Is Mexico adopting an old British practice from the colonial
era? Is Donald Trump correct when he says Mexico is sending
some of its criminals into the United States mixed in with otherwise
law abiding immigrants?
During the colonial period Britain cut the cost of operating jails
by sentencing some of its criminals to
"penal transportation to" the North American colonies.
After the American Revolution "transportation" meant being sent to
Australia or New Zealand. The practice was particularly
common with Irish and Scottish criminals and is mentioned in some
Irish folk songs. .
Later criminals would slip into the United States along with
honest immigrants. Some of those with criminal pasts, including some
Nazi war criminals, came to the United States to try to change their
lives and become honest citizens. Back when America had
a frontier, Americans who started out on the wrong side of the law
would move to the frontier to try to start over.
Mexico, like the United States, has multiple government units of
various sizes. Government corruption is a problem in
Mexico. It is very possible that some Mexican government
agencies are helping or encouraging criminals to go to the United
States by mixing them in with honest people who are entering the
U.S. illegally. The Obama administration's lax enforcement of
immigration laws could encourage such a process.
I don't know if Mexico is encouraging some its criminals to come to
the U.S. or not, but the claim should not be automatically
dismissed. We know Mexican drug lords are smuggling drugs into
the U.S. so Mexican criminals are able to enter the U.S.
CNN reports that Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman controls 80% of the drug trade in President Barack
Obama's home town of Chicago. Let's hope Guzman doesn't
control Obama.
Trump's claim deserves a thorough investigation.
I'm not going to do a separate post on Trump's comment about Captain
John McCain nor am I going to repeat it or provide a link. I
disagree with what Trump said, but I recall hearing a similar
criticism being made from some of those in the military a few
decades ago. I don't recall the details of the earlier
criticism.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Did Southern Politicians Cause Chattanooga Killings?
Did the extreme amount of attention southern politicians gave to the
Charleston killer cause the recent Chattanooga killings? Was
the Chattanooga killer hoping for the same amount of attention the
Charleston killer received? The timing of the
Chattanooga killings could be a coincidence but such killings are
not that common and two of them have occurred in
southern states within a month of each other. They
occurred in the same time period as the trial of the Colorado
theater killer with its national publicity. I didn't catch the
man's name, but a recent newscast included a comment by the relative
of a theater victim about how publicity may encourage such
incidents.
I'm not suggesting the Chattanooga killer suddenly decided to commit murder because of the Charleston killings. It is likely he had been thinking about doing something like that. I am asking if the response to the Charleston killing pushed a man who was thinking about killing over the edge to become a killer.
The Chattanooga killer may have had different attitudes including different criteria for his victims, but racism appears to be a major factor. His actions appear to have been directed against the American "race" in general rather than against different color groups within the American race. That's right white folks, racist killings can be directed against whites as well as blacks. He apparently selected his victims based on the uniform they wore rather than the color of their skin. Although he was raised as an American, he appears to have developed a strong identification with his Middle Eastern roots.
The death of the Chattanooga killer will make it harder to determine what he expected to accomplish, but perhaps he left something behind that would indicate if he expected to be able to terrify the entire southern populace the way the Charleston had terrified southern blacks.
One thing many normal people may not understand is that some people would rather be a pariah than a nobody
I'm not suggesting the Chattanooga killer suddenly decided to commit murder because of the Charleston killings. It is likely he had been thinking about doing something like that. I am asking if the response to the Charleston killing pushed a man who was thinking about killing over the edge to become a killer.
The Chattanooga killer may have had different attitudes including different criteria for his victims, but racism appears to be a major factor. His actions appear to have been directed against the American "race" in general rather than against different color groups within the American race. That's right white folks, racist killings can be directed against whites as well as blacks. He apparently selected his victims based on the uniform they wore rather than the color of their skin. Although he was raised as an American, he appears to have developed a strong identification with his Middle Eastern roots.
The death of the Chattanooga killer will make it harder to determine what he expected to accomplish, but perhaps he left something behind that would indicate if he expected to be able to terrify the entire southern populace the way the Charleston had terrified southern blacks.
One thing many normal people may not understand is that some people would rather be a pariah than a nobody
Did Southern Politicians Cause Chattanooga Killings?
Did the extreme amount of attention southern politicians gave to the
Charleston killer cause the recent Chattanooga killings? Was
the Chattanooga killer hoping for the same amount of attention the
Charleston killer received? The timing of the
Chattanooga killings could be a coincidence but such killings are
not that common and two of them have occurred in
southern states within a month of each other. They
occurred in the same time period as the trial of the Colorado
theater killer with its national publicity. I didn't catch the
man's name, but a recent newscast included a comment by the relative
of a theater victim about how publicity may encourage such
incidents.
I'm not suggesting the Chattanooga killer suddenly decided to commit murder because of the Charleston killings. It is likely he had been thinking about doing something like that. I am asking if the response to the Charleston killing pushed a man who was thinking about killing over the edge to become a killer.
The Chattanooga killer may have had different attitudes including different criteria for his victims, but racism appears to be a major factor. His actions appear to have been directed against the American "race" in general rather than against different color groups within the American race. That's right white folks, racist killings can be directed against whites as well as blacks. He apparently selected his victims based on the uniform they wore rather than the color of their skin. Although he was raised as an American, he appears to have developed a strong identification with his Middle Eastern roots.
The death of the Chattanooga killer will make it harder to determine what he expected to accomplish, but perhaps he left something behind that would indicate if he expected to be able to terrify the entire southern populace the way the Charleston had terrified southern blacks.
One thing many normal people may not understand is that some people would rather be a pariah than a nobody
I'm not suggesting the Chattanooga killer suddenly decided to commit murder because of the Charleston killings. It is likely he had been thinking about doing something like that. I am asking if the response to the Charleston killing pushed a man who was thinking about killing over the edge to become a killer.
The Chattanooga killer may have had different attitudes including different criteria for his victims, but racism appears to be a major factor. His actions appear to have been directed against the American "race" in general rather than against different color groups within the American race. That's right white folks, racist killings can be directed against whites as well as blacks. He apparently selected his victims based on the uniform they wore rather than the color of their skin. Although he was raised as an American, he appears to have developed a strong identification with his Middle Eastern roots.
The death of the Chattanooga killer will make it harder to determine what he expected to accomplish, but perhaps he left something behind that would indicate if he expected to be able to terrify the entire southern populace the way the Charleston had terrified southern blacks.
