Compromise.  That’s Kelly’s answer to being able to avoid the Civil War.  Compromise.

Kelly’s educated, graduating from the University of Massachusetts Boston, receiving a Masters of Arts in National Security Affairs from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and a Masters of Science in Strategic Studies from National Defense University in D.C.  All in addition to being a 4 Star General.

Yet he still claims that Robert E. Lee, who had a choice to command the Union Army or the secessionists, was an honorable man.

Robert E. Lee committed treason, plain and simple but the intimacy of The Civil War spared his life, as well as the institution of southern pride.  Brother against brother, father against son, let bygones be bygones was the reasoning behind the efforts of a nation in need of healing.  With the war over, families still needed to unite and those families spread across the entire nation.  As soldiers, they returned home, some defeated and some victorious but still family and as a result, compromise was turning a blind eye to the treason of the confederacy in order for this unity.

What’s troubling is that Kelly is looking at the history of America tactfully, from a general’s eye and mostly from a white person’s viewpoint, negating the underlying cause of The War Between the States.  Slavery – the institution of forced servitude thrust upon people of color.  Put aside ideology, beliefs, motivations and any other factor, the truth remains, slavery was the cause of the civil war.  Regardless of what anyone says. Financial gain was the goal, the south with its cotton exports was in a position to monopolize world trade and enrich itself equal to the north.  And with free labor, that quest’s realization was at such an alarming rate the north took notice.  Hence the war.  So yes, economics was a key factor in going to war to preserve the right to become filthy rich, but those riches would have been built off the backs of slaves.

And let’s also add, that Lincoln’s reasoning for the war wasn’t to free slaves, it was to preserve the union and the freeing of slaves was to be a collateral result of victory.  And that in itself was compromise.  Along with the 3/5th rule, The Fugitive Slave Act, allowing Maryland to continue slavery and the trading and selling of slaves between slave states.

Yet it was the south who fired the first shot.

It’s always the victor that dictates history.  Rarely, if ever, the loser, except in the case of the Civil War.  Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Nathan Bedford Forrest are just a few, that lost, but have received more recognition and praise than the 54th regiment, Robert Smalls, William A. Jackson or Alexander Thomas Augusta.  The south, post Reconstruction, built monuments to these traitors and named towns, schools, buildings and streets after these men who fought to enslave the ancestors of many residents that have to live and work in the shadows of these symbolic commendations.  And yet, the “colored” heroes of the north are rarely mentioned, left out of history books, had their names spelled wrong on their medals and died second class citizens, barely able to rise above the conditions of their forced servitude.

And Kelly’s remarks are what most white men in power see as the base and future of this country.  Capitalism.  You’re considered honorable if you fought for the right to maximize your earnings, you’re considered presidential if you’re worth billions of dollars but if you fight for social justice and equality, you’re vilified and deemed worthless.  And that’s what’s troubling about this white house and its occupants.  Although capitalism is a great thing, there needs to be balance in incorporating social issues.  There needs to be an understanding that those being trampled upon to achieve imperialism need protection and are constitutionally obligated to achieve life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

And john Kelly doesn’t get that.

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