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Is Obama Color Blind?

   Written by on January 8, 2015 at 11:21 am
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Email your letters to the Editor to editor@southsidemessenger.com. Please include your name, city, and phone number for verification purposes. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Letters are printed as-is; all editing and fact-checking are the responsibility of the author. The editor reserves the right to reject letters.

Over a month ago, the evening news stations ran a story showing President Obama awarding the Medal of Honor to a distant relative of a Civil War soldier who had been killed at the battle of Gettysburg. Aside from the news story with President Obama handing over the medal, the news segment went on with several historians describing how this particular Union soldier showed exceptional bravery in the face of enemy fire earning him the medal albeit being over almost 150 years after the fact.

Although every Confederate soldier of the Civil War is just as much an American as any Union soldier, you’ll never see or hear of a Confederate soldier’s distant relative receiving a Medal of Honor in a lavish White House ceremony. In this age where many complain about religious and racial profiling, the Confederate soldier (too) has been profiled as slave owner and slavery supporter unworthy of military honors as are readily bestowed to Union soldiers.  My great (x2) grandfather was a Confederate soldier who never owned a slave. He was called on not to preserve slavery, but to drive back an invading army from the North that made war on soldier and civilian alike here in the south.

The rank and file Confederate soldier has been and always will be the unsung hero every bit as worthy of the honors earned in warfare as any Union soldier. There will be no such accolades for the soldiers in gray however. History is written by the victors and they have labeled the Confederate soldier as a “Rebel” and even a traitor. Therefore, there will be no White House ceremony for the American soldier in the gray uniform.  No high profile honors are bestowed to the lowly “Rebel” from the American Civil War. Even so, it is time to put some balance and perspective on this topic. Before too long, another Union soldier will be singled out as a Medal of Honor recipient. Every time a Union soldier is elevated in this fashion, it serves to casts a longer and darker shadow on the (unworthy)Confederate veteran .

Karl Schmidt

Farmville, Va.

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