Facts dispute writer's view of history

Eugene Robinson's recent rant was as on cue as it was predictable. His beef?

The Virginia governor, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the War between the States had the audacity to declare "Confederate History Month" and failed to include the leftist catechism of slavery language: in effect selective memory.

Well, Robinson's own facts and his own memory could use some refreshing.

The 1860 census clearly indicates 95 percent of slaves were owned by just 5 percent of the population and four slave states fought for the north. To say the average southerner was fighting for slavery the height of absurdity. I leave the reader with two quotes to ponder as this debates rages, and will continue ad infinitum. U.S. Grant said, "The sole object of this war is to restore the union. Should I become convinced it has any other object, or that the government designs using its soldiers to execute the wishes of the abolitionists, I pledge you my honor as a man and a soldier I would resign my commission and carry my sword to the other side."

Senator Jim Webb, a Democrat, in his recent book declared "(T) o tar the sacrifices of the Confederate soldier as simple acts of racism, and reduce the battle flag under which he fought to nothing more than the symbol of a racist heritage, is one of the great blasphemies of our modern age."

John Adams was correct, facts are indeed stubborn things. Historical interpretation is too important to be entrusted to the keyboards and the microphones of the hysterical.

Steve Quick

Arlington Heights