Response to The Oxford American

Colors That Bleed by Warwick Sabin
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2011/mar/07/colors-that-bleed/

The voluntary obtuseness in pieces like this one never ceases to amaze me. The city of Marshall's name is a disavowal of the Confederacy? Or the result of the influence of the military dictatorship set up by the federal government in the former Confederate states, as represented by the U.S. troops in Burrowsville? The forced imposition of northern/federal will upon the Southern states was practically the definition, and certainly the reality and practice, of Reconstruction.

And if you don't understand Kim Ragland's reference to the flag prohibition being a "slap in the face" of the men and women fighting for our country, let me give you a way of looking at it that obviously didn't occur to you. Our military personnel take an oath to uphold the Constitution -- the document that is supposed to charge the government with securing the rights of citizens, including the right to free speech and free expression. The troops may not feel about the Confederate flag the way the people of Marshall do, but they don't have to agree with the way Americans express their views in order to protect that expression. It is not the place of the city council to circumvent the will of the people. They are elected servants who are supposed to do the will of the people. The imposition of government on the people's rights and will are what the troops fighting against overseas -- but they're just supposed to accept it here, in their own country?

I suspect most of the troops remember what elitists back home have forgotten, or rejected: "I may not agree with what you say but I defend to the death your right to say it." Or, in the case of the mayor and people of Marshall, to display it.

There was no violent rebellion 150 years ago. There was a violent invasion of the Southern states by the federal government's military. There was absolutely no justification for responding to the peaceful and democratic secession of the Southern states with military invasion and war.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson established that people are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that governments are instituted to secure those rights. One right he specifically identifies is the right of the people to alter or abolish their government and create another that suits them better. This right both pre-exists and transcends the Constitution. How grotesque, then, that the only time Americans have attempted to exercise this right, the government that was supposed to secure it for them made brutal war on them instead.

That the people of Southern towns likely do not share your elitist view of history (and of them) doesn't mean they are conflicted and confused. It's far more likely that you're seeking to create in yourself the warm fuzzies of moral and intellectual superiority by bad-mouthing people simply for seeing the issue differently than you do -- i.e., you're right, they're wrong.

The Confederate flag did not inspire treason. The charge of treason applies only to people who, owing allegiance to the US, make war on it, or assist those who do. Since the states had already seceded (as was their right, enunciated by the Declaration of Independence) the people of those states no longer owed allegiance to the US. Thus, no treason.

The South did not tear itself apart OR tear itself away. It peacefully and democratically seceded, state by state, and it was invaded, blockaded, and starved. The invaders burned entire towns as well as farms, homes, barns, stored food and crops in the field; shot family pets; killed livestock and threw the carcasses in wells and streams to contaminate drinking water, stabled horses in church sanctuaries just for spite, and dug up corpses looking for valuables to steal. Oh, but I'm sure it was done without malice and with charity, since Lincoln suggested it should.

What I find grotesquely hypocritical of your essay is your charge that admirers of the Confederate flag do not fully comprehend its "complicated heritage" -- but then you simplistically reduce that heritage to "a nation conceived to deny fundamental human rights for some of its citizens." No, you got it right the first time; the issues that went into the creation of the Confederate States of America were not as simple as the all-slavery, only-slavery school would have us believe.

It is even more complex when you realize that virtually everything the Confederacy is criticized for, the United States is also guilty of -- and worse. The Confederate government did not have as official policy the genocide of the Plains Indians. It did not herd native Americans into reservations where their condition was worse than that of slaves. It did not engage in domestic mind control experiments and torture in Central America, like the CIA after WWII. When you compare the sins of the two governments and cultures, the CSA actually comes out as morally superior.

