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150th Celebration of Being Assholes
Selected quoted around upcoming plans to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/30confed.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp
“We in the South, who have been kicked around for an awfully long time and are accused of being racist, we would just like the truth to be known,” said Michael Givens, commander-in-chief of the Sons, explaining the reason for the television ads. While there were many causes of the war, he said, “our people were only fighting to protect themselves from an invasion and for their independence.”
... and their right to maintain an economy based on owning other human beings. Funny how they forget that part at the end.
“We’re celebrating that those 170 people risked their lives and fortunes to stand for what they believed in, which is self-government,” Mr. Antley said. “Many people in the South still believe that is a just and honorable cause. Do I believe they were right in what they did? Absolutely,” he said, noting that he spoke for himself and not any organization. “There’s no shame or regret over the action those men took.”
Mr. Antley said he was not defending slavery, which he called an abomination. “But defending the South’s right to secede, the soldiers’ right to defend their homes and the right to self-government doesn’t mean your arguments are without weight because of slavery,” he said.
Actually, it does mean your arguments are without weight, because slavery was the central reason behind the secession of the South from the Union. The South seceded to protect their right to perpetuate the institution of slavery.
Next time any of these pinheads prattles on about the glories of the Civil War and how it was really about states' rights and limited government and all that appropriated Tea Party nonsense, and point out what they are celebrating, should they have won, would be a country built and sustained on treating an entire body of people as subhuman labour. Sadly, only one or two would be ashamed. The rest will be sporting hard-ons and rubbing a lynching rope.
EDIT: Because the affronted emails have already started to come in, I would like to be crystal clear on a few things. I am not saying that Southerners cannot have pride in the accomplishments of your family and heritage. I am not saying that the Civil War was as simple a case as good versus evil. And yes, I know that most of the South who fought the war were largely ordinary who believed that it was their homes and freedom that they were defending, and many of them fought bravely and even heroically.
However, you cannot whitewash the casus belli for the war because you want to celebrate without dealing with the racial dimension. You cannot distance yourself by claiming that you only support 'these parts' about the struggle as a way to ignoring the fundamental injustice that the war was fought to try and maintain. I hate to edge into Godwin's Law, but there were heroic Nazis too; poor bastards who saved their fellow soldiers and innocents, acted with honour and lay down their lives for others. That does not change the fact that they fought for an evil regime.
The point is that you can celebrate the lives of individual soldiers without celebrating their cause. You cannot celebrate a conflict without acknowledging its reasons and aims.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/us/30confed.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp
“We in the South, who have been kicked around for an awfully long time and are accused of being racist, we would just like the truth to be known,” said Michael Givens, commander-in-chief of the Sons, explaining the reason for the television ads. While there were many causes of the war, he said, “our people were only fighting to protect themselves from an invasion and for their independence.”
... and their right to maintain an economy based on owning other human beings. Funny how they forget that part at the end.
“We’re celebrating that those 170 people risked their lives and fortunes to stand for what they believed in, which is self-government,” Mr. Antley said. “Many people in the South still believe that is a just and honorable cause. Do I believe they were right in what they did? Absolutely,” he said, noting that he spoke for himself and not any organization. “There’s no shame or regret over the action those men took.”
Mr. Antley said he was not defending slavery, which he called an abomination. “But defending the South’s right to secede, the soldiers’ right to defend their homes and the right to self-government doesn’t mean your arguments are without weight because of slavery,” he said.
Actually, it does mean your arguments are without weight, because slavery was the central reason behind the secession of the South from the Union. The South seceded to protect their right to perpetuate the institution of slavery.
Next time any of these pinheads prattles on about the glories of the Civil War and how it was really about states' rights and limited government and all that appropriated Tea Party nonsense, and point out what they are celebrating, should they have won, would be a country built and sustained on treating an entire body of people as subhuman labour. Sadly, only one or two would be ashamed. The rest will be sporting hard-ons and rubbing a lynching rope.
EDIT: Because the affronted emails have already started to come in, I would like to be crystal clear on a few things. I am not saying that Southerners cannot have pride in the accomplishments of your family and heritage. I am not saying that the Civil War was as simple a case as good versus evil. And yes, I know that most of the South who fought the war were largely ordinary who believed that it was their homes and freedom that they were defending, and many of them fought bravely and even heroically.
However, you cannot whitewash the casus belli for the war because you want to celebrate without dealing with the racial dimension. You cannot distance yourself by claiming that you only support 'these parts' about the struggle as a way to ignoring the fundamental injustice that the war was fought to try and maintain. I hate to edge into Godwin's Law, but there were heroic Nazis too; poor bastards who saved their fellow soldiers and innocents, acted with honour and lay down their lives for others. That does not change the fact that they fought for an evil regime.
The point is that you can celebrate the lives of individual soldiers without celebrating their cause. You cannot celebrate a conflict without acknowledging its reasons and aims.
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I also find it useful to remember that most African-Canadian locals with long histories in my Zone had ancestors who arrived here as slaves, and that they were forbidden to settle in the largest regional town in the province for several decades after its founding.
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