EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK: A Place to Leave Up the Confederate Flag

The primary battle in South between Ariz. Sen. John S. McCain and Tex. Gov. George W. Bush has created an interesting side debate about the candidates' relationship to the antebellum South, most visibly seen in the acrimony over the Confederate flag in South Carolina.

But this is only the best known example of a war of words to tar the Republican contenders as overly sympathetic to the "Old South." A civil rights think tank took Bush to task for writing letters on behalf of the respected Museum of the Confederacy and holding a fund-raising ball where guests dressed in 19th century costume. Dealing with periods of history where ideas were espoused that we now see as wrong has always been a difficult problem, but the attacks on Bush are the wrong way to deal with the dubious legacy of the Confederacy.

The Romans dealt with this through the ritual of damnatio memoriae, the condemnation of memory. To make it seem as if as a vicious person had never lived, all statues of him were destroyed or recarved, his name effaced from public inscriptions and documents related to him destroyed. The ritual provided a clear message that his behavior had been unacceptable and tried to remove the blot on the history of Rome that his crimes had created.

The uproar over Bush's casual involvement with those interested in the "Southern heritage" reflects the same approach to uncomfortable periods of history. All memory of a period when great crimes were committed must be expunged and remembered only for the great mistakes that were made. This is not a mature way to approach the past. It is vitally important that we understand and accept that all societies and eras had flaws, just as in contemporary America there is much that does not accord with our highest principles. The best memorial to the sufferings of the past is not to tar history with a broad brush but to strive to understand the complex nature of the societies that perpetrated wrong.

The attack on Bush's support for the Museum of the Confederacy is fundamentally different from the debates over the custom of flying Confederate flag in South Carolina, which was not even a genuine tradition but a crude attempt to spite the Civil Rights Movement. The debate over the flag was a debate over what image a state government should project to all its citizens, and such images can and should change as the sensibilities of the people change.

Attacking the Museum of the Confederacy is an attack on the serious study of history. This museum is not some glorified Klan hall but a serious and respected academic and historical institution. It is especially foolish to denounce the study of such a vitally formative period in American history. Corrupting bias comes as much from the defenders of right as from revisionists and apologists. In a very real sense much of the human tragedy of the Civil War and the great suffering of slavery have been in vain if memory is corrupted and distorted for political ends.