You seem to have a grudging respect for the hillbillies of Searcy County since they evidently didn't think secession and war was worth their time and trouble. Of course, that's probably the only thing admirable about them, judging by the way white Southerners -- especially hardscrabble rural ones -- are perceived and portrayed by the USA, especially in popular culture. They are among the last few groups people can ridicule and mock without rousing the wrath, or at least the verbal condemnation, of the political correctness police. I wonder if your grudging respect for their uninvolvement in the Confederacy's denying fundamental human rights to some of its citizens would move you to defend them from such as this:
Arkansas Hillbillies Google Search

And this: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2206742081&v=info
And this: http://fuckthesouth.com/
And this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295700/

I'm a self-taught writer. I found the Oxford American website while searching the Internet for writing-related content. I'm also a Southerner, and a descendent of poor, hardscrabble Georgia mountaineers. I am pleased with and proud of my region and its people and I write to honor them by accurately portraying them. I do not feel it necessary to portray them as scum-sucking racist inbred hicks in order to please some New York editor, or some Southern carpetbagger-or-scalawag editor. I would rather never be published than to achieve publication by lying about the good people of my region and their culture.

Fortunately, there are alternatives now, thanks to the digital revolution. Self-publishing has become affordable with print-on-demand technology. Downloadable electronic books circumvent brick and mortar bookstores. This same technology has given Southerners access to information about the past unfiltered by self-appointed gatekeepers who wish our view of history and our beliefs about ourselves and our culture to conform to theirs.

Not only do I feel no compulsion to trash my region and its people with my writing; I feel no desire to read others who engage in such. For example, "After all, the South is often mercilessly derided by outsiders for the more shameful aspects of its history; for its standing in many socioeconomic categories; and for the political systems and attitudes that are largely responsible for both." Anyone who writes such without pointing out that the political systems and attitudes responsible for both are not Southern in origin, but imposed from without, loses me quickly. As for the South's "socioeconomic categories" -- i.e., its poverty -- don't blame that on the Southern people....Blame it on things like this: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cescott/freight.html

I'll happily leave the Oxford American website, go outside for some breaths of fresh air to clear my head and get the bad taste out of my mouth... and get back to the real South, a wonderful place regardless of 150 years of elitist efforts to sanctify the north of its sins by pretending only the South has them -- and that the sins are the crux, the definition, the sum-total of the South.

More Sesquicentennial Slime

The Sesquicentennial of the War for Southern Independence will create a blizzard of claptrap like this, so Southerners who honor their culture, history, heritage and forebears -- brace yourselves... Oh, and if you're so moved, backsass the people attempting to palm off this claptrap. You may or may not teach them anything, but if my experience is anything to go by, it'll sure make you feel better.

Fayette: Peachtree City honors the wrong cause
By Jill Howard Church

Talking about the Civil War is a minefield of politics and emotion. As was the case with actual land mines during that war (as developed by Confederate Brigadier General Gabriel J. Rains), some Southern tempers tend to detonate under the slightest pressure, even after 150 years. But it’s not easy, or even appropriate, to tread lightly.

Folks, isn't it amazing how "opinion journalists" make baldfaced statements like this "detonate" accusation  without offering a shred of explanation, let alone evidence.  Frankly, Ms. Church, you're the one who seems to be detonating, here....

Peachtree City’s proclamation of Confederate History and Heritage Month was read aloud at a City Council meeting recently. Its wording took me aback, and I grew up in the same state as Robert E. Lee. My long-lost cousin Samuel’s Confederate sword is a family heirloom. I “get” the heritage, but only to a point.
This is 2011, generations removed from that most uncivil war. And I had hoped its lessons would be better reflected in modern mention. The proclamation begins, “April is the month in which the Confederate States of America began a four-year struggle for independence, state rights, individual freedom and local government control ...” I guess that depends on which individuals and whose freedom we’re talking about. The 4 million men, women and children held in bondage in 1861 struggled much differently.

Kind of like the slaves during the American Revolution, who didn't fall under the category "all men" as in the Declaration's "all men are created equal"? Kind of like American slaves who had no rights but three-fifths of them were counted for legislative apportioning, by Constitutional authority? Are the situations similar, Ms. Church, or not? And if not, why not?

