COLLEEN AND THE “CONFEDERATE” STATUE?
Should the Statues Be Removed?
Colleen and the Statue is Volume 5 in my series, Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle. At first I considered making the title, Colleen and the “Confederate” Statue. However, that would have limited what I wanted to ask to the controversy de jour: “Should statues of Confederate generals and personages be removed?” I wanted to address a larger question: “Should the deceased ‘Great Men’ of history who committed obvious atrocities be given one last chance to repent?”
Robert E. Lee: Should he be given the chance to examine his decision to lead an army in defense of slavery, and admit to God—or at least to himself—that it was the wrong decision? That he was leading the wrong army for the wrong cause.
Andrew Jackson: Should he be given the opportunity to confess his sin of herding the Cherokee Nation along the “Trail of Tears” in an act of genocide? That what he did was a terrible sin in the eyes of God—or at least in the eyes of humanity.
George Washington: Should he be given the break to re-read the Constitution and see it for what it is: a document devised to perpetuate slavery—and repent that he didn’t have the guts to stand up to his contemporaries and abolish what he knew was evil?
Thomas Jefferson: Should he be given the occasion to beg forgiveness from the Black slave woman whom he loved for not marrying her—whatever the consequences?
Junipero Serra: Should he be given the prospect of asking the Church to remove the title “Saint” that has been placed before his name, and ask forgiveness for causing the deaths of countless Native Americans in order to advance the expansion of the Spanish Empire?
Juan de Oñate: Should he be given the liberty to beg forgiveness of the Pueblo People—and God—for the Acoma Massacre that he ordered in the name of the King of Spain?
Gen. John Bell Hood: Should he be allowed to ask forgiveness of the descendants of the Black slaves of Texas for leading the Texas Brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg, in order to crush the Union Army and preserve the Confederate States of America as a white supremacy nation?
Finally, Sgt. Nicholas Ruff, C.S.A.—my invented Confederate soldier: Should he be allowed to re-examine his life as slave master and Rebel soldier, and be given the opportunity repent—and thus save his soul from damnation?