One thing many normal people may not understand is that some people would rather be a pariah than a nobody
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Will "Killer" Jenner Gambit Backfire?
I just looked at tonight's tv schedule and ABC could be the biggest
loser. ABC's decision to put the ESPY awards on ABC instead of
ESPN could be one of the biggest scheduling mistakes in American tv
history. Even the ESPN channels, which are the normal home of
the ESPY awards, have more appealing programs. "Home Run
Derby" and "the Pan American Games" are easily more appealing shows
than a silly awards program whose big winner has been known for over
a month.
The E! network which is owned by NBC is taking advantage of the free publicity ABC has provided about "Killer" Jenner to run three 1-hour programs about Jenner becoming a female impersonator. The last I heard Jenner is not having surgery to become a woman by replacing his male genitals with female ones. Thus he will be a female impersonator rather than a woman. If I were actually interested in seeing Jenner in a dress I would watch those programs instead of sitting through nearly three hours of a program I wouldn't otherwise have an interest in just to see him get an award. E! or news programs will likely show the award presentation later. NBC itself has "America's got Talent" for the first hour followed by a reality show called "American Ninja Warrior".
The 3-hour length of the ESPY award program makes it much less attractive to viewers. The length implies the program will feature a lot of award categories most viewers won't be interest in. One of the most common complaints about awards shows is that they are toooooooo long. One of the biggest reasons people sit through awards programs is to find out who wins. ABC had eliminated the mystery by saying the big award will go to Jenner.
Of course ABC could not very well suggest that Jenner was competing against others for the award. If others were being considered for the award their efforts would be shown. ABC couldn't very well show a clip of Lauren Hill playing her last basketball game to raise money for cancer research followed by a clip of Noan Galloway competing on "Dancing with the stars' using an artificial leg and then show Jenner putting on a dress. If they did that one would believe Jenner was a legitimate winner.
The E! network which is owned by NBC is taking advantage of the free publicity ABC has provided about "Killer" Jenner to run three 1-hour programs about Jenner becoming a female impersonator. The last I heard Jenner is not having surgery to become a woman by replacing his male genitals with female ones. Thus he will be a female impersonator rather than a woman. If I were actually interested in seeing Jenner in a dress I would watch those programs instead of sitting through nearly three hours of a program I wouldn't otherwise have an interest in just to see him get an award. E! or news programs will likely show the award presentation later. NBC itself has "America's got Talent" for the first hour followed by a reality show called "American Ninja Warrior".
The 3-hour length of the ESPY award program makes it much less attractive to viewers. The length implies the program will feature a lot of award categories most viewers won't be interest in. One of the most common complaints about awards shows is that they are toooooooo long. One of the biggest reasons people sit through awards programs is to find out who wins. ABC had eliminated the mystery by saying the big award will go to Jenner.
Of course ABC could not very well suggest that Jenner was competing against others for the award. If others were being considered for the award their efforts would be shown. ABC couldn't very well show a clip of Lauren Hill playing her last basketball game to raise money for cancer research followed by a clip of Noan Galloway competing on "Dancing with the stars' using an artificial leg and then show Jenner putting on a dress. If they did that one would believe Jenner was a legitimate winner.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Killer to Get ESPY "Courage" Award
It was in the county of Los Angeles, California. It was
Saturday Feb. 7, 2015. At 12:12 P.M. the call
came in. ESPY's future hero then known as Bruce Jenner had
been courageously driving along the Pacific Coast Highway at just
over 46
mph casually smoking a cigarette like an old movie hero.
He was apparently unaware of the danger ahead where some
vehicles were stopping at a traffic light. ESPY's future hero
didn't have to worry. The big Cadillac SUV he was driving
would protect ESPY's hero from injury when he couldn't stop fast
enough to avoid hitting the Lexus ahead of him. The impact
caused the Lexus to cross over into the oncoming traffic lane where
the driver Kim Howe died when a hummer hit her vehicle.
Jenner probably wouldn't be charged with misdemeanor vehicular homicide, which in California can carry a penalty of one year in the county jail, even if he weren't a celebrity because his mistake of following too close is too common. It appears to be a only coincidence that after the accident Jenner changed his appearance and name.
Perhaps the advertisers of the ESPY's, such as Capital One, should be commended for risking acquiring a negative image from sponsoring a courage award for a man who less than six months ago accidentally killed a woman whose only "crime" was being in his way. Jenner's recent life differs substantially from the life of other award recipients, Other recipients dealt with conditions that threatened their lives or in a few cases they received the award posthumously. Jenner negligently took an innocent life. Most of us would think someone wanting to give an courage award to a killer would at least wait a year or two to show respect for the victim. Apparently the ESPY advertisers don't think a celebrity killing an ordinary person who has done nothing to deserve that fate is any big deal.
Jenner probably wouldn't be charged with misdemeanor vehicular homicide, which in California can carry a penalty of one year in the county jail, even if he weren't a celebrity because his mistake of following too close is too common. It appears to be a only coincidence that after the accident Jenner changed his appearance and name.
Perhaps the advertisers of the ESPY's, such as Capital One, should be commended for risking acquiring a negative image from sponsoring a courage award for a man who less than six months ago accidentally killed a woman whose only "crime" was being in his way. Jenner's recent life differs substantially from the life of other award recipients, Other recipients dealt with conditions that threatened their lives or in a few cases they received the award posthumously. Jenner negligently took an innocent life. Most of us would think someone wanting to give an courage award to a killer would at least wait a year or two to show respect for the victim. Apparently the ESPY advertisers don't think a celebrity killing an ordinary person who has done nothing to deserve that fate is any big deal.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Why Did South Reward Racist Killer and Encourage Racism?
Why did the southern states reward a racist murderer by making him
the most significant southern political figure since Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.? Are southern politicians so
ignorant that they don't understand that the people who commit such
crimes do so to get attention? Why are they aiding and
abetting his effort to steal the Confederate Flag and make it a
symbol of racism? Why are they trying to cause whites to be
mad at blacks and possibly hate them?
My favorite phrase by the late radio commentator Paul Harvey was often used after a story about someone like the man who killed nine in a Charleston, S.C., church. Harvey would end the story with, "he'd like me to mention his name." Southern states have done more than just mention the Charleston killer's name. They have made him a major historical figure by basing policy decisions on his action.