The proclamation says April 26 is when “Georgians honor the brave men and women of all ethnic backgrounds who served the Confederate States of America.” Well, not exactly. True, there were Canadians, Europeans, Native Americans and Mexicans in the Confederate ranks. There were also thousands of Jewish soldiers, but their service was conveniently forgotten once the Klan showed up (just ask Leo Frank).>

Well, since Leo Frank has been dead since 1915, we can't exactly ask him, can we?  However, perhaps you will kindly point me to any published work by Leo Frank that indicates he knew the service of Jews to the Confederacy was "conveniently forgotten" after the KKK showed. Oh, and which KKK are you talking about, by the way?  There have been several "incarnations" of the Klan. If you are facetiously referring to Frank's lynching by the "Knights of Mary Phagan," that has nothing to do with Jewish service to the Confederacy, or the commemoration of it.  Yes, Ms. Church, I'm being as deliberately obtuse as you are. Only I'm not being nearly as dishonest as you are.

From the accounts I’ve read, black Confederates served mostly as laborers, relatively few as soldiers. And many who fought did so believing (or having been promised) they’d be freed in return.

What accounts have you read? And whether they served as laborers or fighters, what's your problem with acknowledging their service?  The same thing happened during the Revolution. Can we expect to see a similarly snide editorial penned by you denigrating the United States come the Fourth of July?  What a silly question, of course we cannot. Critics of the Confederacy are virtually always blind to the sins of the Union.

“Georgia has long cherished its Confederate history and Georgia’s great leaders who made sacrifices on behalf of the Confederate cause,” the proclamation says. But that way of life was built on broken backs and lives, and it is disingenuous to either contend or pretend that the “Confederate cause” isn’t stained by atrocity. Section 9 of the Confederate Constitution specifically bans restricting “the right of property in Negro slaves.”

The Confederate Constitution also forbade the importation of slaves from any foreign country except the United States, which some say would eventually cause the demise of slavery. Why no mention of that? Only what's worthy of criticism is worthy to be mentioned? Oh, and the United States isn't stained by atrocity?  For example, the official U.S. Policy of genocide against the Plains Indians. That's not an atrocity?  The 3/5th clause in the U.S. Constitution is hunky-dory with you? The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments... CIA torture in Central America during the Cold War...  Gitmo, Abu Ghraibe...  Is slavery the only circumstance you recognize as atrocity?

Be careful how you criticize the Confederacy, Ms. Church; you're liable to find just as bad or worse done by the United States.

As I listened, I realized the only African-American person in the room was the police officer on security duty.

How ironic that the individual there to protect the lives of everyone else was the one person who, in the days of Dixie, wouldn’t have been considered a person at all. What did those words mean to her or her family?

I couldn’t bring myself to even look in her direction.

What do you mean by "in the days of Dixie"? Dixie means "the South".  The South predates the United States.  It still exists today, and will very likely exist after the United States ceases to.  That entire timeline is the "days of Dixie." Are you clumsily attempting to imply that slaves were not considered persons in the era before slavery was abolished? Where did you get that information? Certainly not from the laws of the day. 

I suggest you're going by your own personal concept/understanding, perhaps shaped by Hollywood and lurid paperback novels, or perhaps leftist race-baiters. I also suggest you look at the laws back then. Slaves were indeed considered persons. They had rights by law, very limited ones, to be sure, but non-persons do not have any rights (just ask an aborted fetus). Law mandated that slaveowners support slaves in sickness and old age. It gave slaves the right to give testimony in certain case. Slaves were also afforded more rights not by law but by custom -- for example, lighter work for women, especially during pregnancy, and the right to religious instruction. I suggest you attempt to rise above your anti-Confederate indoctrination and read real history, from source documentation dating from that era. You badly need it.

I understand that there are people for whom certain periods of history hold particular interest for one reason or another. Some Civil War aficionados re-enact the battles like a costumed chess game but not, thank God, the beatings, lynchings or other horrors of the time. I guess it’s easier to make believe than to make amends.

Civil war re-enactors re-enact the war; they don't re-enact plantation life or town merchant life or yeoman farmer life. Every time has its horrors, but the horrors of the time (and place) you're referring to are only a small portion of the total.  I understand that indoctrinees such as yourself have been taught to focus solely on the small, negative portion and pretend it is the whole -- and to try to convince others of the same distortion -- but it isn't. I guess it's easier to engage in false demonization than to see things as they really were.

But with the war 150 years past, and with African-Americans now 20 percent of Fayette County’s population, it seems more honorable to mourn the dead — from both sides — without constantly picking at our nation’s deepest wound.

Then stop picking.

