If only we could have had this debate when I was a kid.

We didn’t. When I was a youngster studying the Civil War in my Portland, Ore., hometown, I recall only being taught that 13 states seceded from the Union, fought to form a new country south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The South lost the war, which was fought for reasons that, as I recall, went over my head. The nation rebuilt itself over a lengthy period of time.

End of story.

We were not taught by our teachers about matters relating to treason or whether those who ran the Southern states were traitors to the country from which they separated. Oh sure, we talked about slavery. I knew that black Americans were enslaved and that they were set free after the Civil War. I do not recall, though, linking slavery with the war that killed 700,000 Americans on battlefields throughout much of the eastern part of the country.

We’re now re-engaging that debate. It involves whether we should keep statues of Confederate soldiers in public places. We’re talking about removing the names of Confederate generals from the gates of military installations. Gosh, we never discussed the hideous irony of Army posts operating under the names of men who fought against our armed forces. We are now … and for that I am grateful.

I prefer that we take the names of these traitors off our military installations. I want the statues and other structures taken off our public places and put in museums where we can tour them, study them and teach our children and grandchildren about the treasonous act they committed by declaring war on the United States of America.

Let the debate continue.