I am a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War but not the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I qualify for membership in both organizations-having ancestors that served in the Union and Confederate military. The decision to not join the SCV was a personal choice and one that took some time to resolve. The reason for my decision is simple-it is based on my firm conclusion that the Confederacy was wrong. It was a government organized with slavery built into it’s life and laws. It specifically held the tenet that all men were not created equal. Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens said in a speech March 21, 1861 that the Confederate govenment’s “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 is a fact and cannot be ignored, minimized, or denied. All other talk about “state’s rights,’ “northern aggression,” and “honorable service” rings hollow for me. I have a friend who put it this way-he said that defending the Confederacy was akin to trying to defend Nazi Germany. Whatever one may argue about the supposed merits of Nazi Germany (and some folks do argue such), he said, the fact of the attempted extermination of the Jews by that nation cannot justify anything else concerning it. It’s the old “ignoring the elephant in the room” thing. I find it just as unreasonable to talk about the need to honor the ”southern heritage” of the Confederacy when it’s cornerstone was laid to perpetuate slavery. I have nothing against honoring one’s heritage. I know that the Sons of Confederate Veterans as an organization disavows slavery and “hate groups.” Yet how does one honor their Confederate ancestors who served under an immoral government as was the Confederate States of America (so-called)? I am well aware of the arguments back and forth regarding this issue.  But for me- whatever might be said in favor of the Confederacy is a moot point. I have friends, by the way, that are “dual members”-they are in the Sons of Union Veterans and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. I find that such dual memberships are logically inconsistant. However, I don’t judge them- ”to each his own.”   I make this statement humbly knowing that many do not agree with my sentiments. Yet it must be said that differences of opinion are what make this “old world go around!” I also realize that I could be wrong because I am a fallible human being subject to error. At any rate, this is what I believe today-and explains why I am not a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans of the Civil War.