What Would They Do Without Us?

bby Connie Chastain Ward

There's no better place to explore pseudointellectual arrogance and South-bashing than the neo-yankee Civil War (sic) blogs that monitor the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other Southerners who refuse to spit on the graves and memories of their ancestors.

You will find the most pompous, hubristic commentary from folks who apparently have no way to feel good about themselves except to evilize those who see things (e.g., the Civil war [sic]) differently than they do.

On my last tour of the most arrogant blogger's blog, I came across a comment identifying the "white South" as the "worst of the worst" example of white supremacist racism that the "rest of the nation" moved on from "long ago."

Ah, yes. The evil white South. The scum-sucking racist inbred hick South. Funny how it manages to be the region of the country with the fewest hate crimes. Funny how the people of Mississippi, the poorest (and most racist) people in the nation, manage to top the list in charitable giving -- more than rich, pure-bred Massachusetts or any other state. Funny how the nation's black folks overwhelmingly choose to live in the evil white South.

But when you have such an overwhelming need/desire/craving to feel superior to ... somebody, it is imperative that you find a group to label as "the worst of the worst." Then you can feel those warm fuzzies of moral and intellectual superiority wash over you like waves on a tropical beach.

Just don't examine too closely how you created them, or you may find yourself far away from shore with the sharks of hypocrisy circling....

Hypocrisy Lives!

Yesterday, I wrote about Kevin Levin, the blogger at Civil War Memory, posting YouTube excerpts of the 1960s TV series, The Rebel, and waving it around as an example of embracing reconciliation and forgiveness for those "...who continue to harbor hatred for Grant and the rest of the 'yankee horde...'"

I was struck by this academic blogger appealing to Hollywood drama as not just a history lesson, but as a lesson for "putting aside hatred" (smirk), particularly when academics frequently show great derision for people who cite movies, TV shows and novels as examples to learn from about anything -- history, ethics, relationships, culture, you-name-it. Except, of course, when they or their friends are the ones doing it.

In fact, this had happened not too long ago on this same blog. Mr. Levin had posted an entry the titled "The Next Generation" with an embedded YouTube video, a promotional video for a Southern Heritage DVD, featuring the producer's grammar-school age son.

You watch the video and read the derisive comments from Mr. Levin and his satellites here: http://cwmemory.com/2011/04/05/the-next-generation/

Remembering that blog entry and one comment in particular, I couldn't stop myself from replying to the Johnny Yuma blog. The comment thread is produced below, with some added observations by your truly. (Incidently, I again searched the Civil War Memory blog for a copyright notice and didn't find one. If there is one somewhere over there and Mr. Levin wishes me to remove these verbatim comments, he has but to notify me, and they will removed -- and probably replaced with a paraphrased entry.)

Connie Chastain April 9, 2011 at 12:25 pm

Can’t wait to see if Andy’s gonna bring up the fact that Johnny Yuma was a “fictional character that only existed on a Hollywood backlot, where characters never dealt wtih really serious military invasion, conquest and dictatorship, and where African Americans were almost invisible.”

Nah, hell will prob’ly freeze over first.

* * * * *Kevin Levin April 9, 2011 at 12:45 pm

Connie,

Why are you singling out Andy? Do you have any idea of how obnoxious and angry you sound?

* * * * *Connie Chastain April 9, 2011 at 12:54 pm

Because, he’s the one who wrote, “…the kid looks just like friggin’ Opie. There’s one well-known Southron heritage site that, when the author wants to refer to traditional, rural Southern virtues, also mentions Mayberry — a fictional town that only existed on a Hollywood backlot, whose law enforcement officers never dealt with really serious violent crime, and where African Americans were almost invisible.” http://cwmemory.com/2011/04/05/the-next-generation/

You think I sound obnoxious and angry, but apparently you didn’t notice how smug and arrogant HE sounded….

Gooses and ganders, pots and kettles, motes and beams, and all that….

* * * * *Kevin Levin April 9, 2011 at 1:00 pm

I can’t think of one comment that you’ve left here in which you contributed something substantive to the discussion. All you do is monitor what other people on this forum have to say and then attack. I dub you “Angry Old Lady of Civil War Memory”.

Congratulations!

