Don Eason: Selective outrage

As a native North Carolinian, I fully endorse banning the Confederate flag on publicly owned property. There is no pride in the flag as it is representative of the darkest period in our country’s history, not of Southern heritage.

It is a symbol of the South’s insistence on the perpetuation of slavery in order to plant and harvest King Cotton in the most profitable way. States’ rights was about the states’ right to nullify any federal act that they found unconstitutional as a guard against abolitionist legislation.

Since the heinous killings in Charleston, S.C., there is blood in the water. Zealous detractors of the South would now push for the removal of Confederate reminders such as monuments on public grounds. Too selective!

Let’s destroy the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial, which honor slaveowners. Remove slaveowners George Washington and Andrew Jackson’s pictures from money. Raze Mount Vernon. Destroy or remove all reminders of those who killed or abused their fellow citizens in the name of “protecting their way of life”?

Was one slaveowner’s motives purer than another? Killers and abusers of Native Americans not culpable?

Sometimes great people do horrendous things. Benefit of the doubt should not be selective even for Confederates.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Don Eason: Selective outrage."