The Secesh category archive
Monumental Errors 0
My local rag published the letter I wrote to the editor on Monday. You can find it on their website, but I’ll save you the trouble. Here is the text:
I find myself bemused by those who refer to the removal of Confederate monuments as “erasing history.”
Let’s consider the history.
Almost all of the monuments in question were erected in the 1890s and early 1900s coincident with the imposition of Jim Crow and the rise of the second Ku Klux Klan. They were intended to remind freed slaves and their descendants of their “place” and of who was in charge. They memorialized, not gallantry on the battlefield, but racism, oppression, and theft of labor in daily life.
When invoking history, invoke the history that was, not the history that was made up.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Monumental mayhem in the Tar Heel state. Here’s a bit from the report:
Competing demonstrations over a Confederate monument in Alamance County ended after two supporters of the statue were arrested for assault and disorderly conduct, according to police and media reports.
Police said one of the men, 39-year-old Christopher Overman, hit Elon University professor Megan Squire, who was protesting a statue in Graham, about 55 miles northwest of Raleigh. Squire researches online right-wing extremism at the university, according to the school.
And, in more news of still rising again . . . .
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
In Maine, you might expect to see a moose, but a noose?
Misdirection Play, Still Rising Again after All These Years Dept. 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Claire Jack suggests that many tactics we see in our political you-can-hardly-call-it discourse are “emotional and manipulative tactics” that amount to gaslighting on a societal level. An excerpt, referring to the current reaction to the police murder of George Floyd (emphasis; follow the link for the rest.
By the way, the last sentence above captures succinctly why those monuments were erected in the first place.
Flag Daze 0
In Delaware, where I used to live, there is a NASCAR race track. If you ever drove by a NASCAR track on race day, you likely saw more Confederate battle ensigns than were at Gettysburg.
My brother told me–this was probably 15 years ago at time when NASCAR was trying to broaden its audience and especially attempting to attract more minorities–that my nephew had asked (I don’t remember his exact words), “How are do they expect to do that with all those Confederate flags in the parking lots?”
I guess that push has come to shove.
NASCAR has banned Confederate flags.
H/T to my brother for giving me a heads-up on this story.
Monumental Reasoning 0
The Roanoke Times’s editorial board channels Isaac Newton’s third law of motion. A snippet (emphasis added):
For some Virginians, this is a disorienting moment, to the say the least. State Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield County, and a candidate for governor next year, took to Facebook to say: “Let’s be honest, there is an overt effort here to erase all white history.” This would be laughable if she didn’t mean it so seriously.
Taking down a statue is not “erasing” history. It’s re-appraising whether we’re honoring the right people from our history.
Stray Question 0
Really now, just who are the “sheeple” in this scenario?
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Will Bunch wonders why right-wingers are waging war against the New York Times’s 1619 project.
Afterthought:
Me, I’m torn. I can’t decide between whether they (the right-wingers) can’t handle the truth or they don’t want anyone else to handle the truth. Or maybe it’s some of both all mixed up together in a steaming pot of denial.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
An invasive forest of Nathan Bedford Saplings runs amok.
The Bush that Is Beaten Around 0
When someone argues that Confederate Monuments symbolize history, ask him or her to clarify what precisely is the history that they symbolize.
The Law’s Delay 0
Nancy LeTorneau reports on the years of efforts to pass a federal anti-lynching law that preceded the recent successful passage of such legislation (which, as of this writing, has not yet been signed).
A Misdirection Play . . . 0
. . . of monumental proportions.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
The Kansas City Star, in a lengthy investigative article, reports that the persons who put Charlottesville, Virginia, in the news for something other than basketball and frat parties, have decided that they need to “rebrand” to try to capture the youth market.
Full Disclosure:
I did a year of grad work at C’ville, during which I learned I was not cut out to be an academician.