Antebellum is a word derived from two latin words, "ante" and "bellum." Ante means before and bellum means war. Supposedly, the first documented use of the word in English was around 1840. The word can be used to describe any period before a war, but the tendency seems to be before the Civil War, although in 1840 it was probable only psychic people knew we would have a Civil War twenty years later. The question is which period before the Civil War, or was it most of our entire human history, which took place way before the United States even existed? You might think I am being sarcastic, but I recently heard a known rapper ask a similar question about Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan. He asked a good question because when one includes the word "Again" in the phrase it is unclear which period one wants to make "Great Again." Obviously, most people would not want the period before the Civil War in America in which slavery was legal. However, I am sure that in a country with 330 million people, one will find a minority that would probably think perhaps this period was not so bad. Truthfully, in a large crowd, you will usually have extremist radicals. We have now arrived in our period in time in which most people seem to want to distance themselves from the Antebellum period.
We are in a period of political correctness. Many do not want to associate with ideas in which seemingly a majority frown upon. A good example of this, for instance, is a country music group that used to be called Lady Antebellum which now has changed their name to Lady A. Of course, in world history many times the majority has been wrong, and a minority was correct, but we didn't know this to be a fact until we looked back years later. Slavery was and is wrong with no doubt. The Civil War was a sad period in United States history, but it was evidence that simultaneously there were two different ideas, and ultimately a decision of which one was correct had to be made. I don't want to overextend the point I really want to make. What I really want to say is that distancing ourselves from history by erasing references to it is probably not going keep us from repeating it. If anything, erasing historical references will cause us to probably forget and repeat history even sooner.
We are in a period of political correctness. Many do not want to associate with ideas in which seemingly a majority frown upon. A good example of this, for instance, is a country music group that used to be called Lady Antebellum which now has changed their name to Lady A. Of course, in world history many times the majority has been wrong, and a minority was correct, but we didn't know this to be a fact until we looked back years later. Slavery was and is wrong with no doubt. The Civil War was a sad period in United States history, but it was evidence that simultaneously there were two different ideas, and ultimately a decision of which one was correct had to be made. I don't want to overextend the point I really want to make. What I really want to say is that distancing ourselves from history by erasing references to it is probably not going keep us from repeating it. If anything, erasing historical references will cause us to probably forget and repeat history even sooner.
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