying side by side in a trench.
Sometimes, even in solemn remembrances, origins fade in the passage of years. The honored dead are no more or less sacred based on the time and place in which they fall, but a trip to the beginning can be sobering in the context of current events. I recently was in an exchange with a brother who expressed that he is of a mind to meet intimidation with violence. The roots of this intimidation are firmly planted in the philosophic dichotomy in our current political culture, namely the conflict between those who seek to establish government control or determination of nearly every aspect of our lives, and those of us who refuse to be dispossessed of the notion of a limited government that serves us and not an expansive government that we all serve. The passions on both sides frequently burn stronger than the bounds of restraint might contain, and the actions of those seeking a paternal government often seem calculated to elicit a strong response, if only so they can claim justification for the taking the powers they crave.
This weekend, many will pause to think of the honored dead. For some it is a father, a mother, a sister or brother. A grandparent, a childhood friend, former neighbor, or a nameless, faceless person from the past to whom a debt of gratitude is owed that can never be personally repaid in full. Every flag-draped coffin and alabaster headstone represents a sacrifice made by someone who did not fail when their country asked. They represent sacrifices freely made in the service of freedoms that do not exist in any other country in the world, and so made, have forever earned the descriptors of “honored” and “sacred”. They still exist as examples to future generations that some ideas are worth fighting for.
While there were several reasons for the conflict that spawned this holiday, for many, it will ultimately be about the incompatibility of a nation founded on the freedom that God granted to all men, and the state of bondage in which some of its citizens retained thousands of others, and the liberation that came of that conflict was the correct result to dispense with that contradiction. However, the conflict also concerned issues of federalism, and the idea of separation of powers, and unfortunately, too many have acted as if the resolution of that conflict to resolve those issues. It did not, and could not have done so, while allowing this country retain the character which its architects clearly intended.
As a result, there is exists a schism today, between those who believe that the federal government has jurisdiction over any matter it chooses to exercise jurisdiction over, and that the individual’s rights, central to the grant of authority set forth in the Declaration of Independence, is subject to the supremacy of collective rights as determined by the nebulous and non-objectably definable “general welfare”, and that this “general welfare” is not even determined by national concerns, but by international (and unelected) consensus. This conflation purports to create ambiguity where in truth none exists. There is no question who is right; one is either a citizen of this nation, or a citizen of the world. It is not possible to be both without having an inherent conflict of interest between the two, yet this division still exists, and a clash between these beliefs leaves its mark on the actions of politicians and on the effects on our citizens.
These clashing beliefs have the same potential as the conflict over slavery, because the resolution means no less than defining who we will be as a nation, or even whether we will continue to exist as a nation. These are also ideas that are worth dying for. Some would like that conflict now. Others would like to see if the issue can be resolved without resorting to that cost. It is no shame to fight for the ideals you believe in without taking the life of a countryman. There is no surrender in meeting them point for point in a free and open forum. History and fact are on our side. We all lose when we abandon that field, because should we do so, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins,…Americans…will find themselves divided by the sword. Before any one of us submits to passion and rushes headlong into such a breach, we all need to consider the honored dead, not just from modern conflicts, but those of the War Between the States. Consider their courage, committment, resolve, and sacrifice, and give due consideration to the ideals for which they paid the only price that is solely the individual’s to pay, and whether the ideals for which you burn also honor their sacrifice or make it in vain, and whether you have given your last full measure short of surrendering to a terrible resolve.
Dead soldiers at Gettysburg. Casualties for both the Union and Confederates after three days of fighting were greater than 50,000.
Crossposted at NiceDeb.
Excellent post. All too often this day is thought of as just another paid day off.
The seeds of our current problems were sown in the decisions taken during the Civil War. We would be a much different nation, or two nations, had that been done differently. The destruction of the role of the states was begun at that time, and has continued increasingly right up to the present day to the point that in many ways the states mean almost nothing. Now we are seeing the 10th Amendment Movement in a number of states attempting to reassert the role of the states, and the federal government treats this with all the seriousness of an elephant annoyed by a gnat.
Most of the people I have talked to in the North about the Civil War will insist that it was about slavery and nothing else. Conversely, most folks in the South will insist that it was about states rights and nothing else. It is rather amazing that there continues to exist this completely opposite view of the nature of the war 150 years after it started. It may be simply a wish to justify their own positions, but I think it is actually more than that. I think there is really a fundamental difference in the way that the war was seen on the two sides. I do think, however, that the war was “sold” in the North as an anti-states rights project because states rights was taken to mean the right to hold slaves. Thus the focus on the southerners as “rebels.”
We see today the great need for states rights in order to curb the power of the central government that threatens to run over every freedom of the individual. Thus, Mr. Lincoln, in putting down states rights, has done us an evil turn that we are paying for dearly.
Regrettably, BiW, the Civil War is so long forgotten by most in our country today that the sacrifices of those who died therein are largely forgotten. We tend to forget that we have been down that bloody road already, and I am much afraid we are about to walk it again. This time it will be much worse. Who studies the character of the leaders of the Civil War era today? They are almost totally unknown. In our ignorance, and thinking our situation “new,” we will have to learn the lesson again from scratch.
The seeds of our current problems were sown in the decisions taken during the Civil War.
I came to that conclusion some time ago, and much like the seeds of the Civil War were sown in the founding of the nation, the irony is not lost on me.
and I am much afraid we are about to walk it again. This time it will be much worse.
I can only hope that it doesn’t happen. The temptation for foreign intervention would be too great, and having to fight for liberation and a true federal republic at the same time would no doubt destroy us for at least a generation.