printConfederate History Month: Declared anew by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, with the intent of honoring the Commonwealth of Virginia’s shared history. Read the April 2010 proclamation declaring it Confederate History Month. Reasonable stuff.
If you’re going to do something as controversial as honor the South’s sacrifice, be prepared to stick to your guns. Otherwise, don’t bother to put on the show. The specter of yellow-bellied pols capitulating to the pieties of political correctness is sickening.
The history of the US is what the Legislative Black Caucus, the NAACP, and so-called civil-rights activists say it is; it’s history from below; a litany of complaints and contrivances from self-styled victims’ groups on behalf of minor historical figures.
Update (April 8): I contacted my good friend the valiant Tom DiLorenzo, author of The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, for a comment about the fracas. Here it is:
“What would the race hustlers and the pompously politically correct do without Confederate History Month? How could the former frighten little old black ladies into sharing their social security checks with them if they couldn’t use it to scare them into thinking there are people out there who want to bring back slavery? As for the PC crowd, which includes the usual leftist suspects as well as such outfits as the ‘libertarian’ Cato Institute and the neocon Claremont Institute, Southerners must forever be demonized for the sin of slavery– but not New Yorkers and New Englanders, who also owned slaves and ran the transcontinental slave trade for centuries. No, only Southerners must be demonized because they were the only group in American history to seriously challenge the notion that the politicians in D.C. are ‘sovereign’ over everyone and everything.”
Interesting excerpt from the second link:
” [Governor] Allen caused a national uproar when he signed a proclamation drafted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It called the Civil War “a four-year struggle for [Southern] independence and sovereign rights” and made no mention of slavery.”
Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution was CONDITIONAL: ” declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted thereby remains with them and at their will: that therefore no right of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified, by…the United States..”
http://www.usconstitution.net/rat_va.html
But, of course, they got invaded when they decided to “resume” their authority.
The ratification document also contains Virginia’s understanding of the GENERAL WELFARE clause:
“4th. that no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or separate public emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services”
Which would, of course, prohibit welfare/Social Security/Medicare …
If America followed the example of other nations, Confederates, their symbols and culture, would have been rooted out immediately after the Civil War. They might even have been forced to leave their homelands to settle the western frontiers. Then after a century or so, descendants of those Confederates would have rediscovered their ancestors and revived with pride their culture and traditions.
Instead we’ve had the opposite. A century and half’s passing has now made any display of Confederate culture, symbols or pride verboten.
This has always surprised me. I grew up learning about Lee and Grant. I remember watching ‘The Dukes of Hazard’ and Tom Petty’s ‘Rebel’ video. I’ve visited Stone Mountain in Georgia and Monument Avenue in Richmond.
Usually the passing of time tames passions. Instead, the passions are more inflamed than ever. I don’t think General Grant hated the Confederates as much our contemporary elites.
God Save the South
As a Southerner I am sick to death of the elites telling me what is and is not permitted in honoring my country, my culture. Of course if we’re reduced to caricatures, say, a hillbilly on the order of a Snuffy Smith or the animated version of Colonel Sanders, used to sell their chicken, trinkets, music, etc., that’s okay. But a Southerner actually taking his ancestry, his heritage seriously? Absolutely forbidden!
I for one have long since had enough. You can call me a racist, a bigot – I’ve grown weary of caring! I’m tired of having to constantly beat my chest and chant endless mea culpas regarding slavery in order to appease my “betters”. And unlike other victims’ groups, I, as a Southerner, am not looking for a handout or your tax money to subsidize anything for me; I want what my ancestors wanted, to be “let alone”. And I don’t think I’m unique. I have a hunch there are a growing number of us who are growing numb to the PC and the elite crowds’ constant beating of the racist and bigot drum, seeking to endlessly shame us for who we are and place us into their PC, Yankee mold. Enough!
The uneducated were always smart enough to know they didn’t know much about much. The stupid, on the other hand, can’t be convinced, are unflappable in their stupidity… :
Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson (D) on Guam:
“My fear that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize”
… and, are allowed to vote.
To seriously think that modern Southerners advocate slavery is to admit that one is a non-thinking fool. But in today’s world where noise and confusion pass for serious discourse it’s easier to have your point, no matter how mindless, stupid and illogical accepted when all you have to do is mouth the standard PC version on the subject at hand. First and foremost I am an American. All my life I have observed that Southerners are usually more patriotic than the anti-Southerners in the rest of the country. However, as a Southerner, I reserve the right to honor my ancestors
and their struggle against an all-powerful central government which invaded the Southern states with a massive army in order to assert it’s power over the South. In today’s atmosphere of near totalitarian rule from Washington, a great many Americans, not just Southerners, may feel the federal boot on their necks in the near future. We never learn from from the past.
One of my ancestors was Admiral John Worden.
Worden was commander of the USS Monitor. http://www.monitorcenter.org/history/introduction/
Another ancestor was one of those who put the aluminum cap atop the Washington Monument. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_Monument-setting_the_capstone.jpg
I have ancestors from both the South and the North.
I hold no animus towards my Southern ancestors.
But the elites do.
In this context, it is worthwhile reading Pat Buchanan’s piece today http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=138553 on WND.com. And also to recall that while some Northern factory owners were treating their employees (including recent immigrants from Ireland and other European countries) like garbage, they nevertheless professed profound opposition to slavery in the South. Holier than thou? I’m not sure. But I think it’s worthwhile remembering what the Bible states in Matthew 7:4: “Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye?”