Bob McDonnell, local asshat and Virginia's governor, recently named April as Confederate History Month. Now, okay. The Civil War is an incredibly important time in America's history. Probably the most important time. (I can say that since I'm not an historian.) The South was upset that the North was interfering with its (fucked-up) system of economics. Something happened at Fort Sumter, Abe Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation (which didn't actually free slaves, remember!), and some other stuff happened. (Again, not an historian.) In the end, the Reconstruction South was a mess, but things changed. Kind of, sort of. Took a hundred years -- and even then things weren't perfect -- but the Civil War is an amazing story of the Confederacy rebelling from the rest of the country, losing, re-unifying with the nation, and a whole group of people who didn't possess any human rights suddenly becoming free, autonomous individuals. It's a serious "America, fuck yeah!" moment.

But that's the Civil War. Not the Confederacy. Regardless of what else they stand for, the Confederacy will always - always - be tied to slavery. The Confederate States of America were all about the right to own slaves. And they wanted so badly to maintain the institution of slavery that they declared war against their own country. But they lost. And if you're at the losing-end of a war, you don't really get to act all nostalgic about it later. It's like the Japanese getting sentimental about World War II. It doesn't work that way.

So my question to Bob McDonnell is: Why "Confederate History Month"? Why not "Civil War History Month"? (Aside from the more awkward-sounding name, that is.) Let's talk about the Civil War. Let's talk about oppression and slavery and racism and how the South lost and had to revoke all of those fucked-up systems. Let's talk about a dissenting group of Americans who felt the rest of the country was running wild under a tyrannical leader, rose up, and lost. Let's especially talk about the losing part.

(On a related note, does anyone find people from the South who are way into the Confederacy kind of off-putting? The people with the Confederate flag bumper stickers? I mean, you don't see people from the North with bumper stickers of Union flags. And they won.)