A modest way to fix, in part, a gross and embarrassing overreaction. Part 1
Put the Confederate battle streamers back on U.S. Army National Guard colors.
Last month the Arizona Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, sent an email to selected members of the Arizona Congressional delegation. This is part of that email:
The Arizona Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) requests your help.
This year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) should be amended, to direct the Defense Department to put Confederate battle streamers back on U.S. military colors. We hereby formally ask (insert name of Member of Congress) to sponsor an amendment to the NDAA that would accomplish this goal.
The recommendations and judgments of the Naming Commission were, in some cases, extreme and unjustified. Congress created the Naming Commission---hence, it is responsible for its actions, and also responsible for remedying the missteps the commission made. It is Congress' duty to fix the problems its commission caused. More to the point, because Congress created the Naming Commission in the first place, it can't ignore the impacts of what its own commission did.
Those of us who support Confederate heritage have heard, time and time again, from Congressional staffers* that Confederate heritage is a touchy subject, and Congress is oh so busy with so many other things, and there IS an election coming up don’t you know, so…
All of that is true. But Congress put the Confederate heritage community in this position in the first place. The judgments of the Naming Commission didn’t have to be as petty, mean-spirited and disrespectful as they turned out to be. (Certainly SOMEONE in Congress could have looked at the initial drafts of the commission’s final report and insisted on SOME changes?). The recommendations didn’t have to be SO sweeping. (Was it really necessary to take John Mosby’s name off the Ranger Wall of Fame at Fort Benning? Pry up memorial paving stones that commemorated Confederates at that same Wall of Fame? Take down a plaque with a quote from Robert E. Lee at West Point? Take down the Reconciliation Memorial? Rename the USS Chancellorsville?).
Only Congress can fix the problems it caused in the first place.
The Naming Commission was created by an obscure provision tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act, or “NDAA”, for fiscal year 2021. From what I can tell, there was no standalone bill created by Congress that established the commission. Remember “Schoolhouse Rock,” and the “I’m Just A Bill” cartoon? That’s not how the Naming Commission was created, from what I can tell. There was no open debate on the floors of Congress, where our representatives hashed out the important issue of how Confederate heritage should be officially viewed. Instead, as one Congressional staffer told me, Congress created the commission and punted the whole matter to it. What an honorable way of doing business!
Well, the Congress can use this year’s upcoming NDAA to fix the battle streamers problem. Or explain to us why it can’t. (Or won’t).
Why is it not only justified, but important, to bring back the Confederate battle streamers? (What exactly ARE “battle streamers,” by the way?). I’ll address that in Part 2.
And stay tuned for more from “Confederate Honor,” as we peel back the onion that is the Naming Commission, and its legacy...which is still being defined.
* The staffers who respond to our calls and emails, that is. Which is a small, small fraction of all the staffers we’ve contacted since January 2003. We have the records to prove it…