* * * * *Connie Chastain April 9, 2011 at 1:07 pm

I just have a really low tolerance for hypocrisy when it comes to my people, my region, their history and heritage; particularly when it’s exhibited by people who are no better than those they denigrate.

And if I may ask, what substantive something did Andy’s smug, arrogant comment contribute to the discussion?

* * * * *Kevin Levin April 9, 2011 at 1:13 pm

Andy has been a regular commenter on this site for a few years now and I highly respect his knowledge of the period and his willingness to share it on this site as well as his own. You on the other hand have absolutely nothing substantive to offer beyond criticism of others. There is no evidence that you’ve read much of anything on the Civil War and related topics and yet you claim to speak for “my people, my region, their history and heritage.” Now that is a complete joke.

You speak for no one but yourself. Now please go away and stop wasting my time.

I replied to this, letting him know I'd go away after a final comment or two. He didn't approve it for viewing, though. That appears to be a typical response to commenters or comments he doesn't like.

In any case, some observations about his message here. You'll notice that he didn't answer my question. That also appears to be a typical response to commenters or comments the doesn't like. Thus, I can only conclude that smug, arrogant comments that lack a substantive something are okay as long as they're made by regulars who've been commenting for years.

You'll also notice that nowhere in my comment did I "claim to speak for" my people, my region, their history and heritage. I simply explained I have a low tolerance for hypocrisy where they're concerned, so here, Mr. Levin told a baldfaced lie. A. Baldfaced. Lie. I was speaking for myself, as my use of *I* demonstrates. Can any of my readers suggest how I could have made it any clearer for him?

In any case, the next reply to me was from Andy, the "friggin' Opie and Mayberry" guy, and I don't mean Sheriff Andy Taylor...

Andy H--- April 9, 2011 at 1:33 pm

It’s my people, my region, my history and heritage, too. If my writing or comments offend you, go elsewhere. I don’t post to your blog, and for the life of me don’t understand why you’re so upset. If you want to focus a lot of thought and energy and emotion on how I supposedly “denigrate” things you hold dear, OK, but understand that’s a choice you’re making for yourself.

There are a number of things wrong with Andy's comment. First, Andy, Levin, Corey Meyers and probably others go to proSouthern and Confederate heritage sites, groups, comments, etc., looking for things to get offended and upset about. Why's it okay for them and not for me?

Besides, can anyone here find the "upset" in my comments? I wasn't upset. Derisive of the hypocrisy, yes. Upset, no. When somebody Mr. Levin doesn't like posts in his comment threads, he gets more upset than anyone.

Finally, although claiming "my people, my region, my history and heritage, too," Andy never admits to having a low tolerance for hypocrisy about them. I wonder why. Do you suppose he does and just didn't say it? Or doesn't he care?

Does he or doesn't he?

Later on, someone else posted to me, perhaps not knowing that any reply I made would be unapproved for viewing (or maybe guessing it, if he has any experience with Mr. Levin, but not caring).

Neil H--- April 9, 2011 at 8:49 pm

Connie, It simply makes no sense whatsoever to zoom right by the message, learn nothing from it, and go on the attack.

I understand emotion, attachment, indignation, etc., but there was a sincere message being presented here, that of reconciliation and the “binding up of the nation’s wounds.” This episode that was presented here had that message and the idea the past is the past and it is time to move on to the future.

Your comments added nothing to that nor do they help with the study of history. I truely do not understand that if all you gather from this site is unhappiness, why come here and comment?

Thanks, Kevin, for another take on our memory of the Civil War and how some chose to remember it. Really enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

Sincerely,

Neil

Sorry I couldn't reply on Civil War Memory, Mr. Neil H, but I'll be glad to answer here.

First, I know exactly what Mr. Levin's "message" was, and what lies behind it. My "attack" was about the hypocrisy of Andy's denigrating the use of fiction/drama to illustrate something when a Southern heritage site does it, but remaining mute when Mr. Levin does it.

Granted, I don't know what time the Johnny Yuma stuff was posted, and maybe there hadn't been time for Andy to see it and comment.

But does anybody really think he'd criticize it? To paraphrase some terms from my teens -- Is grass orange? Is the Pope Hindu?

