Confederate History Month?

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell issued a proclamation stating that April would  be Confederate History Month.  This in and of itself would have been controversial but it was made even more controversial by the omission of slavery in the initial proclamation.  The proclamation has since been revised and is on the Governor's website.  McDonnell initially omitted slavery because he "focused on the ones [reasons] I thought were most significant for Virginia".  He had to have known he was stirring up a hornet's nest.  

The two previous Democratic Governors did not recognize Confederate History Month because they viewed it as a polarizing event that would only serve to divide Virginia along racial lines and would not contribute to the state's progress.  The current Republican Governor decided to bring back the observance.  As a result, this controversy has not only stirred up racial disputes but also political ones as well, i.e. equating Republicans with racists, etc.  

I think this whole situation is good for us.  Why?  It gets us talking about this issue.  The Civil War happened long ago, but that doesn't mean we should forget about it.  We shouldn't demonize the South for their role either.  Most Confederate Soldiers were poor men fighting for their way of life, even though their way of life is backwards and criminal by today's standards.  We should discuss the Civil War in its context and remember the bad choices that we made, and the sacrifices that were made on both sides.  We should most definitely include slavery in this discussion because omitting it is sugar-coating the war, and that is something we should never do.  

Slavery was a part of the American way of life for a hundred years. We can't run away from that fact.  That doesn't mean our ancestors were all white devils, but they surely made some very bad choices.  Personally I have both a Confederate Soldier as an ancestor and a Union Soldier as an ancestor.  I don't view one with any more disdain than I do the other just because of the location he was born in and the culture he was born into.  I believe it would be appropriate to observe a Civil War month in which we honor the Confederate Soldiers, Union Soldiers, and slaves.  I'm sure there are many who disagree with having any sort of observance of this incident, but time has a way of making us forget and forgetting the Civil War and the reasons behind it is something we shouldn't let happen.