My own little chunk of Red State Kentucky is buzzing today.
1. Growing Into My Stereotype. Today, I took a big step toward growing into an Eastern Kentucky stereotype. That's because one of my teeth was extracted at a dental office in a very prosperous little medical office complex in Lexington, Kentucky. No teeth is just as big a stereotype for Appalachian whites as gold teeth are for urban blacks. Perhaps I should write to a Lexington television station to offer myself for interviews. Not having teeth seems to be a prerequisite for being interviewed on camera by the Lexington stations or appearing in documentaries.
2. Win a Couple of Games And . . . One of the banes of the Kentucky public school system is coaches--especially football coaches and basketball coaches. There are 6th, 7th, and 8th grade basketball teams as well as junior varsity and varsity teams and a lot of those coaches end up working as highly distracted, and often very poor, social studies teachers. In a university town, college coaches impose a burden on the public schools as well. The current corruption rumor in my town is that the wife of the University's basketball coach got an assistant principal's job that she wasn't qualified for. Maybe that's because her husband the coach is a surprising 6-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference in his first year. Even in the very low mid-majors, winning a couple of games can land your wife a plum job.
3. Racism Central High Revisited. Allen Central High School in Prestonsburg, KY is still flying its rebel flags at most football and basketball games. However, they decided to put the battle flags away tonight because they were playing a team with a black player. What Allen Central should do is change their name to Martin Luther King, jr. High School. I'm serious. Confederate flaggers like the people at Allen Central claim that they wave the battle flags to show "Southern pride." Martin Luther King is the most eminent Southerner since Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and is much more highly thought of than contemporary Southern presidents like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George Bush. One would think that any Southern high school would be proud to name themselves after King. Likewise, the people at Allen Central claim that the Confederate flag represents "rebel spirit." Who was more of a rebel than Martin Luther King who took on the whole social and political establishment of the White South in his campaigns against segregation. And unlike the Confederates, Martin Luther King was a victorious rebel who won victory after victory in Southern cities, spurred the adaption of revolutionary civil rights legislation, and changed the hearts of millions. To the contrary, the Confederacy was particularly undignified in Kentucky where Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan blazed a crime wave of bank robberies as he moved through his home state of Kentucky and local Confederate generals like John Bell Hood proved to be particularly inept. Martin Luther King is a far better representative of rebel spirit than the Confederacy. Perhaps Allen Central could become the Martin Luther King High Mountain Mavericks.
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3 comments:
Robert E. Lee is a better choice, as he never cheated on his wife, held orgie parties, plagerized his doctoral thesis, or had violent sex with prostitutes the night before his death.
The Flag is what you make of it, and they choose the best qualities of gallentry and honor.
Had the South not left the Union, the Corwin Amendment would have been ratified, which guarenteed slavery forever, but seeing as how the south turned this offer down, it was about something other than slavery.
South Carolina seceeds in 1860. There is no war.
By February 1861, 6 more states leave the Union and form the Confederate States of America. Still no war.
After 2 months of peace, Confederate forces have worked out a deal with the Commander of Ft Sumpter to allow them to peacefully evacuate the base. Lincoln sends the Star of the West in an agressive act of war to resupply Sumpter. Both the Star and Sumpter were fired on. The Ft was not resupplied, but Lincoln's plan to force the South into firing 1st works.
After Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to invade the Confederacy without his asking permission from Congress, Va, NC, Ar, and Tenn join the CSA to protect them and blast Lincoln and his starting the Civil War.
When war is begun, and for 2 years well into the conflict, not a single peep, a legal document, a speech, or a newspaper interview is given that somehow the war is about "slavery"
When Lincoln finally plays the slave card, he only 'frees' the Confederate Slaves in Confederate territory under Confederate control, and leaves in bondage slaves in Confederate territory under Union control,border and slave holding Union states, and exempts the entire state of Tennessee. In 1863, Lincoln admits West Virginia as a slave state.
Finally, Slavery was not ended until after the war was over and Licoln was dead, in Dec 1865. No, the war was not about slavery.