The following day, this exchange appeared in the comment thread.

Billy Bearden April 10, 2011 at 4:36 am

I must say I am not familiar with anyone who is anti Grant like they are anti Sherman or anti Lincoln but perhaps, and this is just from my POV, but perhaps, had the surrender been the final event, the last chord of a sad song, then perhaps things like ‘continued hatred harbored toward the yankee horde’ might have been much less or almost non existant. However, I feel sure it was the second invasion after the victory – the rubbing our noses in defeat and stomping on the man who was down thru reconstruction that insured the feelings we are familiar with 150 years later.

Then of course noone can name a single southerner who went north to dictate how yankees must live, but we see daily the northerners who move south and force their yankee ways on southerners – so actually they keep this animosity stirred up against themselves

* * * * *Kevin Levin April 10, 2011 at 4:54 am

Your comments betrays numerous assumptions about who is a legitimate southerner. What about the thousands of black southerners (Exodusters) who moved to the midwest, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of black southerners who migrated to the North during the “Great Migration.” They forced white northerners to confront their own racist attitudes.

Thanks for illustrating for all of us what happens when the past is viewed through the narrowest of lenses.

Breathtaking in its arrogance, iddinit? First, the black Southerners who migrated north were only a fraction of the total number. In fact, if you look at this map showing the location of slaves in 1861 (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/slave-maps/us-slave-map-750.jpg) and this one showing the location of blacks in the USA in the year 2000, (http://www.census.gov/geo/www/mapGallery/images/black.jpg) they look substantially the same.

Besides, the term Southerner has historically been used to describe the white people of the South. I'm suspect Mr. Levin knows this -- and it probably sticks in his craw and gives him another excuse to wield his "Racist!" brush. But it is blacks in the South who usually choose to not identify themselves by a region. Historically, they were called (by themselves and others) Negroes, then colored people, then blacks, then African-Americans. Someone with Mr. Levin's, um, academic credentials should know this, and should have understood exactly what Billy meant. Instead, Mr. Levin used it as an opportunity to falsely "color" Mr. Bearden's comment with the tinge of racism. I think an objective assessment of this exchange clearly shows who has race on his mind.

Mr. Bearden's comment uses the word "force" implying intent on the part of northerners who come South to impose their yankee ways on Southerners, and dictate how Southerners must live. Mr. Levin himself is a great example -- coming South to dictate to us hicks, rubes, rednecks and scum-sucking racist Southerners (and our school kids) how we must feel, and what we must believe, about the Civil War (sic).

However, blacks who migrated out of the South did not migrate to the north to force white northerners to confront their racist attitudes. Nope. They went to find work. If they had migrated north to force yankees to deal with their racism, the project was a colossal failure. In fact, Mr. Bearden mentioned this in his next post. And look at the slippery, squirmy non-answer he gets.

Billy Bearden April 10, 2011

Current census results clearly show the racial beliefs of the North – most segregated area in the country.

* * * * *Kevin Levin April 11, 2011 at 12:59 am

You seem to be fighting a personal war on this site. No one is making the claim that racism was/is a characteristic of the South to the exclusion of the rest of the country. I guess this allows you to sleep better at night.

Hilarous! Mr. Levin sometimes chides people for going off topic and not discussing the subject of his blog entries, but he happens to be a master at avoiding discussion of what he finds unpleasant or unanswerable. You don't have to be an academic to realize that nothing about Mr. Bearden's post indicate any sort of personal war on that site, although it does indicate that Mr. Levin feels that he's under attack. I guess that's what happens when people say or ask things one finds unpleasant and would wish to avoid.

He ends with the cake topper -- an ad hominem attack on Mr. Bearden that has whatever nothing to do with the subject under discussion. Really, why would any of this keep Mr. Bearden awake at night?

So in this one single, fairly short comment thread, Mr. Levin has told A. Baldfaced. Lie. and made an ad hominem attack on a visitor to his site. What a wonderful example he's setting for his students, huh? (Smirk.)

As of the time of my posting this entry to 180DTS, there is one more comment in the thread, summed up with, "Hey, it wasn't me!" plus an off-the-wall implication of hate where none exists plus a finger-in-the-face lesson about "hate" -- a bit gentler than Levin's finger-shaking, but just as breathtakingly arrogant in its assumptions.

