June 17, 2020

“Changing Names”

By Jim Culp

Good Morning readers; today is a special day, no matter what your beliefs and opinions are. It’s a special day for me, because I am still alive and in fairly good health. I am drinking my first cup of coffee and reading the headlines of the local and national news. They include issues with COVID-19, riots and looting, tensions with North Korea, and many more. But the one most disturbing to me is the idea (and movement that people have started recently) to tear down statues that mean A or B, and change the names of places (particularly Military Bases) to names that are more in line with the needs of people to have things exactly like they want them.

I want to make it clear that I am not a person that wants racism or bigotry to exist anywhere. I saw it too many times growing up in the Southwest, and far too many times in my 22 years in the U.S. Army. White on Black, Brown on White, and Black on Asian…whatever, it doesn’t matter. When you base your decisions on how you treat someone using color, you are a racist. You should always try to see beyond skin color when you are dealing with people. Unfortunately, our country was called the “Great American Melting Pot” for a reason.

In the early days, the Continental United States had one race of human beings. The North American Indian (or “Native American”) was the sole race of the species “homo sapiens” that lived on the continent. No one today knows the number of them, but there were at least seven million of them on the continent in the late 1300’s. That is only a scientific hypothesis; no one knows the actual count. These, as well as the Natives of Mexico, Central and South America…were the “Americans” of the day. Then, in the 1400’s, Spanish troops “explored” the America’s, and had every intention of enslaving them for profit. By the 1700’s, Native Americans in the East fought the English, French, and British for their rights to exist. Many alliances were formed, and many were broken, having been based on lies in the first place.

I told you that story of the early days for one reason. Race and Money have always been a part of our Earth, and they always will be. How we deal with that is our charge.

Today, people want to tear down a statue of Robert E. Lee because he was a key Confederate Leader in the American Civil War. They want to rename Fort Carson because Kit Carson was a Union Officer that fought in the Mexican and Indian Wars. They want to rename Fort Bragg because General Braxton Bragg was a Confederate General in the Civil War.

These, and many other suggestions that I hear today, are the ideals of simpletons. Why? Glad you ask. Let’s take history back about two thousand years before the Civil War. Particularly, to the time when Rome became a Christian Empire based on the Emperor Constantine seeing a vision in the sky. He claimed that he saw a cross, and voice said “In this Sign, Conquer.” So in 325 AD, a pagan empire became “holy,” and the Romans began a conquest of killing “non-believers” in the name of God. In the following 1,400 years, millions were killed in the name of Christianity. A person was either a “believer,” or a pagan. It was God’s will that all persons on the Earth believe in his Son, and convert to Christianity.

Today, in the Americas, Christianity is prevalent in our societies. But I ask this question; if we are to use the ideology of today’s headlines, and tear down every monument that was built for a reason at the time, should we not also tear down all the churches and crosses, because they represent fourteen hundred  years of killing?

Should we destroy Mosques and Synagogues (Muslims and Jews both have bloody pasts, too) as well? Think about it. Forget that you are black, brown, or white. Try and educate yourself that these things are history, and to ignore history is to repeat it. When we follow a leader or a principle in ignorance, we digress into savagery and stupidity.

-Jim

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