You’re whistling Dixie if you think monument removal changes Manatee

In the late 1990s, I lived half the year in White County, Ga. There I belonged to the White County Historical Society. One of my jobs was to give tours of the White County Historical Court House. There was a great discussion that the Confederate Battle Flag be removed from the Georgia State Flag and they would ask me what I thought about it. I would explain to them “I am not a Georgia resident. I am here to explain history and not render an opinion as to what Georgia residents should have in their state flag.”

“But now I have a question to ask you. In the Civil War, the Union lost more than 300,000 men fighting that battle flag. New York, the state that I come from, lost more than any other state. How come they and other states do not protest that flag, or the monuments that were built or the Confederate soldiers buried in Arlington?” No one really had an answer.

In my own mind, I thought the reason was “that that was then and this is now.” You cannot change history, and that Confederate soldier who lies dead on the battlefield was someone’s husband or son, but was not the cause of the Civil War, so why not salute him.

I learned that the people of North Georgia fought because their home was threatened. They had no interest in slavery or withdrawing from the Union.

They took the battle flag out of the Georgia flag but changed nothing in Geogia. You cannot change the hearts and minds of men by lowering flags and taking down monuments. If anyone thinks that taking down the monument will change anything here in Manatee County, you are as the saying goes: “Just Whistling Dixie.”

This story was originally published September 1, 2017 at 2:31 PM with the headline "You’re whistling Dixie if you think monument removal changes Manatee."