Have you ever been to a cemetery here in the Deep South?
A while back, I was doing some family research and found that
my great, great, great grandfather was a Union (U.S.) soldier who was captured
by the Confederate army and eventually died in captivity, in Mobile,
Alabama.
Although we couldn’t find his name on any head stone, he is
most likely buried as an “Unknown Soldier” in Magnolia Cemetery, which is full
of unknown graves of U.S. soldiers, who had fought in the Civil War. An American flag hangs high in this section
of the cemetery.
As we walked further into the cemetery, we found a section of
Confederate soldiers who had lost their lives in the war. There a Confederate flag hangs high above the
graves. And that’s when it hit me.
Sadness tugged at my heart, when the realization of a country
split in two became a reality as I stood in this historic land of the dead. The thought of Americans killing Americans
was enough to make me cry. Even as I
write this, water falls from my eyes.
There is no
American flag waving in the air above the dead in the Confederate section of
the cemetery, yet these were Americans, who bravely sacrificed their lives in
battle. They were fighting for freedom
as well, the freedom to live their life as they choose, right or wrong.
I look at our country today, with all this chatter of the KKK
and Confederate statues, and the NFL players who refuse to stand for the
National Anthem, and I cannot help but feel the lessons of the Civil War have
been lost.
Freedom is more than a word with a definition attached to
it. It is a way of being; a way of
living. To truly be free, one needs to
respect the freedom of all people, regardless if one considers the opposition’s
belief to be wrong, as long as it is not impeding the freedom of another. When
you limit someone else’s freedom, you limit your own; plain and simple. There is no way around it.
So what if the KKK rallies on a street corner somewhere in
America. It means nothing unless you give it power. You give their actions power when you give
them your energy; when you give them your attention and allow them to disrupt
your happiness. Ignore them and they’ll
go and hide back under the rock they came from.
But if you say they have no right to protest, then you are saying that
you have no right to freedom of speech as well.
And so what if an NFL player does not stand during the
National Anthem. How is it hurting
you? Do you stand for the National
Anthem in your living room, when it sounds off through your television? I
think not. I have been in many of homes
for football games, and the only behavior I have ever witnessed is a beer in
one hand and a face full of food in the other, kicked back on a the sofa with feet
up off the floor.
Do not divide yourself into us and them. We are the United States of America.
Instead of focusing on our differences, how about focusing on what we
agree upon.
There are always two ways to look at any given
situation. One is with hate and anger,
the other is with love and compassion. The
KKK, the confederate statute debate, and the NFL/Nat’l Anthem, spotlights those
freedoms that we celebrate as Americans.
We must hold tightly to this liberty of free speech and cherish it, or
we will surly lose it.
So don’t be so quick with your anger. Hate cannot be conquered with hate. It’s not a hippie thing, it’s a fact! Focus your energy on the good, instead of the
bad, and I promise you will be much happier for it.
And for the record, I
am a former Ohio Army Reservist, with a legal background. I know the U.S. Constitution, and I took an
oath to protect it.