I remind readers that I am neutral about the Confederate flag because my great grandfather was in the Union army. I have been concerned about racism since I was in the 7th grade and read a couple of biographies about Jackie Robinson who became one of my childhood heroes.
There are no inherently racist symbols. Racists may attempt to use objects or designs as racist symbols, but the symbols can only become racist if others allow the racists to have a monopoly on the use of a symbol.
I got a bit of cultural shock shortly after I arrived in Vietnam. A bunch of us replacements were flying north to An Khe from Long Binh. We landed at an air field I think was at Nha Trang and got off the plane for a short time. Across the road I saw some type of Vietnamese compound. Swastikas were on top of each of the two posts at either side of the entrance. The only difference from the Nazi symbol was that these swastikas were resting on one of the arms like on a base. One of the men who knew more about eastern religions than I did told me swastikas were used as peace symbols in the Buddhist religion. The symbol is also sacred in Hinduism and Jainism. For the first few months I was in Vietnam the post office where I worked was in a compound that had what appeared to be graves with tombstones that displayed the swastika the same way an American tombstone might have the letters "R.I.P."
Generations of southerners have used the Confederate flag to commemorate the efforts of their ancestors to defend their homes and communities against attack in the Civil War. Then a cowardly murderer in effect said he wanted the flag to only be used to indicate racism. Southern political leaders then bowed down to him and essentially said: "yes, Mr. Killer if you say the flag stands for racism we'll let you steal the flag from the families of southern Civil War veterans."
Southern blacks need to understand that freedom means more than just not being the property of a plantation owner. Many southern blacks are virtual slaves because they have allowed their fears to enslave them. They need to recognize that they cannot truly be free until they stop fearing ghosts from the past.
Blacks need to get over the phobia they have about the Confederate flag.
Racism doesn't come from pieces of cloth or other symbols. Racism develops when people feel somebody has hurt them and decide to dislike all of those who are similar to the person or persons who have wronged them. When I was in college I worked one summer with a young man who hated all blacks because a black truck driver had killed his parents in a traffic accident.
The Confederate flag is important to many white southerners because it provides a tie to their ancestors. They can feel important because they feel their ancestors were important.
Those who want to eliminate that flag are implying they hate the Confederate flag and by implication the people who consider it important. Some whites will respond to that hatred by developing hatred of their flag's "enemies". Telling those who support that flag that they are racists will cause many to become racists.
Dr. Martin Luther King's most important teaching was that you cannot defeat hate with hate. As Marvin Gaye sang in "What's Goin On": "Only love can conquer hate."
Southerners who want to defeat racism should embrace the Confederate flag and those who consider it important. The Confederate flag was not racist. Both blacks and whites fought under that banner. As I noted in a previous post both blacks and whites owned slaves and there were white slaves as well as black slaves. Those plantation owners who sold the lighter complexioned slaves were likely selling slaves who were their sons or daughters, nieces or nephews.
We should not forget the Civil War and those who fought in it. We should use it as a reminder of what can happen when politicians fail to find compromises on difficult issues.
My favorite phrase by the late radio commentator Paul Harvey was often used after a story about someone like the man who killed nine in a Charleston, S.C., church. Harvey would end the story with, "he'd like me to mention his name." Southern states have done more than just mention the Charleston killer's name. They have made him a major historical figure by basing policy decisions on his action.
I remind readers that I am neutral about the Confederate flag because my great grandfather was in the Union army. I have been concerned about racism since I was in the 7th grade and read a couple of biographies about Jackie Robinson who became one of my childhood heroes.
There are no inherently racist symbols. Racists may attempt to use objects or designs as racist symbols, but the symbols can only become racist if others allow the racists to have a monopoly on the use of a symbol.
I got a bit of cultural shock shortly after I arrived in Vietnam. A bunch of us replacements were flying north to An Khe from Long Binh. We landed at an air field I think was at Nha Trang and got off the plane for a short time. Across the road I saw some type of Vietnamese compound. Swastikas were on top of each of the two posts at either side of the entrance. The only difference from the Nazi symbol was that these swastikas were resting on one of the arms like on a base. One of the men who knew more about eastern religions than I did told me swastikas were used as peace symbols in the Buddhist religion. The symbol is also sacred in Hinduism and Jainism. For the first few months I was in Vietnam the post office where I worked was in a compound that had what appeared to be graves with tombstones that displayed the swastika the same way an American tombstone might have the letters "R.I.P."
Generations of southerners have used the Confederate flag to commemorate the efforts of their ancestors to defend their homes and communities against attack in the Civil War. Then a cowardly murderer in effect said he wanted the flag to only be used to indicate racism. Southern political leaders then bowed down to him and essentially said: "yes, Mr. Killer if you say the flag stands for racism we'll let you steal the flag from the families of southern Civil War veterans."
Southern blacks need to understand that freedom means more than just not being the property of a plantation owner. Many southern blacks are virtual slaves because they have allowed their fears to enslave them. They need to recognize that they cannot truly be free until they stop fearing ghosts from the past.
Blacks need to get over the phobia they have about the Confederate flag.
Racism doesn't come from pieces of cloth or other symbols. Racism develops when people feel somebody has hurt them and decide to dislike all of those who are similar to the person or persons who have wronged them. When I was in college I worked one summer with a young man who hated all blacks because a black truck driver had killed his parents in a traffic accident.
The Confederate flag is important to many white southerners because it provides a tie to their ancestors. They can feel important because they feel their ancestors were important.
Those who want to eliminate that flag are implying they hate the Confederate flag and by implication the people who consider it important. Some whites will respond to that hatred by developing hatred of their flag's "enemies". Telling those who support that flag that they are racists will cause many to become racists.
Dr. Martin Luther King's most important teaching was that you cannot defeat hate with hate. As Marvin Gaye sang in "What's Goin On": "Only love can conquer hate."
Southerners who want to defeat racism should embrace the Confederate flag and those who consider it important. The Confederate flag was not racist. Both blacks and whites fought under that banner. As I noted in a previous post both blacks and whites owned slaves and there were white slaves as well as black slaves. Those plantation owners who sold the lighter complexioned slaves were likely selling slaves who were their sons or daughters, nieces or nephews.
We should not forget the Civil War and those who fought in it. We should use it as a reminder of what can happen when politicians fail to find compromises on difficult issues.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
We Need to Plan Boycott of ESPY Award Advertisers
I don't know anything about how to go about getting people to
participate in a boycott of advertisers. However, I think it
would be a great idea to boycott ESPY advertisers considering the
extreme disrespect Disney / ESPN has shown to real heroes by using
the Arthur Ashe courage award for a publicity stunt.
