So many Rebels, so little time...

 

There have now been various hysterical cries from Black political activists and their media allies for the eradication of the memory of the Confederate States of America and its armed forces.

From their point of view there are numerous targets for eradication.

Among them:

-  Army post names to change:  Ft. Bragg (North Carolina), Ft Lee (Virginia), Ft Hood (Texas), Ft Benning (Georgia), Ft Rucker (Alabama), Ft A P Hill (Virginia), Camp Pickett (Virginia), Ft Polk (Louisiana).  These posts house close to half the soldiers of the Regular Army of the United States.  None of these posts existed before WW One.  They were all so named as part of a concerted effort on the part of the US Government to entice the states of the former Confederacy to support the war and to fight with enthusiasm.  The WBS ended in total Northern victory in 1865.  The seceded states were declared to no longer exist and were instead numbered and administered as Military Districts of the occupation.  This occupation ended at various points in time with Texas being the last to be re-admitted to the Union in 1870.   Before that time these states were treated as outside the Union.  The experience of occupation was not thought of as pleasant.   As a result the Confederate generation's adherence to the concept of "The Union" was not unlimited.  When the Spanish War began 35 years after Appomattox, Southern response to Washington's appeal for volunteers was tepid.  Wade Hampton (MG, CSA) then Governor of South Carolina replied to the request by saying that "the South knows the cost of war, let the North fight."  In the hope of obtaining the support of the South for WW One, the above named mobilization posts were named for the South's heroes.

- In the same effort, a space was made at Arlington National Cemetery (Mrs. RE Lee's estate) for burial of Confederate veterans.  This is called Jackson Circle.  Several hundred "Johnnies" are buried there in the shadow of Moses Ezekiel's "Confederate Memorial" statue.  He was one such himself and VMI's first Jewish graduate.  Surely these "traitors" will have to be removed from Arlington.

- Schools- how many public schools are there scattered across the land that are named for Confederates?  They will be re-named?  A California Assemblyman has introduced a bill in the state legislature to change the names of two California schools named for Lee.

- How many counties are named for Confederates?

- Nancy Pelosi proposed today that the flags of states that contain elements of any Confederate flag should be banned from the US House of Representatives.  By my initial count those would be Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Perhaps she sees more traces of "corruption" in the flags of other states.

- How many units of the Army National Guard are descended from Confederate units.  The 116th Infantry Regiment comes to mind.  This is the old "Stonewall Brigade."  They always claimed he was named for them and not the other way around.  "Beaches of Normandy" is one battle honor streamed on the regiment's colors.

- How many statues are there that would be removed from public property?  Every court house in the south has such a statue.  Typical would be the magnificent bronze depiction of a Rebel rifleman that stands before the old county court house in Leesburg, Virginia.

- How many streets will be re-named?  There are 20 in Alexandria, Virginia.

- The graves of "Johnnies" once invited in US government cemeteries would never be decorated with their flags?  Will these "traitors" be dug up?

- There would be no display of Confederate memorials in the national battlefield parks where there are so many now?  In those places they struggled to the death against my ancestors.

And what of our slaveholder presidents?  Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson and on and on?

- Will all the towns named for them be re-named?

-Will the images of Washington and Jefferson be dynamited from Mount Rushmore?

- Will the Washington and Jefferson memorials in the city of Washington be demolished?

- Will the city of Washington be renamed?

If you want to destroy the ties that bind us, persist in such fantasies.  There will be a political price to be paid.  John Boehner knows this.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Sumter

 

Comments

[BabelFish]

We can throw Mt. Washington on the pyre as well. And, I guess we can follow the Taliban example and blow up the carving on Stone Mountain.

In a country that needs to back away from radicalism, we are simply finding even more ways to divide ourselves from each other. I wish I could suggest a wise middle ground but the forces of erasure seem to be exulting in their victories and do not appear to be in any mood to listen.

Not completely on topic but even my very progressive wife finds Nancy Pelosi to be both irrational and irrelevant.

[SAC Brat]

The city I live near has a Jeff Davis Drive. On that street is a dress shop, which always cracks me up as I drive past it. What a strange world.