Neil H--- April 10, 2011 at 10:55 pm

Mr. Bearden,

In all my trips through the South, which have been many over the years, I know of no time where I made the effort to rub in the noses of the people I met there about the ultimate outcome of the Civil War. The people I met were kind, polite, egar to help us with directions and answer our questions on just about anything we had to ask.

I suggest it takes a willful effort, an almost daily concentration to hate. It has been my experience one really has to work at such to keep up the effort that the emotion hate demands. The South, in my own view, has so much going for it, not the least of which are the people who call it home, who were born and raised there. An automatic smile comes to my own lips when I think about returning there on future trips, so pleasant were my times there.

I would rather concentrate on that memory, than the long ago past events of Appomattox and Reconstruction. There’s no profit in holding onto hate as there is no return on it.

Judging by the half dozen or so posts and comment threads I've read at Levin's blog, it is badly misnamed. "Civil War Interpretation --My Way's the Only Way" would be a bit more accurate. But then, so would "The SCV-Bashing Blog" or "History Seen Through Epic Arrogance and Advanced Tantrum Throwing Blog."

THIS is the spirit of reconciliation? LOL!

Recently, over at Civil War Memory blog, the blogger embedded some YouTube scenes from the 1960s TV drama, The Rebel, accompanied by this text: "On this day in April 1865, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House."

He goes on to point and shake his finger with, "Those of you who continue to harbor hatred for Grant and the rest of the “yankee horde” would do well to listen closely to Johnny Yuma.  In this episode, Johnny explains to a young boy, who lost his father in the war, to put aside his hate and embrace forgiveness and reconciliation....  This episode beautifully captures the reconciliationist spirit of the Civil War Centennial."

The Civil War (sic) Centennial has a "reconciliationist" spirit to capture? Not in a lot of the hooey published by the American Empire's mainstream publications, and certainly not in the comment threads, presumably written by "reconciled" Americans.

Case in point, this comment, made in response to one I posted: "I would have out-Shermaned Sherman in South Carolina. The Roman treatment of Carthage would have been my model - leave nothing standing, and salt the earth."

Thus, the conduct of the Union Army and the comments of its defenders today (and this one is quite mild) are proof plenty of who exhibited (and still exhibits) hard-heartedness, mean-spiritedness, cruelty, hatred and immorality. Makes some slaveholders look plumb innocuous by comparison.

I just might post more about the "Johnny Yuma" thread at Civil War Memory. So stay tuned.

Even MORE Backsass!

Whew! It appears that the sesquicentennial is gonna keep me busy, backsassin' what passes for journalism in this country. I think this fellow, Roland Stoy, in lily-white (almost 94% white) Branch County, Michigan emailed his column to The Daily Reporter without any expectation of getting an eye-scorching backsass from a sweet, Suth'n belle such as moi. LOL! Unfortunately, I see no way to e-mail my backsass to Mr. Stoy, and I'm certain it's too long for comments, so I'll have to post a link to this entry of 180 DTS in the comments section -- and see how long The Daily Reporter lets it stay there...

Stoy's victor-pablum is here: http://www.thedailyreporter.com/communities/coldwater/x13290565/First-in-Print-Civil-War-terrible-chapter-in-history

My backsass follows.

---

Dear Sir:

Presumably the photo accompanying the opinion column, The Civil War did not end at Appomattox in 1865, is yourself, identified as Roland Stoy. If so, you look well old enough to have learned better than what you put forth in that piece.

You wrote:

The Civil War did not end at Appomattox in 1865.

Many Confederate sympathizers have been fighting it ever since, often viciously, with the Confederacy still glorified in the misguided minds of many. Besides lynchings and other murders, southerners managed to deny black people their civil rights for another 100 years after the war.

First, the idea that glorifying the Confederacy occurs in misguided minds may be your opinion, to which you are certainly entitled, but it is simply wrong, in error, not true. You may disagree with the idea of glorifying the Confederacy, but that gives you no authority whatever for claiming that those who do so have "misguided minds."