As I suggested in a previous post I started suspecting that Disney arranged for the actor formerly known as Bruce Jenner to get the award after I discovered that Disney had premiered its own reality show about a man becoming a woman called "Becoming Us" at the same time as the Vanity Fair article about Jenner becoming a female impersonator and the courage award announcement.
[News stories have misrepresented Jenner's plans. Jenner doesn't want to have sex with men so he isn't homosexual. He doesn't want a sex change operation so he isn't a transsexual. He simply wants to pretend to be a woman. An entertainer who appears as a female is called a female impersonator. A non-entertainer who does that is called a transvestite.]
There is an old saying in the field of counter terrorism that can apply to other areas of human behavior. "Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action,"
It is unlikely that those three events occurred at the same time by coincidence. The fact that Disney was in direct control of two events and could have influenced the third indicates that Disney arranged for the Vanity Fair article and the award announcement to coincide with the series premier.
My understanding of the way programs are scheduled is that schedules are usually set months in advance because of the time needed to write, cast and perform the program. Disney likely told ESPN someone at Disney would select the winner of the Arthur Ashe award so the people at ESPN wouldn't announce giving the award to a legitimate candidate. Disney probably didn't tell the people at ESPN the name of Disney's selection at first to avoid the name becoming public before Disney was ready. The claim by people at ESPN that they weren't considering anyone else for the award essentially proves my case.
I've had trouble thinking of expressions bad enough to describe the actor formerly known as Bruce Jenner and the people at Disney and ESPN. I've forgotten a lot of the "military language" that might work, but it wouldn't do any good to remember them because the text editor would delete them. There are some western terms that might be appropriate like "skunk" and "sidewinder" [ a type of snake that moves sideways]. I've decided to borrow an expression from Jed Clampett on the "Beverly Hillbillies" -- Jenner and company are "lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut." Walter Brennan's character "The Colonel" in "Meet John Doe" used the term "heelot" meaning a "lot of heels" - people who try to get your money.
Jenner and the heelots at ESPN / Disney seem to believe that the rich should not only have all the money, but all the honors. Those who believe that someone as wealthy as Jenner should receive a "courage" award for taking money to live out a long time dream must have warped minds.
Giving such an award to Jenner at the present time is particularly inappropriate considering the people whose dreams were recently taken from them by an evil madman in Charleston, S.C..
Lauren Hill was a young woman who played college basketball until a fatal form of cancer cut her life short. When she found out she wouldn't be able to realize her dreams, she dedicate her remaining days raising money so that the disease that stole her dreams wouldn't steal the dreams of any other young people.
Sgt. Noah Galloway volunteered to risk his life protecting us through military service. An explosive device in Iraq that took his arm and leg forced him to change his dreams.
This isn't the first time Disney has stomped on someone's dream. If I were Walt Disney, I'd try to come back from the grave and haunt the sidewinding heelots who run the company.
Many of your daughters know a lot more about a group called the Cheetah girls than I do. I have read about the courageous creator of the book that the group is based on. She is far more deserving of a courage award than Jenner. Deborah Gregory was raised in foster care from the age of 3 and aged out of the system at 18 -- that is no one adopted her. The young black woman didn't let that background hold her back. She began designing clothes and worked as a runway model before becoming a writer. She thought she had it made when Disney offered to buy the Cheetah girls and offered her a share of the profits. She didn't know Disney would claim the people in charge of the project were apparently so incompetent that the project wouldn't make a profit -- or at least so Disney claimed. Disney's claim would be enough to discourage me from investing in the company. If Disney lied about the project's profitability that would be an even bigger reason to not buy Disney stock.
Last fall Disney stabbed many of its employees in the back by replacing them with immigrants. "[A]bout 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. Over the next three months, some Disney employees were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost." Disney's action demonstrates that the biggest threat to well paying jobs is legal immigrants rather than illegal ones.
A company that would treat the creator of a major revenue source like Cheetah Girls the way Disney did and turn the jobs of its employees over to immigrants wouldn't hesitate to abuse a courage award named after a courageous black athlete as part of a publicity stunt. I hope someone knows an organization that could organize a boycott of ESPY advertisers.
As I suggested in a previous post I started suspecting that Disney arranged for the actor formerly known as Bruce Jenner to get the award after I discovered that Disney had premiered its own reality show about a man becoming a woman called "Becoming Us" at the same time as the Vanity Fair article about Jenner becoming a female impersonator and the courage award announcement.
[News stories have misrepresented Jenner's plans. Jenner doesn't want to have sex with men so he isn't homosexual. He doesn't want a sex change operation so he isn't a transsexual. He simply wants to pretend to be a woman. An entertainer who appears as a female is called a female impersonator. A non-entertainer who does that is called a transvestite.]
There is an old saying in the field of counter terrorism that can apply to other areas of human behavior. "Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action,"
It is unlikely that those three events occurred at the same time by coincidence. The fact that Disney was in direct control of two events and could have influenced the third indicates that Disney arranged for the Vanity Fair article and the award announcement to coincide with the series premier.
My understanding of the way programs are scheduled is that schedules are usually set months in advance because of the time needed to write, cast and perform the program. Disney likely told ESPN someone at Disney would select the winner of the Arthur Ashe award so the people at ESPN wouldn't announce giving the award to a legitimate candidate. Disney probably didn't tell the people at ESPN the name of Disney's selection at first to avoid the name becoming public before Disney was ready. The claim by people at ESPN that they weren't considering anyone else for the award essentially proves my case.
I've had trouble thinking of expressions bad enough to describe the actor formerly known as Bruce Jenner and the people at Disney and ESPN. I've forgotten a lot of the "military language" that might work, but it wouldn't do any good to remember them because the text editor would delete them. There are some western terms that might be appropriate like "skunk" and "sidewinder" [ a type of snake that moves sideways]. I've decided to borrow an expression from Jed Clampett on the "Beverly Hillbillies" -- Jenner and company are "lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut." Walter Brennan's character "The Colonel" in "Meet John Doe" used the term "heelot" meaning a "lot of heels" - people who try to get your money.
Jenner and the heelots at ESPN / Disney seem to believe that the rich should not only have all the money, but all the honors. Those who believe that someone as wealthy as Jenner should receive a "courage" award for taking money to live out a long time dream must have warped minds.
