I applaud and am impressed that Vanderbilt University is dropping the name "Confederate" from Memorial hall, a 70-year-old building only one third financed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Seems like there should be a statute of
limitations on the claim for a name.
I'm sure they mean no insult to the poor Southern farm boys who fought and died tragically for such a dubious cause but wished simply to remove the reference to that cause out of respect for ALL their
students.
The Daughters are trying to intimidate the university with a lawsuit and I hope Vanderbilt will stand and win on principle. The lawyers for the Daughters say it is
about history, and they are right, that is why the name is being dropped. Those who claim the Confederacy was not about war to preserve slavery are in denial and forget what Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens said in his famous Cornerstone
Speech given in Savannah; Georgia, March 21, 1861, "Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -
subordination to the superior race - is his natural and normal condition." This statement was greeted with great applause by those in attendance.
It is time for that awful and bloody chapter of history to be put to rest folks, we are all Americans now and we say we believe in freedom and justice for ALL. Either we honor that or we are hypocrites.
Howard Switzer, treasurer
Green Party of Tennessee
2411 Elliott Avenue
Nashville, TN 37204