[SAC Brat]

I forgot to add that I haven't figured which way the wind is blowing concerning Stone Mountain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Mountain

[Lars]

Unfortunately, some people deliberately took that military flag and turned it into a symbol for something else. Now a correction is under way and as soon as something else that is more urgent arrives, it will be forgotten. And it will arrive, or our media would not be economically sustainable.

In the meantime, I hope nobody panics.

[turcopolier]

Lars

So, how far do you think the "correction" should go? pl

[Lesly]

Northern/liberal conceit drives much of this. Ideological and party identification make sorry substitutes for helping people. Meanwhile it's business as usual in PDs with some of the worst examples of police brutality occurring in enlightened "liberal" states. Log, meet speck in contemporary times.

I'm glad SC removed the flag. I'm not sure how systemically erasing historical and artistic symbols representing the good and the bad from the perspective of both sides, will give black people access to better education, decent jobs, diverse representation in media and everything else I take for granted.

[Origin]

To be consistent with the process of erasing the reputations of all former slaveholders, we need to be sure to add U. S. Grant to the list of slaveholding presidents and the removal of his tomb in NYC to the list of monuments to slaveholders scheduled to be demolished.

[Fred82]

I generally agree with the decision to remove the Confederate flag from official government functions. The flag represents a secessionist movement that did fight to preserve the institution of slavery (Though the majority of Southern whites owned zero slaves and I highly doubt slavery was among the primary motivators of the average Johnny Reb.)

That said, I find it amusing some of the same people behind the Confederacy witch hunt sought to turn Michael Brown into a hero.

Likewise, rewriting history and eliminating all traces of historical individuals and events sounds eerily like what I would expect from a certain other type of government.

[Stephanie]

SAC Brat,

There was a call for a July 4 boycott of the park. Nobody paid it much mind, evidently:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/04/us-usa-shooting-southcarolina-stonemount-idUSKCN0PE0TA20150704

"Democratic state Representative LaDawn Blackett Jones this week urged people to stay away from the park 10 miles (16 km) east of Atlanta because it flies three flags of the pro-slavery Confederacy alongside the U.S. and Georgia state flags.

Bobbie Smith of Fitzgerald, Georgia, who was camping at Stone Mountain with her family, called the boycott call "just stupid."

“This whole park is a Confederate memorial. If you don’t have the flag here, where on Earth would you put it?” she said."

[Tyler]

Sir,

Lars is being disingenuous. He doesn't give a shit about a "correction". He's just another would be junior tyrant trying to hide his desire for control behind high minded BS.

[Tyler]

Some of you people are trying to reason with the insane and power hungry. Good luck with that.

Its about power. That's all it is. Blacks as a whole will still be as miserable tomorrow as they were the day before - this is just the vehicle the Left is using to drive this shit.

There's no middle ground anymore. You're going to have to pick a side or a side is going to be picked for you.

[no one]

Sir, to understand where the social justice warriors are coming from - and where they want to go (basically "the correction") - one needs to read their ideological sources. One such popular source is TaNehisi Coates, who writes a regular column in The Atlantic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/tanehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me/397619/?fb_ref=Default

All I get from the guy is hatred of whites and all they have built, excuses for failure, depression, entitlement and demand for reparations, but the social justice warriors frequently quote him as "Truth". I fear that Coate's perspective, or very similar ones, are driving a lot of social policy. If that is the case, the correction won't stop until our culture is totally torn down; or until there is a severe backlash.

[turcopolier]

tyler

I want to see his answer. pl

[William R. Cumming]

P.L.! Interesting post. But looking backwards for whatever reason rather than forwards held back the former Confederate States IMO and now IMO holds back the USA!

At least the South knew it had lost while the fictions and myths for the USA generally are that we have never lost but won all. And no leaders will challenge the latter IMO.