Giving such an award to Jenner at the present time is particularly inappropriate considering the people whose dreams were recently taken from them by an evil madman in Charleston, S.C..
Lauren Hill was a young woman who played college basketball until a fatal form of cancer cut her life short. When she found out she wouldn't be able to realize her dreams, she dedicate her remaining days raising money so that the disease that stole her dreams wouldn't steal the dreams of any other young people.
Sgt. Noah Galloway volunteered to risk his life protecting us through military service. An explosive device in Iraq that took his arm and leg forced him to change his dreams.
This isn't the first time Disney has stomped on someone's dream. If I were Walt Disney, I'd try to come back from the grave and haunt the sidewinding heelots who run the company.
Many of your daughters know a lot more about a group called the Cheetah girls than I do. I have read about the courageous creator of the book that the group is based on. She is far more deserving of a courage award than Jenner. Deborah Gregory was raised in foster care from the age of 3 and aged out of the system at 18 -- that is no one adopted her. The young black woman didn't let that background hold her back. She began designing clothes and worked as a runway model before becoming a writer. She thought she had it made when Disney offered to buy the Cheetah girls and offered her a share of the profits. She didn't know Disney would claim the people in charge of the project were apparently so incompetent that the project wouldn't make a profit -- or at least so Disney claimed. Disney's claim would be enough to discourage me from investing in the company. If Disney lied about the project's profitability that would be an even bigger reason to not buy Disney stock.
Last fall Disney stabbed many of its employees in the back by replacing them with immigrants. "[A]bout 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. Over the next three months, some Disney employees were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost." Disney's action demonstrates that the biggest threat to well paying jobs is legal immigrants rather than illegal ones.
A company that would treat the creator of a major revenue source like Cheetah Girls the way Disney did and turn the jobs of its employees over to immigrants wouldn't hesitate to abuse a courage award named after a courageous black athlete as part of a publicity stunt. I hope someone knows an organization that could organize a boycott of ESPY advertisers.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Black Americans Should Thank Confederate Leaders for Their Rights
It is unlikely that the Civil War amendments would have been
proposed and ratified if Confederate leaders hadn't precipitated the
Civil War. The fact that the civil rights amendments
were an inadvertent result of the Civil War doesn't detract from the
fact that the war resulted in ratification of constitutional
amendments that outlawed slavery and would eventually guarantee all
black Americans equal protection of the laws and the right to
vote. Blacks should embrace the Confederate flag to show
their gratitude for the benefits blacks received from the Civil
War. Incidentally I'm the great grandson of a Union army
veteran and have on special feelings for the Confederate
Flag".
People should stop using the Confederate states and the Confederate flag as scapegoats for American racism. At the time of the Civil War northern whites appear to have been far more racist than southern whites. Slavery at the time of the Civil War was not just about color. Although most slave owners were white, there were black slave owners. Although most slaves were black, there were some white slaves.
The white children of female slaves also became slaves. For example, President Thomas Jefferson's slave concubine Sally Hemings was also his sister-in-law. Hemings, who was legally classified as white, was the daughter of a union between Jefferson's father-in-law and a slave. Several of their children subsequently passed for white after being freed and leaving Virginia.
The strange case of Jane / Alexina Morrison demonstrates that slavery wasn't necessarily about color. According to the slave trader who sold her in Louisiana the blonde haired blue-eyed young woman he called "Jane" was born a slave. The woman who called herself "Alexina" sued him for kidnapping her. The case bounced around the Louisiana courts just before the Civil War with juries siding with Alexina and the courts with the slave trader. It apparently is still technically before the courts. Regardless of which person was telling the truth, the fact that the courts even considered the possibility of Morrison being a slave demonstrates that white slaves were a part of southern slavery.
The fact northern states prohibited slavery didn't mean they treated blacks fairly. One of the reasons they didn't want slaves was because many northern whites were bigots. They hated blacks whom they considered inferior and didn't want them around regardless of whether they were free or slaves. A northerner would have been far less likely to have had the type of relationship Jefferson had with Hemings.
At the start of the Civil War black Americans had few rights even in the states that didn't allow slavery. Most northern states, including recently admitted Kansas, prohibited blacks from voting. Many limited blacks to performing the least desirable jobs and living in the least desirable locations. Indiana wouldn't allow blacks to attend school. Illinois tried to keep them out entirely.
"When the Civil War ended, 19 of 24 Northern states did not allow blacks to vote. Nowhere did they serve on juries before 1860. They could not give testimony in 10 states, and were prevented from assembling in two. Several western states had prohibited free blacks from entering the state. Blacks who entered Illinois and stayed more than 10 days were guilty of "high misdemeanor." Even those that didn't exclude blacks debated doing so and had discriminatory ordinances on the local level."
Two Civil War era incidents demonstrate the racism of northerners and the United States government.
On November 29, 1864, a unit of the Colorado Territorial Militia murdered peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne women and children at Sand Creek. Almost exactly four years later on November 27, 1868, George Armstrong Custer led a unit of the United States cavalry to murder peaceful Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and his people on the Cheyenne reservation on the Washita River in Oklahoma territory.
The Civil War allowed Abolitionists to gain power and push their agenda which included rights for blacks. It is unlikely they could have gained approval for amendments guaranteeing blacks equal rights, especially the right to vote, without the Civil War. States that didn't allow blacks to vote would have been unlikely to ratify a constitutional amendment approving that right except as a means of punishing the southern states for the Civil War.
The southern states didn't have slavery because the white residents were racist. Slavery developed in the early colonial period because of the difficulty of attracting farm labor. Land owners initially used "indentured servants" who served for a period of time before being given their freedom. Initially most indentured servants were white, especially Irish who were forced to come to America so the English could take their land. The first Africans arrived at Jamestown in 1619. They were treated just like white indentured servants with some landowners giving them land after they finished their period of indenture.
Later landowners decided they would rather have permanent slaves even though that hadn't been the British practice. The fact that Africans were considered foreigners provided a loophole to treat them as permanent slaves. The color difference was a bonus that made it easier to slave from non-slave. The idea that they might be inferior developed as a rationalization for treating them differently.
The southern region slipped into the trap of slavery during the colonial period and no one at the time of the Civil War could figure a way to change to a different labor system. Slaves had become a significant financial asset and abruptly freeing slaves without compensating the owners, at least in the form of some type of loans, would have been the equivalent of burning up money. Without compensation the owners would have lacked money to rehire the former slaves as employees. Without money the former slaves would have been unable to buy food.