The Flag? It was the Confederate banner created by Confederate soldiers for Confederate soldiers used to rally, lead, and muster Confederate soldiers on a field of battle. No politics, no legislative action, no official designation, just like a flag patch, a dog tag, or a name plate in today's military. No, the flag is not a flag of slavery.
This year is the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Out of 400 years, slavery in America was legal for about 250 years - more than 1/2 our existance. No, slavery is not strictly a Confederate invention, nor is the Confederate states to take any blame for continuing to practice it for it's 4 year existance while it continued in Lincoln's Union and for 250 years prior.
If you don't like the flag, that's fine, but don't try to create some bogus information or hype the situation with false propaganda ala Nazi Germany or Communist Russia/China/NKorea.Cuba/NVietNam
Whatever King's faults he made an enormous contribution to the lives of both black people and white people in the U. S. What significant contribution did Robert E. Lee make besides leading a rebel army. That's generally known as treason.
Concerning the issue of slavery, Prof. Wilentz of Princeton uses secession convention speeches to demonstrate that protecting slavery was the main motivation for the South's going to war.
As a system of social organization, slavery was in fact very like Nazi Germany. If you read the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass or Harriet Jacobs, you get the impression that slave plantations were a type of concentration camp--also of the greed, sadism, and inhumanity of the slaveholders.
That's what the Confederate flag represents. It represents the Confederacy, slavery, and the monstrous immorality associated with slavery. I'm surprised that any moral person could associate with it.
Thanks for the dialogue. Perhaps we will come away with a better understanding of the 'other side'
Robert E Lee spent near 35 years in the united States Army going up to Colonel. He either helped build or improved American defenses at Ft Wool, Ft Monroe, and Ft Pulaski. He is the only human being alive that graduated from West Point Military academy without a single demerit. After the war he accepted the position of President of (now) Washington and Lee college, and began on a course of reconciliation. His introduction of journalism and other classes there were 1st in the nation and very forward thinking.
When you underestand his views on slavery, his joining of a black parishoner in Communion, and long before any Rosa Parks, Lee's Daughter gave up her seat to allow a black woman to sit down on a train... Lee's quotes are still inspiring today. "Duty is the sublimest word in the english language" "It is good war is so terrible, lest we grow to fond of it" and hundreds of others.
Treason is defined by law as "Anyone owing loyalty to the United States" which applied to zero Confederates, plus not a single person ever was tried much less convicted for treason - and the Govt even held Jefferson Davis for 2 years in prison without charges. Horace Greely paid his bail.
I have not read every book on slavery, but then I claim not to be an expert in that area. However, the Slave Narratives, written by the Works Progress Administration under Franklin D Roosevelts New Deal programs back in the 20' and 30's contains actual interviews with hundreds of former slaves. Statistically speaking, nearly 30% of the slaves interviewed spoke negatively/harshly/had bad recollections about slavery days. The balance spoke highly/fondly/had nothing bad to say about slavery days. Slavery, while detestable today in our minds and practices, was perfectly legal and accepted just like abortion is today - protected by the Constitution, and continued for almost 250 years. The Bible's greatest leaders utilized slavery, America's founders used it, and it is illogical to try and overlay our 21st century values on a people of centuries and civilizations past.
Prof Wilentz and you are correct that numerous secession conventions used slavery as an issue, but not all. But again, it was not why there was a war. One of the end results after the war was slavery was abolished, but Lincoln went to war to force the southern states back into the Union.
The decendants of the Union Veterans, called 'Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War' (www.suvcw.org) declare in their mission statement they are decended from those who sought to restore the union.And they issued a resolution supporting the continued useage of the Confederate Flag as a historical symbol, and joined with the Sons of Confederate Veterans in denoucing it's use by hate groups.
Again, the flag was then the same as badges, patches, name tags and dog tags are today. If the Confederate Flag then stood for slavery, then the US flag today stands for Indian slaughter, slavery, low oil prices, abortion, illegal wars, KKK, and our country.
If however both flags only true meaning is that of symbols for troops to rally, muster, and charge under, then they are rightfully symbols of brave men making ultimate sacrifices.
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