Traitors banished, heroes honored
Memorial Day began as Decoration Day with the placing of the United States flag on the graves of the dead of the Civil War, honoring the men who died to save this Republic and end the seditionist and traitorous Confederacy, an evil government enshrining the enslavement of Black Americans.
And so on this Memorial Day, when the fallen of all our country’s wars are honored and remembered, the banishment of Confederate names from federal military installations is most welcome. Nine Army posts down South will be getting new names, including for the first time in our history, honoring heroic women and Black Americans, like Sgt. Henry Johnson, the Albany man whose amazing World War I bravery earned him a too-long belated Medal of Honor. Farewell, Fort Polk in Louisiana, hello Fort Johnson.
Also departing are the well-known Fort Benning, Fort Bragg and Fort Hood, names soon to be consigned to the history books.
The eight-member renaming commission was written into a Defense Authorization Act that became law because Congress mustered the strength to override Donald Trump’s veto, who disapproved of the rechristenings. But Congress would have none of his nonsense and gave Trump his only override days before — speaking of disloyalty to country — he unleashed the Jan. 6 attack.
The panel’s charge is to “assess the cost of renaming or removing names, symbols, displays, monuments or paraphernalia (owned or operated by the Department of Defense) that commemorate the Confederate States of America or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.”
The nine new names are just the first set of recommendations; a final report to Congress is due Oct. 1, with the ultimate decision up to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. In total, they’ve identified more than 750 Department of Defense things and places named for Confederates, including streets, buildings, vessels, even simple signs. History should not be purged or sanitized, nor should we judge all those who made their mark on the past by modern-day moral standards, but military honors should be reserved for heroes, not traitors.