Jim Downs in his book "Sick from Freedom" indicates that the abruptly freed slaves suffered "the largest biological crisis of the 19th century". Mass starvation and rampant disease affected as many as 1 million of the 4 million slaves. The racism of northerners likely contributed to this crisis because many of them didn't care what happened to the former slaves..
A growth in immigration capable of creating a labor surplus conceivably could have eventually caused a shift to paid workers by giving companies with paid workers a competitive advantage. If a slave died the business had to purchase a new one. If a paid employee died, the company just hired someone else. A slave owner had to continue to provide food, clothing and shelter to slaves during economic downturns to protect his investment. Paid workers could be laid off.
The Confederate states decision to leave the Union wasn't just directly about the slavery issue. The southern agricultural economy needed different economic policies, particularly on tariffs, than the northern economy. People in the region, including some of the more knowledgeable slaves, may have developed a common identity of being victimized by the northern states because they lived in the south. They may have agreed with leaders that their states no longer had a stake in the union. Such an attitude could explain why some blacks, both slave and free, decided to fight for the confederacy. Slaves might have been worried that the war would replace one master with another. They didn't know President Abraham Lincoln intended to free them until after the war. White soldiers who didn't own slaves [only 33% of families owned slaves] may have held such an attitude in addition to being worried about how an invading army might treat them and their property. Some white soldiers had only limited incomes and the military service was an improvement. Northern soldiers may have been fighting to end slavery, but southern soldiers had more complex attitudes.
American racism has nothing to do with the Confederate Flag or the Confederate States of America. The real racists are just trying to use the Confederate Flag as a scapegoat for their own efforts to divide Americans into phony racial categories. Censoring the Confederate Flag or removing the statues of Confederate leaders will do nothing to reduce racism because these symbols are not responsible for perpetuating the outright lie that black Americans and white Americans belong to different "races"
The Confederate Flag is no more inherently racist then the crosses that the Ku Klux Klan liked to desecrate by burning. The best way to discourage the use of the Confederate Flag by racists is to convert it into a symbol of racial unity. This action should be part of a process in which those people who had ancestors living in the south prior to World War II recognize they likely have cousins whose skin is of a different color than theirs.
Sex across the color line in the south likely began even before an African named John Punch married a white woman who was probably an indentured servant in about 1835. Barack Obama's mother was one of the descendents of this union. In early Virginia young people often had to marry across the color lines because the number of man in a color group didn't always equal the number of women. Later when Virginians decided to have blacks be permanent slaves, rather than indentured servants, many planters required their African male slaves to marry their white (primarily Irish) female indentured servants so the resulting children could be kept as permanent slaves. A change in laws made a child's status as slave or free determined by the mother's status. It was only free white women who were prohibited from having sex with black men because they children would have been free. Some of the descendents of these mixed marriages would eventually be able to pass for white and become part of the white population.
Slavery typically includes sexual relations between men in the master class and women in the slave class. Some of the descendents of these relationships might eventually pass for white as was the case with children of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. After slavery sex between white men and black women was allowed. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had an Irish ancestor. Sen. Strom Thurman had a black daughter by the daughter of his family's housekeeper. These type relationships mean many southerners have cousins of a different color.
Those who talk about southern racism ignore the north's own racism. The Roberts Case which provided the "separate but equal" doctrine for the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision allowing racial segregation was a Massachusetts court case. Lawrence, Kansas, which was a center for anti-slavery sentiment had segregated schools.
Southern racism didn't become a serious problem until long after the Civil War. For a brief period in the late 19th Century blacks and whites were working together politically. Then southern white leaders began encouraging racism to keep themselves in power. These racists received major assistance from the Supreme Court when it condoned racial segregation in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. They later received assistance from Hollywood with the extremely racist movie "Birth of a Nation"
The Chicago race riot in 1919 in which 34 people died demonstrates northern racism in the early 20th Century. The riot was one of many Red Summer race riots in northern and southern cities which included a lynching of a black prisoner in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1992 the acquittal of white officers who beat a black taxi driver named Rodney King triggered a race riot.
The use of demonstrations to deal with racial discrimination began in northern cities in the 1930's with the "don't shop where you can't work" department store boycotts. Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., led a bus boycott to force the hiring of black bus drivers in New York City.
The Board of Education in the Brown v. Board of Education case which outlawed school segregation was in Topeka, Kansas. Wichita, Kansas, high school students conducted a sit-in to force a drug store to integrate its lunch counter in 1958. Housing segregation remains a reality in many northern cities. Recent controversial incidents of police killings of black men have occurred in cities that were in the Union during the Civil War.
Northern states allow the operation of "Jane Crow" health facilities. A "Jane Crow" health facility is a facility that primarily treats minority women but isn't as strictly regulated as facilities treating white men. Such facilities violate federal civil rights law. Tonya Reaves died as a result of a botched abortion in one such facility, which lacks a license to operate, in President Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago.
People should stop using the Confederate states and the Confederate flag as scapegoats for American racism. At the time of the Civil War northern whites appear to have been far more racist than southern whites. Slavery at the time of the Civil War was not just about color. Although most slave owners were white, there were black slave owners. Although most slaves were black, there were some white slaves.
The white children of female slaves also became slaves. For example, President Thomas Jefferson's slave concubine Sally Hemings was also his sister-in-law. Hemings, who was legally classified as white, was the daughter of a union between Jefferson's father-in-law and a slave. Several of their children subsequently passed for white after being freed and leaving Virginia.
The strange case of Jane / Alexina Morrison demonstrates that slavery wasn't necessarily about color. According to the slave trader who sold her in Louisiana the blonde haired blue-eyed young woman he called "Jane" was born a slave. The woman who called herself "Alexina" sued him for kidnapping her. The case bounced around the Louisiana courts just before the Civil War with juries siding with Alexina and the courts with the slave trader. It apparently is still technically before the courts. Regardless of which person was telling the truth, the fact that the courts even considered the possibility of Morrison being a slave demonstrates that white slaves were a part of southern slavery.
The fact northern states prohibited slavery didn't mean they treated blacks fairly. One of the reasons they didn't want slaves was because many northern whites were bigots. They hated blacks whom they considered inferior and didn't want them around regardless of whether they were free or slaves. A northerner would have been far less likely to have had the type of relationship Jefferson had with Hemings.
