The Confederacy lives, unfortunately March 27, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Racism.Tags: South
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What are these people thinking?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a bill has been introduced in the Georgia General Assembly to designate April as Confederate History and Heritage Month in the state. The second paragraph is the one that leaves me stratching my head.
“Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) is the main sponsor of Senate Bill 283, which would encourage Georgians each April to honor the Confederacy, its history, soldiers and the people who ‘contributed to the cause of Southern Independence.’”
I’m all for teaching history, honest history; but honoring people who “contributed to the cause of Southern Independence” (note the capital “S” and “I”) should be anathema to Americans today.
In other words, read it this way. Let’s honor people who …
… contributed to sustaining the practice of owning other humans.
… contributed to the effort to divide the United States of America, which so many in the South today honor with great patriotism.
I grew up in the South (Texas) and live today in the South (Texas), but I repudiate this part of Southern and Texas history. The rebellion of the South to protect the institution of slavery and Southern identity was wrong. We should study this part of our history not to honor but to learn from mistakes, just as people in Germany today should study the blight of Nazism.
Yes, I just equated the Confederacy with Nazism. Both devalued human life because of arbitrary ethnic distinctions; no, they didn’t just devalue, they treated such people as non-human. That is a disgrace.
I’m a Christian, but I find it interesting that these two depravities surfaced in cultures that were primarily Christian (at least I think of Germany as primarily Lutheran in the early 20th century).
Nazism and slavery are of Satan. It shows just how badly people who say they follow Christ can be led astray by the spiritual force that seeks by lies and hate to pull all of creation away from God. That spiritual force apparently is still at work today, at least in Georgia.
Unbelievable, I moved to the south from California when I was 17 and was shocked to hear southerners refer to “yankees” and talk about their wonderful Confederacy. I couldn’t believe it and when I saw the Confederate flags in front of some houses –it infuriated me and I’m white.
I agree that there are good reasons to not honor the Confederacy including the slavery issue you pointed out. However, I disagree that it is wrong to honor people who contributed to the effort to divide the US. We honor people who contributed to the effort to divide the British empire, don’t we?
I might say that it is silly or a case of sour grapes; I might say that it is wrong to honor those who wanted to divide the US for unsupportable reasons. To say that it is wrong to honor them just for contributing to the effort to divide the US but not to say it is wrong in other cases is to buy in to the belief that the winner in a conflict is always right.
We should honor those who stand for right whether they win or lose. Honoring those who stand for wrong is reprehensible. Their motives and actions should be studied in an effort to prevent them being repeated.
Erika, thanks for your comment, but I’m with Soupman. It’s not that dividing is in and of itself bad; it is a matter of the cause that one pursues.
“Yes, I just equated the Confederacy with Nazism.”
That’s because you are unread, ignorant of both the Confederacy and National Socialism.
Per James Webb, from his book “Born Fighting: How The Scots-Irish Shaped America”:
“Even the venerable Robert E. Lee has taken some vicious hits, as dishonest or misinformed advocates among political interest groups and in academia attempt to twist yesterday’s America into a fantasy that might better serve the political issues of today. The greatest disservice on this count has been the attempt by these revisionist politicians and academics to defame the entire Confederate Army in a move that can only be termed the Nazification of the Confederacy. Often cloaked in the argument over the public display of the Confederate battle flag, the syllogism goes something like this: Slavery was evil. The soldiers of the Confederacy fought for a system that wished to preserve it. Therefore they were evil as well, and any attempt to honor their service is a veiled effort to glorify the cause of slavery. This blatant use of the race card in order to inflame their political and academic constituencies is a tired, seemingly endless game that is itself perhaps the greatest legacy of the Civil War’s aftermath. But in this case it dishonors hundreds of thousands of men who can defend themselves only through the voices of their descendants.”
And from Eugene Genovese’s book, “The Southern Tradition: The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism”:
“The racial views of southern conservatives have led to the oft-heard change that they are quasi-fascists, a charge wildly popular among those who know nothing about either southern conservatism or fascism. Those who bother to study both honestly must be struck by how little fascism and southern conservatism share.”
Your assessment of the War Between the States is woefully simplistic, the fruit of either what they taught you in high school or what you learned from Hollywood, or both. Might I recommend a library? I’d start with this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Emancipating-Slaves-Enslaving-Free-Men/dp/0812693124
Also, check out the articles linked here:
http://novaemilitiae.squarespace.com/southern-cross/
http://ngeorgia.com/history/why.html
Yes, the Confederacy lives. Deo Vindice.