Politics
Just say no to Confederate Memorial Day
As I drove through rural south Georgia on Friday, there they were again. Confederate flags flapping in the breeze from several houses and a business or two.
You have to marvel at the power of the mythmakers for the Confederacy. They really have convinced some people, even all these years later, that there was something noble about the Southern cause in the Civil War, even though that cause happens to have been one of the most ignoble imaginable: the right to enslave other human beings.
Just in time for Memorial Day, though, some historians and other academics have been sounding a new note of sanity.
As part of a campaign organized by Edward Sebesta — a Dallas-based historian, who has written about the contemporary efforts of neo-Confederate groups — they have circulated a letter, which now has more than 60 signatures, calling on President Obama to abandon a tradition of sending a wreath to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day.
The monument was given to the federal government by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and U.S. presidents have been sending wreaths over to it ever since Woodrow Wilson started the practice in 1914. Until the elder George Bush’s time, the wreaths were sent on or around the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Bush switched the timing to Memorial Day.
“The monument,” the academics say in their letter, “was intended to legitimize secession and the principles of the Confederacy and the glory of the Confederacy. It isn’t just a remembrance of the dead. The speeches at its groundbreaking and dedication defended and held up as glorious the Confederacy and the ideas behind it and stated that the monument was to these ideals as well as the dead. It was also intended as a symbol of white nationalism, portrayed in opposition to the multiracial democracy of Reconstruction, and a celebration of the re-establishment of white supremacy in the former slave states by former Confederate soldiers.”
The conclusion of the letter asks the president “to break this chain of racism.”
Several news organizations have reported that Obama will send the wreath anyway. Sebesta still hopes he’ll change his mind but promises he’ll send a petition with a whole lot more signers next year if Obama continues the practice.
It’s easy to imagine that this is one fight the president might not think he needs. Most likely, the presidents who have carried on this tradition have regarded it as empty symbolism, anyway.
But the signers of the letter are clearly correct: The “chain of racism” that is inevitably linked to efforts to glorify the Confederacy needs to be broken. — once and for all.
Full text of letter to Obama:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7658404&page=1
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Ralph E McGill III says: Concentrate on the issues that confront us in the hear and now. If we don’t watch out, a second civil war is on the horizon. Why are you so worried about a few old “hangers on” of a long dead Confederacy? I adore racism as much as you but please do not forget that… Defense of State’s rights, The Nullification Crisis and opposition to Tariffs of 1828 & 1832, and rights of the individual vs. big government are all glories entitled the Confederacy….
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Steve Sweetser says: By not acknowledging the rights of southern heritage sir, you denying your own rights as an American. For my ancestors sacrificed there lives not for slavery of human beings , but for the right not to be enslaved by a government that not only practiced but condoned it years before the conflict. Be proud to be an American, and let the truth be known of how we all enjoy the freedoms we sometimes take for granted.
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Bob says: A bad lead is one thing, but a silly lead like the one on this story is, or should be, beneath the standards of this website.
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George says: The memorial is for the men who died not the government they happened to be under at the time. It is my belief that the war between the states was more about money and the wealthy few fighting over that money than about slavery. Slavery is a very simple thing to blame for the loss of life and property during that period. IMHO slavery was surely an issue but rich people trying to get richer was the real cause.
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Just a long life beyond the time the states voluntarily joined together, this terrible war began. I doubt many of the individual volunteers and inductees who are honored by the Confederate Memorial at Arlington had much of an understanding of the why’s their leaders of the day chose war. They were doing as they must as members of a community to protect each other and their families.
The tragic irony of the war was for both sides – for the South, a violent overthrow of the way of life their leaders were seeking to protect; for the North, the war that caused such pain and devastation of their neighbors, that true reunification and progress in overcoming racism has taken generations longer than was necessary, or could have been achieved through peace.
WADR, it is by honoring the fallen, that we acknowledge the enormity of the price of war. It is only fitting that our leaders return to the memorial to be reminded to seek peace and reconciliation.
