Letters to the Editor: Of course Nikki Haley ducked the slavery question. America ducks it too

To the editor: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s ignoring of slavery as a cause of the Civil War in an answer to a question at a campaign town hall shows the continuing power of America’s great sin.

In Germany, the Holocaust, that country’s despicable sin, is fully addressed in schools. The Nazi flag is not flown, nor are the Nazi regime’s soldiers honored with statues. Germany acknowledges its sin in part as a warning so it can never happen again.

In the U.S., slavery is our despicable and horrific sin, but one whose horrors and effects include not only the Civil War and Jim Crow, but the denial, racism and white supremacy that remain.

The flag of slavery, the Confederate flag, is still flown in much of our country. The removal of memorials to soldiers who fought to defend slavery and destroy our nation cause division and sometimes violence. The teaching of slavery and racism is restricted in more and more states. In some areas, the Civil War has been taught as the “War of Northern Aggression.”

It is no surprise, then, that Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, would duck the question. America has been ducking the issue since slaves first set foot on the continent.

Chris Soltow, Thousand Oaks

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To the editor: Haley’s failure to recognize slavery as the cause of the Civil War is appalling in its own right. She only added to the audacity of her answer when went on to say this: “Government doesn’t need to tell you how to live your life. They don’t need to tell you what you can and can’t do. They don’t need to be a part of your life.”

She should go tell that to the women in red states whose governments prohibit them from obtaining abortions even when they are carrying a child with a condition incompatible with life, or when the child is the product of rape or incest, or whose life is endangered by their pregnancy.

In fact, she should go tell that to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Barbara Rosen, Fullerton

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To the editor: Identifying “the cause” of the Civil War is much more complicated than columnist Erika D. Smith suggests.

For example, in its war resolution on July 25, 1861, Congress identified reunification as the official purpose of the war, not the abolition of slavery. The reason was to avoid alienating the slave states of Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Tennessee from joining the Confederacy.

Michael Haas, Los Angeles

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To the editor: If Haley, whose birth name is Nimarata Nikki Randhawa, had lived in the 19th century, she would have faced prejudicial treatment because of her non-European heritage by the same bigoted culture she defended with her answer.

Leslie Stem, Gardena

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To the editor: I recall another Republican who said this: “Slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war.”

Bob Wieting, Simi Valley