I'm Proud to Be an American

To get ahead of the curve of the U. S. Civil War sesquicentennial, I’d like to say that I’m glad that the seceding southern states lost the civil war.

That rumble you just felt was generations of my ancestors turning over in their graves, because I am a southerner to the core descended in all my lines from ancestors from the deep south and it’s Texas counterpart, East Texas.

I honor and respect my ancestors and do not sit in judgment on their lives as individuals even though they lived in and surely supported a culture which fought and died for, among other reasons, keeping the another part of the country and the national government from legislating or otherwise forcing the end of slavery in this country.

There is no evidence, documented or by family tradition, that the vast majority of my ancestors owned slaves. We were, for the most part, farmers who used family members for the farming labor. That being said, there is no question that the two major questions settled by the Civil War were slavery and do individual states have the right to go their own way if they disagree with the rules and laws of the majority. Slavery was an abomination which should have been settled in the 1770’s and 1780’s when our nation was born. I’m glad it ended, sorry it took so long to end it, and perplexed that we ever allowed it any role in the long history of the colonies or the United States of America.

And, I understand if descendants of slaves, don’t share my honoring of the valor and recognition of the hardships even unto death faced by my ancestors during the Civil War. I get their own take on the conflict incited by an attempt to prolong slavery.

I’m sure that my ancestors served and fought for all the right and wrong reasons associated with this war even the few who served on the winning side. Yes, my families like many others had brothers and cousins who served on both sides.

I regret we couldn’t end slavery or forge one nation, indivisible, without war, but I’m glad for both of those outcomes. I’m proud to be a citizen of the United States of America. — Deason Hunt

Previously posted on alkingroots at talkingroots.com.