With two wars raging; with Southern leaders calling for secession; with our first African-American President; don’t you think we need this more now than we have in a long time?
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Robert Coram says: By God, sir, there is a limit.
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Mike Pattillo says: history is history! The confereracy is just part of what brought our great nation to this point in history. Ohhh- but I forgot “change is whats popular now” It seems suddenly there is no white history, no white heritage, white folks never invented anything. We seem to be entering the era of reverse racism. Im getting tired of it myself. The United States of Texas just might have a chance!
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Meg Livergood Gerrish says: We lived in Atlanta (once) and on Memorial Day, my young son set out after breakfast to play with the neighbor kids, only to return with news — “Um, Mom? Everyone is at school.” “School? It’s Memorial Day.”
So I called the school and in a beautiful drawl the secretary on duty informed me that I “…mus’ be frum thuh Nawth. Memorial Day, that’s a Yankee tradition.”
Which was news to me. I’d held the distinct impression that it was a tradition to honor those soldiers who fought and died for our United States. (Oh. Oops!)
The Confederate flag (that many of my own ancestors fought for) is the symbol of the losing side of an ugly war to divide the United States, wholly unAmerican. It represents the losers. Confederate flag. Losers. I don’t know. It seems so simple to me.
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C SMITH says: I hope this entire article is forwared. It states that Americans are still arguing over beliefs to the point of seperation and here you are worring about a symbol of American history. If you check the men buried in Arlington Cemetary Confederate and Yankee soldiers are buried there and I wonder if the word “Yankee” bothers you as much as the Confederate Flag!
> DIVORCE AGREEMENT!!
> THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT AND I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT’S BY A YOUNG
> PERSON, A STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I’LL VOTE FOR HIM.> OUTSTANDING.
> Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists
> and Obama supporters, et al:> We have stuck together since the late 1950′s, but the whole of this latest
> election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we
> tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but
> sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of
> America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let’s just end it
> on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable
> differences and go our own way.> Here is a model separation agreement:
> Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a
> portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can
> come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our
> respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both
> sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.> We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to
> the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our
> firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael
> Moore and Rosie O’Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a
> bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).> We’ll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies,
> Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys,
> hippies and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy
> CEO’s and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.> You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to
> invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and
> war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll
> help provide them security.
>
> We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam,
> Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but
> we will no longer be paying the bill.> We’ll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take
> every Subaru station wagon you can find.> You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.
> We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We’ll keep
> The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I’m sure you’ll be
> happy to substitute Imagine, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya
> or We Are the World.> We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty
> your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our
> name and our flag.
>
> Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded
> liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete.
> In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you ANWAR which one of us will
> need whose help in 15 years.> Sincerely,
> John J. Wall
> Law Student and an American -
[...] the Confederacy, whether it’s attacking Confederate monuments, the Confederate flag or, as here, Confederate Memorial [...]
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Keith can start a heated Dew debate faster than a Yankee musket ball and all the more power to him. The statement by John Wall is great, if you want a homogenous land where everyone thinks the same and is afraid of differing views. I thought the country was built, and has been fought for because of, and treasured for it’s acceptance of many views, religions and people of many ethnic origins. Confederate Memorialists always talk of heritage but never mention in their celebrations the heritage of African Americans brought over in the bowels of boats, separated from their families and bought sold and killed in the name of property rights.
If they want to include in their celebrations a moment of silence to dignify the part of their heritage that damaged our moral character, it might help justify the celebration of the brave individuals who fought the war.-
Greg Mitchell says: As to the ‘celebration of Africans brought over in the bowels of ships’, those were NORTHERN ships. Most of the slavers ….. say 98% were from Boston and New York. As late as 1861, the ‘Nightingale’ was captured off the mouth of the Congo River with 500 Africans onboard. The ship was registered in and crewed by natives of Boston, Massachusetts. The U.S. Navy ship that captured the ship was captained by a native of South Carolina. He released the Africans, arrested the crew and had it sailed to New York where it was turned over to the maritime authorities. The captain then resigned his commission to join the Confederate Navy. Consequently, the slavers were never brought to trial.
