TO PRESERVE HISTORY, GERMANS ERECT STATUE OF HITLER IN MUNICH

No, calm down. That hasn't happened and it ain't gonna happen.

I'm the first one to agree that comparisons of modern political figures to Hitler are often overblown and without merit. But putting that aside, can you just imagine the outrage if such were to come to pass, Germans celebrating Hitler with statues as an important component of German history that needed to be preserved in bronze in public spaces? Other than a few right-wing, brain-dead fanatics, modern-day Germans would simply not stand for such a thing.

Now ask the following question. Why is it acceptable to erect statues to traitorous American slave holders like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, who prosecuted a treasonous war that killed a higher percentage of adult American males than any war in American history, all for the purpose of preserving the institution of slavery?

Don't. Just don't try to tell me that preserving slavery was not the cause of the American Civil War nor its ultimate aim. Only fuzzy-thinking college professors and Southern apologists push their theories of States Rights and Northern economic aggression. Don't. Just don't. Instead, read what elected state legislators said themselves as they announced their decision to secede from the Union.

Here are the second and third sentences of Georgia's secession statement: "The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery." Even more telling is the second sentence of Mississippi's statement: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world." Both Texas and Virginia refer to the grievances of 'slave-holding states' throughout their declarations.

I submit that the memories of the rebels who have been honored with statues throughout the United States do not deserve preservation. I submit that their statues deserve the same fate as the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 2003 or the statue of Josef Stalin in Budapest during Hungary's October Revolution in 1956 or the statue of George III in Manhattan in 1776 just days after the Declaration of Independence was ratified.

Have no fear. The guiding lights of the Confederacy will not be forgotten. They just need to be relegated to the place where they belong, the trash heap of history, covered in contempt rather than gilded bronze. Pigeon shit is too good for them.

CLARITY AGAINST TREASON

This is a message to the alt-right, or whatever you choose to call yourselves these days, and those who would defend them.

Let me be clear. Crystal clear.

There is no place in America for swastikas, Nazi salutes, or chants of "Blood and Soil". If you are marching next to a Nazi and you realize that you are and you do not run in the other direction, you are either a Nazi or an idiot. There are no value judgements to make. There are no nice Nazis. They are traitors to America, pure and simple.

If you are marching next to someone brandishing a Confederate battle flag, go right ahead. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to advocate secession. But if you want to break up our great Union because you are unable to deal with modern reality, you are a traitor to America, pure and simple.

I'm not saying: Love it or leave it. I'm saying: If you want to leave, you can't take pieces of my country away with you.

And don't hand me that crap about the Civil War being about States' Rights. That's pure horse hockey. Here are the second and third sentences of Georgia's secession statement: "The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery." Even more telling is the second sentence of Mississippi's statement: "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world." Both Texas and Virginia refer to the grievances of 'slave-holding states' throughout their declarations.

The Confederate battle flag that was waved so proudly in Charlottesville was the symbol of a movement to keep slavery legal, fostered by white men willing to destroy our Union over their cause. To wonder why that flag or the monuments to the generals who fought under that flag is offensive is to profess either ignorance or prejudice. Period. And don't tell me that those monuments are reminders of the horrors of war. They are, to the people who marched in Charlottesville, salutes to their heroes, men who were willing to kill tens of thousands of Americans to preserve slavery.

Those generals were not heroes. Their statues are not simply a part of our history. Those generals were traitors to America, pure and simple. When did we decide that erecting statues to honor traitors was a good thing?