"[R]ace prejudice seems stronger in those states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists, and nowhere is it more intolerant than in those states where slavery was never known." --Alexis De Tocqueville, �Democracy in America� 1835
At the start of the Civil War black Americans had few rights even in the states that didn't allow slavery. Most northern states, including recently admitted Kansas, prohibited blacks from voting. Many limited blacks to performing the least desirable jobs and living in the least desirable locations. Indiana wouldn't allow blacks to attend school. Illinois tried to keep them out entirely.
"When the Civil War ended, 19 of 24 Northern states did not allow blacks to vote. Nowhere did they serve on juries before 1860. They could not give testimony in 10 states, and were prevented from assembling in two. Several western states had prohibited free blacks from entering the state. Blacks who entered Illinois and stayed more than 10 days were guilty of "high misdemeanor." Even those that didn't exclude blacks debated doing so and had discriminatory ordinances on the local level."
Two Civil War era incidents demonstrate the racism of northerners and the United States government.
On November 29, 1864, a unit of the Colorado Territorial Militia murdered peaceful Arapaho and Cheyenne women and children at Sand Creek. Almost exactly four years later on November 27, 1868, George Armstrong Custer led a unit of the United States cavalry to murder peaceful Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle and his people on the Cheyenne reservation on the Washita River in Oklahoma territory.
The Civil War allowed Abolitionists to gain power and push their agenda which included rights for blacks. It is unlikely they could have gained approval for amendments guaranteeing blacks equal rights, especially the right to vote, without the Civil War. States that didn't allow blacks to vote would have been unlikely to ratify a constitutional amendment approving that right except as a means of punishing the southern states for the Civil War.
The southern states didn't have slavery because the white residents were racist. Slavery developed in the early colonial period because of the difficulty of attracting farm labor. Land owners initially used "indentured servants" who served for a period of time before being given their freedom. Initially most indentured servants were white, especially Irish who were forced to come to America so the English could take their land. The first Africans arrived at Jamestown in 1619. They were treated just like white indentured servants with some landowners giving them land after they finished their period of indenture.
Later landowners decided they would rather have permanent slaves even though that hadn't been the British practice. The fact that Africans were considered foreigners provided a loophole to treat them as permanent slaves. The color difference was a bonus that made it easier to slave from non-slave. The idea that they might be inferior developed as a rationalization for treating them differently.
The southern region slipped into the trap of slavery during the colonial period and no one at the time of the Civil War could figure a way to change to a different labor system. Slaves had become a significant financial asset and abruptly freeing slaves without compensating the owners, at least in the form of some type of loans, would have been the equivalent of burning up money. Without compensation the owners would have lacked money to rehire the former slaves as employees. Without money the former slaves would have been unable to buy food.
Jim Downs in his book "Sick from Freedom" indicates that the abruptly freed slaves suffered "the largest biological crisis of the 19th century". Mass starvation and rampant disease affected as many as 1 million of the 4 million slaves. The racism of northerners likely contributed to this crisis because many of them didn't care what happened to the former slaves..
A growth in immigration capable of creating a labor surplus conceivably could have eventually caused a shift to paid workers by giving companies with paid workers a competitive advantage. If a slave died the business had to purchase a new one. If a paid employee died, the company just hired someone else. A slave owner had to continue to provide food, clothing and shelter to slaves during economic downturns to protect his investment. Paid workers could be laid off.
The Confederate states decision to leave the Union wasn't just directly about the slavery issue. The southern agricultural economy needed different economic policies, particularly on tariffs, than the northern economy. People in the region, including some of the more knowledgeable slaves, may have developed a common identity of being victimized by the northern states because they lived in the south. They may have agreed with leaders that their states no longer had a stake in the union. Such an attitude could explain why some blacks, both slave and free, decided to fight for the confederacy. Slaves might have been worried that the war would replace one master with another. They didn't know President Abraham Lincoln intended to free them until after the war. White soldiers who didn't own slaves [only 33% of families owned slaves] may have held such an attitude in addition to being worried about how an invading army might treat them and their property. Some white soldiers had only limited incomes and the military service was an improvement. Northern soldiers may have been fighting to end slavery, but southern soldiers had more complex attitudes.
American racism has nothing to do with the Confederate Flag or the Confederate States of America. The real racists are just trying to use the Confederate Flag as a scapegoat for their own efforts to divide Americans into phony racial categories. Censoring the Confederate Flag or removing the statues of Confederate leaders will do nothing to reduce racism because these symbols are not responsible for perpetuating the outright lie that black Americans and white Americans belong to different "races"
The Confederate Flag is no more inherently racist then the crosses that the Ku Klux Klan liked to desecrate by burning. The best way to discourage the use of the Confederate Flag by racists is to convert it into a symbol of racial unity. This action should be part of a process in which those people who had ancestors living in the south prior to World War II recognize they likely have cousins whose skin is of a different color than theirs.
Sex across the color line in the south likely began even before an African named John Punch married a white woman who was probably an indentured servant in about 1835. Barack Obama's mother was one of the descendents of this union. In early Virginia young people often had to marry across the color lines because the number of man in a color group didn't always equal the number of women. Later when Virginians decided to have blacks be permanent slaves, rather than indentured servants, many planters required their African male slaves to marry their white (primarily Irish) female indentured servants so the resulting children could be kept as permanent slaves. A change in laws made a child's status as slave or free determined by the mother's status. It was only free white women who were prohibited from having sex with black men because they children would have been free. Some of the descendents of these mixed marriages would eventually be able to pass for white and become part of the white population.
Slavery typically includes sexual relations between men in the master class and women in the slave class. Some of the descendents of these relationships might eventually pass for white as was the case with children of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. After slavery sex between white men and black women was allowed. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had an Irish ancestor. Sen. Strom Thurman had a black daughter by the daughter of his family's housekeeper. These type relationships mean many southerners have cousins of a different color.
Those who talk about southern racism ignore the north's own racism. The Roberts Case which provided the "separate but equal" doctrine for the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision allowing racial segregation was a Massachusetts court case. Lawrence, Kansas, which was a center for anti-slavery sentiment had segregated schools.
