Confederate History Month

[Dowly]

The war's over, mate.

[Onkel Neal]

Ssshh! I'm taking him with me to the meeting in Boston later this year, to keep them Yankees in line...

[nikimcbee]

Here's my CW trip from last year to Gettysburg and Antietam.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...2&l=f9dfbc3e14

I got a good photo of 4th TX monument.

[Task Force]

I didnt even know we had a confederate history month here.

[Oberon]

[nikimcbee]

What side of the Mason-Dixon line are you on?

Funny story from my trip last year. When I was driving around MD, it was kinda weird to see CSA flags being displayed. I hear it depends on where you go in MD you see them all over the place. I guess I've been dumbed down by PCness.

[Task Force]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

What side of the Mason-Dixon line are you on?

Funny story from my trip last year. When I was driving around MD, it was kinda weird to see CSA flags being displayed. I hear it depends on where you go in MD you see them all over the place. I guess I've been dumbed down by PCness.

lol, when you drive around the southern states (especialy the ones that were major confederacy states.) you see alot of CSA flags. You also Find alot in old cemetarys down here.

[nikimcbee]

If you ever have the time, read "The Battle Cry of Freedom." The politics behind the CW are pretty interesting, espcially in the South. One of the parts that I found facinating were the Southerners that didn't own slaves that were dragged into the political mess of the people that did own slaves.

One thing that I found interesting, was that most anti-slavery people hated the concept of slavery, but didn't give a rip about the people themselves.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

What side of the Mason-Dixon line are you on?

Funny story from my trip last year. When I was driving around MD, it was kinda weird to see CSA flags being displayed. I hear it depends on where you go in MD you see them all over the place. I guess I've been dumbed down by PCness.

And where were you? Frederick (aka Fredneck)? Or maybe St. Mary's County? Takoma Park (which makes Berkeley, CA, look like Sugarland, TX) would be extremely unlikely. Certainly, such a place as TP which values "diversity" would have no problem w/someone flying the Stars & Bars...right...RIGHT???

[mookiemookie]

The Confederacy was a treasonous and seditious enterprise that was based on slavery and exploitation and doesn't deserve to be celebrated any more than the institution of slavery itself deserves to be.

And before anyone brings it up - the Civil War was not about state's rights. If the South didn't have slaves, there would have been no war.

[Sailor Steve]

And this brimstone-spewing flame was is being started because...?

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

And this brimstone-spewing flame was is being started because...?

I miss our lunchtime CW chat, that was a lot of fun. It is interesting to see people apply 21st morals to the 19th century. Bah, I need to quit typing @ work. Can't type too much in one shot.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

And this brimstone-spewing flame was is being started because...?

I was bored.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I was bored.

I'll see your post and raise you two!

[UnderseaLcpl]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. States' rights were the primary cause of the Civil War. If the common people who did most of the enlisting and fighting and dying in the war really believed in the slavery issue, the Nroth never would have had to draft and the South would have. The North would have abolished slavery in Union states, which it did not, and the morale and combat performance of Southern units was inarguably better on a man-for-man basis in most cases despite inferior equipment and supply. Note, also, that Britain intended to support the South, despite having abolished slavery itself in 1833 and the trade of slaves in 180....something.

All factors, including the timing of the outbreak of the war, point to the likliehood that the real cause was the debate over states' rights brought on by the introduction of the Morril Tariff, which was intended to make selling cotton to the newly-industrialized North more appealing to the South than selling it to the Empire.

The causations of wars are never as altruistic as the populace believes. As with everything political, the wars of nations generally hinge upon the will of the powerful and influential, while the burden of wars rests upon the gullible populace. I don't defend the South as being full of noble elites who sought to defend freedom, either (though I did at one time, before I read a little more of the early firsthand accounts). They were just as much motivated by the agitations of the wealthy and powerful as was the North. I defend the South because I believe in stronger states' rights, just as the rebel soldiery did. This nation was founded upon ideals of freedom and inalienable human rights, but just as the Confederate states (obviously) didn't abide by this ideal, neither did the Northern States, and their actions prove it.

Even in the computer age, where massive amounts of information can be shared and exchanged in mere seconds, we still keep falling for the lies that the influential tell us while they pursue their own interests. Whether on the left or the right, one must acknowledge that we will still fall for any BS propaganda we are fed. Democrats routinely bash the 2003 invasion of Iraq for moral reasons, but hardly a one of them acknowledges the suffering of the Kurds or the Shiite majority under the Baathist regime because there's no movie about it. Republicans support the war, despite professing a desire to reduce government spending and the power of the state, and a professed desire for freedom of the individual.

Politics beget war, war is about politics, and the winners write the history books. Given a choice between that and greater diffusion of power, even in service of politics, I'll recognize Confederate History Month.