[turcopolier]

WRC

"looking backwards for whatever reason rather than forwards held back the former Confederate States" Rubbish! The North won the war because it assembled a great deal more resources behind the shield of the blockade and mobilization of its larger industrial base and population. The 200,000 men they recruited in Europe were most helpful as well. pl

[Booby]

Picking at scabs & old wounds will not unite the nation. The insanity of many of these events makes sense only in the Alinsky model. But that is a model for destroying governments, not building unity.

Constantinople is Istanbul. Volgagrad was Stalingrad, but is Volgagrad again. Maybe the scourge of slavery can be erases if Washington becomes Obamaville.

[Lars]

I do not know, but I suspect not too far. Something else will show up on the radar and the crowd moves along. In addition, once the cost of this "remaking" becomes evident, the urgency will lessen.

I remember when there was an effort to rename Cape Canaveral and it failed.

[turcopolier]

lars

"I do not know." I did not ask you that. I asked how far YOU think the "correction" SHOULD go. pl

[Fred]

Lars,

You mean all white southerners are guilty of the shooting done by Dylan Roof. When they are finished with the 1st amendment they will be busy with additional demands to change the second. They've already succeeded with reinterpreting the 4th.

[SAC Brat]

Visiting it a few months ago with my family the crowds were the same as what you see anywhere else in the Atlanta area. We were more interested in the park than the amusement area, as my grandfather had had a monument company and the quarry was more relevant to us.

[Duncan Kinder]

While this is but one of many reasons why I generally favor Mexican immigration, legal or otherwise. They have no dog in this fight.

[robt willmann]

Arlington National Cemetery is on land that was from the estate of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's wife? Well, then, that land is tainted and stands for slavery and racism (sarcasm alert)! Therefore, the people involved in this PsyOp about the battle flag need to dig up every grave in Arlington National Cemetery and move all of the graves somewhere else. This would include the grave of President John F. Kennedy. They could then use the land for something else. But for what?

Since some slave labor was used to help build the U.S. Capitol building in which the well-paid Congress sits, perhaps the Capitol building needs to be torn down and a new one built where Arlington National Cemetery was (after the graves are removed). It would be not be built by slaves but by 50 percent union workers, half of which would be female, and 50 percent non-union workers, half of which would be female. But wait a minute...that cannot be right, either. It would have to be 50 percent union workers, which would be divided in some proportion between male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, transsexual, and transgender people, and 50 percent non-union workers, which would be divided in some proportion between male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, transsexual, and transgender people. But we still have a problem. Each of those gender and "sexual orientation" types would have to be further subdivided into a certain percentage of White, Hispanic, Black, and Asian racial / ethnic types.

When that is done, the issue is not resolved. Since the land was from the estate of Robert E. Lee's wife, the new U.S. Capitol building on that land would still be tainted by slavery and racism. So that solution will not work, after all.

What a conundrum.

[LeaNder]

I like TaNehisi Coates.

Did you realize at least in the few paragraph's you read, or did you read it all, that it is a letter to his son? Could that be why it is so melancholic?

The "black body" reminds me of Gilman Sander, The Jew's Body. No doubt to a large extend from a different time and space.

But thanks, I may want to look on recent scholarship in this field:

http://tinyurl.com/The-Black-Body

[Nancy K]

While I don't feel the Confederate flag should fly over public buildings such as any state capitol or capitol grounds, I have no objections at all about individuals flying it if they are so inclined in areas such as museums, cemeteries Civil War sites indicating Northern and Southern armies, etc. I went to high school in Anaheim Calif and my school was named Savannah and our class choose to be called the Rebels. It had less to do with the South and the Civil War as it did with identifying as rebels. This was in 1962 and being a rebel was a very provocative thing to be. I remember the school administration did not want us to Rebels but the student vote prevailed. I can't remember if we had the confederate flag as part of our emblem or just a picture of a confederate solider. I think there are many like me who grew up very removed from the whole North South divide and we don't have negative feelings about the flag, however I understand that there are people who do and they react to it much like Jews may react to the swastika.

[Bill H]

We used to call it "stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime." Unemployment among people of color seems to have disappeared from the conversation, so that we can ignore racism as it exists today while eradicating anything which is claimed to remind us of racism as it existed two centuries ago.