“Don’t blame me, I voted for Jeff Davis,” is a bumper sticker that can occasionally be seen around campus. This and other Confederate States of America memorabilia like the stars and bars flag are controversial flash points that serve as reminders of a history of racism for some and as a symbol of a bygone paradise for others.

I am inclined to agree with those who find these symbols repulsive and representative of the fight for slavery. However, I can understand the desire to memorialize ancestors lost in a brutal war, even if society no longer approves of those 
ancestors’ cause.

All Alabamians have a duty to learn and accurately remember our history of slavery, secession, the Civil War and its aftermath. While reconciling our present with our past may be painful, we must do so without nostalgia and without revision if we are to continue to progress socially and economically in this state.

In addition to the corsets and hoop skirts, Alabamians must remember the 490,309 Southern casualties – including 27,000 killed Alabamians – who lost their earning potential and, for many, their lives in the Civil War. The Civil War Trust estimates one in three Southern (non-slave) households lost at least one family member through battle or illness. This sudden loss of working-age men left tens of thousands of families without any capacity to make an income, who likely starved to death.

We must also remember we were indeed fighting for the unjust and inhuman practice of slavery. In his speech following the codification of the Confederate Constitution, Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens stated the foundations of this new government “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 moral condition.”

While many assert a chief purpose of the Civil War was state’s rights, many of the confederate states’ own declarations of secession make expressly clear within the first few lines they were chiefly fighting for their own state’s right to continue the institution of slavery.

We should not be nostalgic over the extreme economic cost of the war to the South. The cost of the physical destruction of property in the South alone is estimated to be $1.49 billion dollars, before adjustment for inflation.

This state is still crippled by that economic destruction, its resentment of the federal government, mistrust of outsiders and the legacy of racism that scares away businesses and our intelligent and talented natives. Clinging to our past is why Alabama ranks 49th in life expectancy, 41st in unemployment and third in the percentage of its population in prison. Therefore, we should by all means remember the lives lost, but honor their sacrifice by remembering what they really sacrificed for and by building a state we can all be proud of.

Leigh Terry is a junior majoring in economics. Her column runs weekly.