Leaders from across the country are sharing their opinions on cities across the south taking down Confederate monuments, as well as, the future of the Mississippi state flag.
Retired Colonel Allen West, an African American and former U.S. Representative from Florida spoke to the issue of the Mississippi state flag and the tearing down of Confederate monuments throughout the south.
“These statues have been around,” said West. “How come they haven’t offended anybody 15 years ago. Why is it that all of a sudden now they are offending people. Because the slippery slope is that someone is going to re-define what history is and when they re-define what history is you will forget completely where you came from, you don’t know where you are, and you don’t know where you’re going.”
West said America is currently in a dangerous position.
“The two largest military installations in the world are Fort Bragg and Fort Hood,” said West. “Fort Bragg is named after Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general from North Carolina, Fort Hood is named after John Bell Hood a Confederate general who fought at Gettysburg. Where does this thing end and who is sitting back in the corner deciding, this is acceptable and this is not.”
West said young people are often not informed of their American history.
“There are more people out there that can tell you about what Kim Kardashian did. I would love to go out there, all of these people that want to take down these Confederate memorials, I would love to ask them, who fought in the battle of Fredricksburg, what state is Gettysburg in? They don’t know and that’s the sad thing. So, all of a sudden, we are going to completely eradicate a sense of history. Most people can’t tell you who wrote the Star Spangled Banner, and why did they write it, and what battle were they watching. They don’t know. When we go down this path, I do not want to see us get to a point where we no longer understand what America is.”
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