In the wake of the latest Black Lives Protests, the U.S. Military is now considering changing the names of their 10 military bases (which were named after Confederate leaders a long time ago). U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy says that he is open to changing that names of the bases. A senior Army official told Fox News that McCarthy is not planning on changing the names of the bases unilaterally, but if a need is there, he will seek bipartisan support to do so. He went on to tell Fox News: "We must recognize history is important, but we must come together and have some sort of open discussion about race. This week highlighted the need to start understanding those feelings and the Army secretary is open to considering changing the names of these bases named for Confederate generals.”
Furthermore, the Marines have decided they will be banning the Confederate flag from being displayed at any of their bases or installations. They originally made that declaration back in April of this year. In the wake of these Black Lives Matter protests and the social unrest across the country right now, U.S. Commandant of the Marine Corps, David Berger put out a statement regarding the banning of the flag and racism, that includes this statement:
"Current events are a stark reminder that it is not enough for us to remove symbols that cause division – rather, we also must strive to eliminate division itself. The trust Marines place in one another on a daily basis demands this. Only as a unified force, free from discrimination, racial inequality, and prejudice can we fully demonstrate our core values, and serve as the elite warf-ighting organization America requires and expects us to be."
Regarding the name change to at least 10 military bases, what is your take on this? I'm fine with it. I think why not? I think we need to ask ourselves what causes more harm than good? Does keeping the names of the bases named after Confederate leaders reflect where we are at as a society? These bases such as Fort Benning and Fort Bragg were named after Confederate leaders who fought to keep slavery in place. With that I'm totally fine with the name changes if the name appears to glorify these individuals. There is that debate out there that the names remind us of our history and we must never forget what we fought for in regards to doing away with slavery. With that I say, believe me, we won't forget that dark stain on our history by removing the names of these individuals from our military bases. Get rid of the names because the bad far outweighs the good. You want to remember history? Go read about it in a history book because we're not calling for the burning of our history books, we're calling for the removal of these names that have no place in our current society and what we stand for.
-Producer Lightning