A succinct argument

My hat is off to KenDrell Collins. His essay is as succinct an argument for the removal of statues honoring (rebel) Confederate soldiers who fought to continue the enslavement of African men, women, children, and their descendants-in-perpetuity as I can ever remember reading. I’ve read a lot of similar essays, and I’ve read many of those invoking “states’ rights” that overreached and never held water.

Many people haven’t considered the horrors that Africans endured while being captured (or murdered) by slave traders, then loaded and chained into stocks of stacked slats in vertical rows several high aboard slave ships, and suffering the crossing of the Atlantic without sufficient clean water or food which most couldn’t keep down, anyway. What would you figure that mortality rate was? There are books available that describe these events in detail if you may have the stomach. It was a completely soulless occupation, gathering and delivering this “livestock” to the Americas.

Let’s be clear. There is no honor in the Confederacy. There never was. Slavery is not America’s original sin. That would be the complete displacement and often total annihilation of the native people that were already present in the Americas when the

Europeans first arrived. Manifest Destiny, Indians, and all that rot, aye? Original sin or worst sin is moot. Better to kill them when you first see them, or kidnap them and work them to death. Wouldn’t anyone with any human decency in their soul think it is about time to come to terms with this blight on our gathered consciousness?

Another question hangs on my mind as I ponder what has happened these past few years in this country. The question is: What does it really take to be a good Christian these days? I’m all ears … by the way, I am white, 65+, and wear a mask in public. PHILLIP CORRELL

Little Rock