As to the repugnant article denouncing Confederate Memorial Day, perhaps a few facts are in order. Most Confederate soldiers’ families weren’t fresh off the boats, but like my own family, had been in North America for generations. Their grandfathers had fought the American Revolution, and their fathers fought the War of 1812. They had a grasp of what they were fighting for. If you want to know what they believed, just look at the Confederate Constitution. It is almost identical to the U.S. Constitution with very few changes. Since only about 6% of all Southerners were slave owners what do you suppose the other 94% were fighting for? Certainly not the perpetuation of slavery! They were fighting to preserve the Constitutional right of secession (the text books at West Point Military Academy even taught the constitutionality of secession until 1862) as well as the Rights of States. Even Abraham Lincoln spoke in favor of secession in 1848 on the floor of Congress when he said:
“Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable and most sacred right – a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so many of the territory as they inhabit.” (source: Congressional Globe)
Actually, many of the leaders of the Confederacy were not in favor of maintaining slavery. Lee even called it a moral evil. U.S. Grant, on the other hand threatened to resign his commission if the U.S. government pursued emancipation as a cause for the war.
So lets have no more of this neo-yankee talk of the Confederate Soldier as traitors, shameful, or it being racist to honor our ancestors. That’s just ‘hate speech’ as you libs like to say. Deo Vindice (that’s Latin for “God Vindicates).
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erudite recondite eremite says: Mr. Graham needs to get down off his self-righteous horse and study history a little more. Yes, slavery is and was terrible, and yes, unfortunately secession in 1860-61 did revolve largely around slavery. The war, however, was not initiated by Lincoln over slavery, but to force the South back into the Union at the point of a bayonet. This was done despite Lincoln’s earlier view regarding secession:
“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right – a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. ” Abraham Lincoln, January 12, 1848Lincoln was concerned solely in maintaining theconcept of Manifest Destiny and the American Empire. After all, one can’t have an empire if pieces of it are allowed to break
off, can one? The War for Southern Independence had been preceded by the War of 1812 in a failed attempt to annex and “liberate” Canada and the Mexican War which resulted in major territorial gains. After the defeat of the Confederacy, American imperialism continued its expansion with the peaceful takeover of Alaska and then not so peaceful Spanish-American War resulting in the acquisition of numerous overseas territories such as the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico and indirectly to the annexation of Hawaii. In the same way King George III attempted to keep thirteen colonies part of the British Empire, Lincoln resorted to arms to force thirteen states back into the American Empire. As to slavery, Lincoln said at the beginning of the War:
” If I could free none of the slaves and preserve the Union I would do that. ”
Maybe Mr. Graham could enlighten us as to how Lincoln’s viewpoint in that regard was any different than Southern slaveholders.
If Mr. Graham doesn’t want to honor Confederate soldiers because of slavery, why not refuse to honor Revolutionary War soldiers whose new government permitted slavery and whose constitution in the view of abolitionists was a “pact with the devil?” After all, if the American Revolution had failed and the colonies remained part of the British Empire, slavery would have been abolished by 1833 (the year slavery was abolished in the British Empire).
And if Mr. Graham is so indignant over Confederate soldiers and slavery, does he also say “no” to Yankee Memorial Day? While the Union was busy conquering the Confederacy, Union soldiers and Mr. Lincoln were also busy continuing their conquest of the indigenous population (e.g., the US-Dakota War of 1862). Indeed, and in contrast, at least the South had Cherokees and Choctaws fighting for the Confederacy.
It is not surprising that President Wilson became a such a strong proponent of the right of political self-determination after World War I because as a Southerner he witnessed the defeat of the Confederacy as a young boy. I doubt seriously that when he began the practice of sending a wreath to the Confederate dead in 1914 that he was memorializing slavery but instead memorializing those who died fighting for the right of political self-determination. It is indeed tragic that Southern secession was tainted by slavery (would that the South had seceded over the Tariff of Abominations), but the War itself was initiated solely over the right of the South to secede. It was not until more than a year into the War when it became politically expedient to do so that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. We already know that he would have preserved slavery in order to preserve the Union, but he was also willing to abolish slavery in hopes of preventing European recognition of the Confederacy and in hopes of instigating slave revolts in the South.
