Eanes: Governor playing 'dangerous game' with racial politics
Greg Eanes is a retired Air Force colonel and served multiple combat tours. He carried a personal Confederate battle flag in every overseas campaign. He is also a former member of the Crewe Town Council and Nottoway County School Board and is the author of several historical works.
A portrait of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, right, hangs across window from portrait of President Abraham Lincoln in the office of President Dwight Eisenhower in the White House. Eisenhower wrote, in reply to inquiry from dentist Leon W. Scott of New Rochelle, N.Y., that he considers Lee one of the supremely gifted men produced in this nation.
Posted: Thursday, July 9, 2015 2:00 am
By Greg Eanes
Gov. Terry McAuliffe appears to be playing a dangerous game with racial politics that could have a whiplash effect on the state’s Democratic Party in the fall elections and could negatively impact Virginia’s vibrant Civil War tourism industry.
McAuliffe is using the Sons of Confederate Veterans battle flag license plate as a target for government discrimination in order to mobilize his voter base for the 2015 and 2016 elections. McAuliffe has ordered the DMV to cease issuing the SCV license plate with its logo; has denied the SCV the opportunity to renew its lease on the Confederate Memorial Chapel in Richmond; and has refused to issue a routine Confederate Heritage and History Month proclamation.
McAuliffe is laying politically inspired bait to orchestrate reactions. He wants to win the 2015 General Assembly elections and likely wants to position himself as Hillary Clinton’s running mate or gain a cabinet position. He also is doing to flag supporters what zealots routinely do to minorities: isolate, alienate, scapegoat and deny them privileges of citizenship that others enjoy. Vanity license plates are not “rights,” but it can be argued they are “privileges” for honest folks. Why should any law-abiding organization be denied a privilege of citizenship? If the SCV can’t have the license plate with its logo, then the state should get out of the vanity license plate business altogether.
One would also think Virginia’s $2 billion Civil War tourist industry would give the McAuliffe team cause to pause before they make it harder to promote that industry. Politicians need to understand that “Blue plus Gray equals Green,” the color green being the tourism revenues that support jobs for Virginians across the state.
An estimated 70 million Americans are descended from Confederate veterans. They are part of the nation’s multi-cultural fabric. They’re proud Americans. They are not re-fighting the Civil War. They are exercising their civil rights. This is not 1865 or 1965. This is 2015 and the real issue for them is the protection of the “privileges” of citizenship as well as the sanctity and protection of the war memorials to their honored dead — memorials which many lately have called to be removed or destroyed — just like ISIS is destroying the historic relics in the Middle East or the Afghan Taliban destruction of Buddha statues in Bamiyan. The Confederate memorials are erected to American soldiers, and were so recognized by multiple presidents and, more importantly, their Union counterparts.
Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were the inspiration for great World War II leaders. Douglas MacArthur, son of a Union hero, took great pride in his mother’s Virginia roots. In a letter to Lee biographer Douglas Southall Freeman, MacArthur said, “I think you know the reverence I feel for Lee and Jackson.”
Both Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower kept pictures of Lee in the White House. Truman routinely invoked one of Lee’s prayers. Eisenhower publicly stated, “From boyhood, I was raised to respect the word ‘Confederate’ — mighty highly, I might add.”
Pictures of Lee and Jackson were in the George S. Patton home when he was growing up. Patton’s daughter recalled her father “.?.?. was 15 years old before he realized the two Confederates on the wall were not God the Father and God the Son.”
Confederate veterans played a positive role in the post-war period rebuilding their lives, their individual fortunes and their homes. Returning veterans today can learn much by their example. Every town in Virginia has a story of one or more Confederate veterans turning their swords into ploughshares and rebuilding their communities.
Theodore Roosevelt said, “The memory and the valor shown alike by the men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray is a heritage of honor for the whole country.” Roosevelt made this statement in the spirit of national reconciliation, yet today some people of lesser character want to be divisive and distort the honored battle flag and motive of Confederate soldiers’ sacrifices while denying honest people a privilege of citizenship.
Martin Luther King envisioned a society where all people would be judged by the content of their individual character and have a seat at the table of brotherhood — a table that includes both the great-grandsons of former slaves and former slave owners. The members of the Confederate heritage community are a part of that table of brotherhood that King envisioned. They will undoubtedly continue to support King’s message and use history as a tool to build a better future.
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