Charlottesville

From: vaproto@optonline.net

Here is the text sent today to the Mayor and City Council at Charlottesville:

Dear Mayor and City Council Members:

The idea that history can be relegated to oblivion if one simply destroys all evidence of its existence is straight out of Orwell. In his great warning work, 1984, Orwell's monster state had a credo:

He who controls the past controls the future; He who controls the present controls the past.

The idea that Charlottesville or Virginia or the South or those who supported the efforts of the States of the South against an unconstitutional and tyrannous central government in 1861 are somehow unworthy of recognition for their efforts—however unsuccessful—is not only wrong, but are intended to place the final chains of slavery upon a once-free people, South and North.

Those who wish to obliterate Charlottesville's "Confederate" past, wish to destroy the past of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and the rest of the Founding Fathers as well—though they do not make that known at present. It is not against "chattel slavery" that the war of 1861 was fought by the Federal government against the States of the South but for the eventual slavery to that government of all Americans. Chattel slavery would have passed away in the South just as it passed away throughout the hemisphere—peacefully and without bloody war—if it had been permitted to do so. Accurate history teaches that the war fought by Virginia's Confederate ancestors was fought for freedom from tyranny just as was the war fought by Virginia's Revolutionary ancestors.

Those who wish to consign Southern history to oblivion wish also to consign American history to that same fate. Why? Because once a people have forgotten their past, they are ripe prey for the demagogues. Remember, "political correctness" is a Marxist strategy designed to stifle free speech and expression. Your positions of responsibility demand that you protect that freedom from those who—often with the best of intentions—seek to stifle it.

Valerie Protopapas, Long Island, New York