Yes, had the South won, slavery would have unfortunately continued to exist for a longer period of time. If we can agree on anything, we can agree that if any good came out of the War, it was that slavery was abolished. There are, however, very sound and logical reasons why slavery would have died a natural death in the South within twenty years without the deaths of over 600,000. In addition, had slavery died a natural death it is not at all inconceivable that race relations in the South would have taken a more fortuitous turn.
The average Confederate soldier did not own slaves and fought very simply because the North had invaded the South. Let us honor them because they fought for the right of political self-determination and the principles found in the Declaration of Independence. -
Meg Livergood Gerrish says:
C SMITH: To clarify, I didn’t and don’t particularly refer to myself as a Yankee (if that opener was directed at me), nor do I feel an offense about it. I just don’t think in those terms. That label (truly word-for-word, I can hear her to this day) issued from the secretary at the school. I, personally, think of myself as an American. Who honors only one flag.
Man. I believe this article might be winning in the Highest Response Of Aggravated category. Anyone got numbers?
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Jane P says: “…the right to enslave other human beings” – Mr. Graham, this “right” would have been granted constitutionally via the Corwin Amendment, but the South voted against it. Why?
“..true reunification and progress in overcoming racism has taken generations longer than was necessary, or could have been achieved through peace…” – Mr. Leslie, Amen to that. The grass roots emancipation that had swept the North was slowly taking root in the South, along with improved race relations.
When the truth of the Civil War is taught in public schools, maybe the U.S. will stop making stupid attempts at social intervention in other nations.
Until then, “Forget, HELL!”
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Judy Black says: I agree with finding something in the here and now to worry about. Jimmy- people are crazy. My great- grandfather was a casualty of the civil war- not because he wanted to fight the rich man’s war but b/c he was taken away at gun point. My grandfather was bitter about that until the day he died. Don’t speak ill of the dead- it’s not right. Why should we not acknowledge the loss? Are we that petty?
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I feel the letter in C Smith’s post deserves a response all its own. How sad that a young person in our country would want to extricate himself from the cacophony of thoughts and opinions that have made our country great and become sequestered in a land of homogeneity, with no differing opinions to challenge his beliefs and help him to grow in intellectual rigor. While he may wish for Rush, Sean and all the other right wing talk celebrities to come with him, what will they have to talk about in this land of think a-likes?
While he claims to be speaking for a Christian nation, he refers to health care as a luxury. That does not seem to be the opinion of Jesus. His most profound call for us was to care for the weakest among us and his miracles included healing the sick, blind and disabled.
As for Oprah, Jane and the rest, we would also have Bruce, Bono, great artists, dancers and actors. I’ll gladly take them all, but I will also gladly take him, because I do like hearing different voices and believe it is precisely that quality in our country that has inspired the world.
If C Smith thinks this is the type of young person to follow into a future, perhaps Smith should look around and think of all the people and ideas lost in such ideology. Would Smith really enjoy such a narrow- minded world where everyone thought the same?
If so it is a loss for both of us. I will take heart that Bruce Springsteen stays with us. I was born in the USA and will gladly remain.
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Cliff Green says: Speaking of “mythmakers”, read these loony responses to your very modest post of some casual observations. My God! I had no idea these people still existed.
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lindy lou says: Cliff you are right. I am saddened to see this kind of outpouring for an immoral “cause” fought 150 years-ago by our very wrong-headed ancestors. Will we ever move on from this nonsense???
However, I disagree with Lee. It is important to address. As long as this region continues to embrace this thing called the Confederacy (through waving its flag or honoring its dead) we are helping to perpetuate racism.
