It was a welcomed sight to see millions of peaceful citizens gazing into the heavens this week after seeing multiple news feeds of Charlottesville violence prior to the eclipse. I didn’t want to watch the riots, but disbelief held me captive as I witnessed people spewing hate from their mouths and bloody attacks.

How could anyone knowing anything of history carry a Nazi flag in support? How could the “K” crew parade their agenda knowing its history of vigilante horror? The entire segment of our nation’s history of slavery is a dark and shameful blot on our past, and I’ve wrestled with the issue for years.

How could Bible-believing, church-going plantation owners buy and sell humans for laborers? Did the wealth of cotton and other farm produce deaden the plantation owners’ hearts and consciences? Were they blind to what they were doing?

I’m no authority on the Civil War, but I’ve read about Gen. Robert E. Lee, a top graduate of West Point and a brilliant military strategist. When war was brewing, President Lincoln asked Lee to lead the Union Army, but Lee turned down the offer and returned to his beloved Virginia to lead the Confederacy. He had to have believed he was a patriot.

I’ve thought about the churches in that space of history. What were they teaching and did anyone read their Bibles? Did pastors cry out against slavery or were they maintaining political correctness?

One of my mothers’ forefathers was a major in the Confederacy. He didn’t own any slaves and was respected as a man of principles. Surely there were many other Confederates with similar qualities. I try to think so.

It had to have been spiritual blindness, absorption with self-interests and major demonic deception for slavery to be an accepted part of our nation’s history for those practicing it. Yet, when I look at the initial history of slavery, it dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times. Was there always slavery, and always a remnant of outrage by a few in every generation who hated it?

By the response of so many determined to remove any and all elements relating to slavery, one would assume this generation has become the enlightened one, wanting all to be entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

However, there’s an obvious blindness debilitating this slate-wiping generation. Do they not see the horror of abortion — the killing of millions of voiceless humans who are being stripped of their “inalienable” rights?

Will a future generation ever look back over history and in great remorse ask, “How did we allow such a depraved precept?” It’s for sure there won’t be any monuments or statues to remove. Those killed in the womb won’t have lived long enough to earn any. 

Letters to Camille Anding can be sent to P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, MS, 39602, or e-mailed to camille@datalane.net.