"Regrettably, It Can Still Be Lost"

Last post about The Civil War:

I think what we need to remember most of all is that the Civil War is not over until we, today, have done our part in fighting it as well as understanding what happened when the Civil War generation fought it. William Faulkner said once that ‘history is not was, it’s is.’ And what we need to remember about the Civil War is that the Civil War is, in the present as well as in the past. The generation that fought the war, the generation that argued over the definition of the war, the generation that had to pay the price in blood, that had to pay the price in blasted hopes and lost future, also established a standard that will not mean anything until we have finished the work. You can say ‘there is no such thing as slavery anymore, we’re all citizens.’ But if we’re all citizens then we have a task to do to make sure that that, too, is not a joke. If some citizens live in houses and others live on the street, the Civil War is still going on. It’s still to be fought, and regrettably, it can still be lost.

Barbara J Fields, PhD