Despite the revisionists and apologists for the reasons for the Civil War, historians, including southern historians such as Shelby Foote, agree that ultimately the south fought for its right to own human beings. However, like any war, young men who actually do the fighting often go because they’re told to by old rich men. Most of the poor young boys who fought for the south never owned slaves. .Nevertheless, the Confederate flag is a symbol of a land that based its economy on the practice of mass human misery. I’m sure most of the young German soldiers who lost their lives in WWII did not actively support Hitler’s extermination of the Jews. . Yet what would we think of Germans if they had a Nazi Memorial Day to salute those who fell to protect their “glorious cause?”. Would we not be horrified to see the Swastika flying from the homes of good German citizens. I can assure you that for many of today’s southernors, white and black, the sight of the Confederate flag is just as horrifying. .-
Greg Mitchell says:
So lemme get this right. If we don’t agree with YOUR opinion, we’re inflexible, bigoted, intolerant racists but if we express our opinions and you choose to disagree with us you’re being progressive and fair? What a load of politically correct equine feces. When Confederate General Patrick R. Cleburne said:
“Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War; will be impressed by all the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision.” .
…… he was absolutely correct, and your opinion expressed here and the many others who deride the history of the South and our desire to honor our heroes who gave their all to protect home and family is intolerant. You view the Confederate Battle Flag with feigned horror but don’t even know the history of the flag, it’s origin, or how it came to be misappropriated by hate groups. Do you also view the U.S. national flag with horror? You know groups like the Ku Klux Klan have been using it for years, too. I think you and many others here pick and choose what they want to be ‘horrified’ by. Now who are the intolerant ones?
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Tim Oliver says: Sorry, Keith, I can’t do it. I’m employed by the state and they give us both Memorial Days off. Since they can’t possibly give me a raise, I’ll take the holidays. But, I don’t wave that Loser’s flag, hell no! It would be alright by me if the state flag had a mule, an opossum, and a catfish on it. That might not piss anybody off.
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Chris Wohlwend says: Just where do you stable that self-righteous horse, Keith? Surely not in Atlanta …
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Robert Reeves says: When you have dusted your hands after excising from history the memory of all those whose actions you judge immoral, let us know which flag you are saluting.
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Melinda Ennis says:
Certainly all flags, including that of the U.S. have been guilty of immoral actions. However, for all of its mistakes, the United States was founded on principals of equality, self-governance and freedom—and that’s why I salute it. It is when we have forgotten those fundamentals, or tried to ignore them (as with slavery) that we have failed as a country.
When you are talking about the Confederacy, you are not talking about a flag of a nation that really existed but a mythic land that was built on a fortress of propaganda so effective that it still exists almost 150 years later.
The imaginary ideals of the “Glorious Cause” and the “violation of states rights” were used to convince dirt poor farmers to fight the “Yankees ” so the wealthy plantation owners could preserve their way of life. Obviously, it really worked because so many people still believe the fairty tale.In his post, Erudite Recondite Remite (today’s reply #12) mentioned that if the south had been allowed to secede, it would have saved 600,000 lives and slavery would have “died a natural death within 20 years.”
What he forgot to say was that 600,000 white lives would have been saved (if you even believe his contention). But how how many further black children would have been ripped from the arms of their mothers? How many people would have died from the whip or while trying to escape? In other words, how could a nation conceived with the idea of freedom and equality allow this condition to exist.And, how can “Erudite” say that the south was fighting for the principles found in the Declaration of Indepedence??? Probably the biggest mistake in our history was that the founding fathers allowed the condition of slavery to stand in our new nation. “Erudite” is probably talking about this outrageous notion that the Conferderacy was founded on some ideal of freedom and self-governance. Well, self-governance cannot override certain moral imperitives. What if here in Georgia and other southern states we began demanding the right to start buying and selling our children? Would that immoral action not outweigh any rights we have for “political self-determination?” Well guess what. That’s exactly what the fight was about (the right of southernors to buy and sell children—-they just happened to be black children).