Southern racism didn't become a serious problem until long after the Civil War. For a brief period in the late 19th Century blacks and whites were working together politically. Then southern white leaders began encouraging racism to keep themselves in power. These racists received major assistance from the Supreme Court when it condoned racial segregation in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. They later received assistance from Hollywood with the extremely racist movie "Birth of a Nation"
The Chicago race riot in 1919 in which 34 people died demonstrates northern racism in the early 20th Century. The riot was one of many Red Summer race riots in northern and southern cities which included a lynching of a black prisoner in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1992 the acquittal of white officers who beat a black taxi driver named Rodney King triggered a race riot.
The use of demonstrations to deal with racial discrimination began in northern cities in the 1930's with the "don't shop where you can't work" department store boycotts. Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., led a bus boycott to force the hiring of black bus drivers in New York City.
The Board of Education in the Brown v. Board of Education case which outlawed school segregation was in Topeka, Kansas. Wichita, Kansas, high school students conducted a sit-in to force a drug store to integrate its lunch counter in 1958. Housing segregation remains a reality in many northern cities. Recent controversial incidents of police killings of black men have occurred in cities that were in the Union during the Civil War.
Northern states allow the operation of "Jane Crow" health facilities. A "Jane Crow" health facility is a facility that primarily treats minority women but isn't as strictly regulated as facilities treating white men. Such facilities violate federal civil rights law. Tonya Reaves died as a result of a botched abortion in one such facility, which lacks a license to operate, in President Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Banning Confederate Flag Conflicts with Dr. King's Teaching
Treating the Confederate Flag as a hated enemy because some low life
racists have misused it conflicts with Dr. Martin Luther King's
teaching that we should love our enemies. Instead of trying to
ban the flag, black leaders should be embracing it so they can turn
it into a symbol of racial harmony. Turning the
Confederate Flag into a symbol of racial harmony would rob racists
of an opportunity to misuse a popular southern symbol to further
their goals.
Using the Confederate Flag as a scapegoat for racism would conceal the real nature of American racism today and in 1860. Racism then and now has always been an American problem not a southern problem.
Banning the Confederate Flag because of the recent murders by a coward in Charleston, South Carolina, would reward the pariah by making him a major historical figure. History books would mention him as the man responsible for eliminating the Confederate Flag. His name might even appear in the future on shows like "Jeopardy". [As Paul Harvey used to say: "He would want me to mention his name."]
We might consider him a pariah, but to others of his ilk he will be a hero. He will have shown them that the easiest way to get what Andy Warhol calls "their 15 minutes of fame" is to commit a heinous crime.
Normal people don't understand that some people would rather be regarded as a pariah than a nobody. Some people satisfy their desire for attention through vandalism like breaking out windows in buildings or cars. Others use spray paint on buildings or public works. Unfortunately, a few use arson or murder to get attention.
Bullies are a significant problem in our society. The worst thing you can do if you are worried about a bully is let him know how he can get to you. The bully boys in the white sheets are already jumping on the Confederate Flag issue to convince white southerners to support the Kooky Krazy Klutzers.
I'm the great grandson of a Union Army veteran so I don't really understand the attitude southerners have toward the Confederate Flag. I wonder if it is related to a military tradition which began when the caisson carrying a dead soldier from the battlefield during the Napoleonic wars was covered with his national flag. When my dad died we received an American flag from the government honoring his service in World War II. When I die my family will receive a flag honoring my service in Vietnam.
Many of the Confederate soldiers were fathers. Others were uncles of individuals who might not have been born yet. Southerners may feel the way they do about the Confederate Flag as a way of remembering family members who died to protect their relatives and neighbors. Many of the Confederate soldiers likely shared the attitude of Virginian Rufus Peck: "I hadn't a single regret. I felt I had answered the country's call and discharged my duty, but all the time I was fighting for what my state thought best and against my own convictions."
Many of the "Johnny Rebs" were black men who had no way of knowing that the war would eliminate slavery.
Confederate soldiers were not the bad guys in the Civil War. The bad guys were the politicians on both sides who couldn't work out a compromise on controversial issues like slavery and tariffs.
I'll deal more with the issue of racism and the Civil War in a future post. Those who think the south had a monopoly on racism in 1860 need to recognize that it was members of the Colorado Militia flying the American flag, not Confederate soldiers, who murdered peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864.
Using the Confederate Flag as a scapegoat for racism would conceal the real nature of American racism today and in 1860. Racism then and now has always been an American problem not a southern problem.
Banning the Confederate Flag because of the recent murders by a coward in Charleston, South Carolina, would reward the pariah by making him a major historical figure. History books would mention him as the man responsible for eliminating the Confederate Flag. His name might even appear in the future on shows like "Jeopardy". [As Paul Harvey used to say: "He would want me to mention his name."]
We might consider him a pariah, but to others of his ilk he will be a hero. He will have shown them that the easiest way to get what Andy Warhol calls "their 15 minutes of fame" is to commit a heinous crime.
Normal people don't understand that some people would rather be regarded as a pariah than a nobody. Some people satisfy their desire for attention through vandalism like breaking out windows in buildings or cars. Others use spray paint on buildings or public works. Unfortunately, a few use arson or murder to get attention.
Bullies are a significant problem in our society. The worst thing you can do if you are worried about a bully is let him know how he can get to you. The bully boys in the white sheets are already jumping on the Confederate Flag issue to convince white southerners to support the Kooky Krazy Klutzers.
I'm the great grandson of a Union Army veteran so I don't really understand the attitude southerners have toward the Confederate Flag. I wonder if it is related to a military tradition which began when the caisson carrying a dead soldier from the battlefield during the Napoleonic wars was covered with his national flag. When my dad died we received an American flag from the government honoring his service in World War II. When I die my family will receive a flag honoring my service in Vietnam.
Many of the Confederate soldiers were fathers. Others were uncles of individuals who might not have been born yet. Southerners may feel the way they do about the Confederate Flag as a way of remembering family members who died to protect their relatives and neighbors. Many of the Confederate soldiers likely shared the attitude of Virginian Rufus Peck: "I hadn't a single regret. I felt I had answered the country's call and discharged my duty, but all the time I was fighting for what my state thought best and against my own convictions."
Many of the "Johnny Rebs" were black men who had no way of knowing that the war would eliminate slavery.
Confederate soldiers were not the bad guys in the Civil War. The bad guys were the politicians on both sides who couldn't work out a compromise on controversial issues like slavery and tariffs.
I'll deal more with the issue of racism and the Civil War in a future post. Those who think the south had a monopoly on racism in 1860 need to recognize that it was members of the Colorado Militia flying the American flag, not Confederate soldiers, who murdered peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864.
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