The truth is too ugly for people to admit and perhaps you Confederate flag wavers continue to create this idiotic romance because of collective guilt (one can only hope). The Confederacy was founded to perpetuate oppression. It was a “nation” whose unreasonable beliefs led to the deaths of a generation of young southern farm boys who fought to protect the “property” of a few land barons. I don’t blame the boys who died fighting for the south. I think they were exploited, lied to and worse. But to honor the misguided, horrific cause they fought for is insanity.
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Graham’s column is dead-on, including his conclusion that this was a fight Obama would not take on right now. Obama handled it with more political savvy than philosophical purity: he sent the Wilsonian wreath to the Confederate monument, but pointedly sent a wreath of his own across the Potomac River to the black Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War but are not buried in Arlington.
Some year, Obama or another president will stop sending the Wilson wreath, and may it come soon. This just wasn’t the year.
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Cliff Green says:
Right on, Melinda. And while we’re at it–I’m not going to scroll back up to see who wrote it–but someone said that without the Civil War, slavery would have died of natural causes within 20 years. Well, if you’re the chainor, 20 years is not much time. But if you’re the chainee, that’s another generation of slavery. Duh?
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fatboy says: Well, was 20 years worth the death of well over 600,000 Americans? The Iraqis were enslaved by Saddam, but everyone whines when 4,000 Americans made the ultimate sacrifice–but 600,000 is okay as long as it is here? If America had waited for slavery to end, thousands of African Americans would not have been killed–and I wager years of ‘Jim Crow’ would not have followed.
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alan says: I am sick of hearing about the right to celebrate Southern “Heritage.” That is a lot of BS. My heritage is Japanese — does that give me the right to celebrate a Pearl Harbor Day? Or the right to celebrate a Nanking (look it up)?
The answer is no! Of course not. Get real. How many of you Confederates would celebrate a Nazi memorial day? I’ll retract that question, because I think that a lot of you would.
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Lindy Lou says:
Well put Alan. That is the point I made earlier. Confederate Memorial Day is no different than having a Nazi Memorial Day to honor those who fought for Hitler. Why can’t we learn from the Germans and the Japanese? If your heritage is immoral and based on atrocities against your fellow man, you should apologize to the world, not celebrate!! Many of the same people who have demanded retribution and apoligies from Japan, etc., are the very same folks who are waving the Confederate flag.
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fatboy says:
sounds like what a kool-aid drinking loser would say.
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Don Hart says: This country makes no sense. You have a war that kills off 2% of your population. The loser of the war gets their family elected to be President in just over one hundred years. At no time during the Presidential election was it ever mentioned that Bush named his kids for Confederate Generals or that Laura Bush was a Confederate flag waver at Robert E. Lee High School. Add that to Houston naming their airport after a pilot who had “D” AVERAGE GRADES IN FLIGHT SCHOOL. General Grant must be turning in his grave.
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Edward Swanzey says: Grant was an ego maniacal drunk. And you’re a dipshit.
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Lynne Neal says: Repulsive article KG. Hope you will go live in New England or some such God-forsaken place. And that includes all of you who made anti-South comments. We don’t want any of you here now, and we have NEVER wanted you here.
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fatboy says:
Keith Graham, you sure are a moronic loser.
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Why don’t we celebrate confederate soldiers and emancipated slaves on the same day? Why do we go on about heritage only if the heritage is ours? The real heritage of the south belongs to both those soldiers and those slaves. Most of the soldiers fighting for the economic interests that they would never benefit from and the slaves, well, they were someone’s economic interest. Raise the confederate flag and the colors of Africa together, both are part of our heritage. If it really is about southern heritage, as is suggested, then why does it always seem to exclude all African Americans from that heritage?
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Gary Adams says: Please allow me to post this comment by Ron Paul concerning slavery. Not that Ron Paul is an expert but what he says is common sense and should end your argument that slavery would have continued. Oh, allow me to add that Virginia was examining abolishing slavery when the war broke out. You also tend to forget what Lincoln said ” If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, letter to Horace Greeley, Abe Lincoln Aug 22, 1862″.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOE4Ip7In0
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36 Responses to “Just say no to Confederate Memorial Day”