Second, the accusation that "many" Confederate sympathizers have been fighting the civil war "often viciously" since Appomattox (the correct terminology for the place, by the way, is Appomattox Courthouse) is also simply wrong, in error, not true. The vast majority of those who honor the Confederacy are law-abiding and non-violent, and it is the height of ignorance (or spite, or downright hatred) to mendaciously claim they are "vicious."

Third, blacks were denied their rights -- and still are -- all over the country, not just in the South. Racism is American -- not Southern. Race-based lynchings and murders occurred outside the South, as well, If more occurred in the South, it is because the South was basically the only black-white bi-racial region of the country.

In fact, it still is. If the black population were evenly spread across the USA, racial strife would also be evenly spread across the USA. Frankly, when somebody from lily-white Michigan (except for Detroit) starts talking about race, there's plenty of good reason for Southerners to tune you out. Also, if the South was such a terrible place for blacks to live, this map would not look like it does: http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_nhblack.html

I see that you live in Coldwater, in Branch County, which is almost 94% .... white. Well, well, well.... I grew up in a southern county that was 70% black, another that was 54% black. If you've lived with the reality of a bi-racial culture, I might be willing to listen to you pontificate about race relations. If you've lived in a lily-white culture all your life, forget it.

Some still insist it was about state’s rights, but we know it was about the right to have slavery.

Ah, no -- we don't know that. You may believe that -- you are entitled to believe what you wish but your wishes do not automatically constitute truth or fact. The war was about neither slavery nor states rights -- that argument came before the war. The war itself was about an army illegally invading the legally seceded states of the South, and the men of the South fighting to protect hearth and home from that invasion.

You wrote: There is a “secession ball” planned for April 12 at Fort Sumter, where the South began the war in 1861, 150 years ago. Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait a few more years and mark the truce in 1865?

If you want to have such a ball in Michigan, by all means, put your money where your mouth is and start planning. You've got several years to pull it off.

At least 618,000 died in the war, and some say the toll was closer to 700,000. Many who did survive came home without arms and legs, severely addicted to opium, and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) before it had a name.

True. In addition, Southern soldiers came home to a land utterly devastated by a ruthless and barbaric army, and had to live through further devastation from a lawless military dictatorship and venal legislation and outright thievery by reconstruction governments -- not to mention several generations of grinding regional poverty purposely perpetrated by the, um, victors of the war.

Rebel leader Nathan Bedford Forrest accounted for 300 dead after his victory at Fort Pillow, with black soldiers nailed to logs, buried alive or gunned down where they stood. The 300 included women and children.

He probably accounted for more dead than that -- he was a brilliant militarist. But the federals themselves cleared him of the Ft. Pillow charges that are still mendaciously repeated against him by folks like you. Just out of curiosity, why are you doing this? Did you not know he was cleared? Or do you not care?

The consideration in Mississippi of a new vanity license plate to honor Forrest - a planter and a trafficker in black people — prompted a column recently by Leonard Pitts, who also noted Forrest was a founder and the first “Grand Wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan, responsible for countless acts of violence, including the notorious 1963 church bombing in which four little black girls were killed.

Would love for you or Pitts to provide reliable historical source documentation that Forrest was "a founder" of the KKK, and what his actual deeds were as "Grand Wizard." I suspect if you started trying to track it down, you'd discover, probably to your dismay, that there IS no historical documentation for this charge. There is no historical source documentation that Forrest ever participated in any KKK activities. Oh, and he had been dead for about three generations when the Birmingham tragedy occurred.

In another manifestation of southern hubris, earlier this year Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell designated April as Confederate History Month, without mentioning slavery. Under pressure, he later changed his proclamation to condemn slavery and spell out that slavery had led to war.

Ah, no, you're wrong again. You just keep getting things wrong, don't you? Gov. McDonnell was well within his authority to proclaim Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery, if that is what his constituency approved of. And he didn't change it because of their disapproval, but because of the pernicious influence of political correctness robbing the United States of one of its most basic tenets and rights -- freedom of expression. And I'll bet you don't see how unfortunate that truly is. You're too busy using lies about the Confederacy, the South and Southerners to create warm fuzzies of phony moral superiority for yourself to appreciate how our liberties are being undermined.

I feel anger when I see a Confederate flag. I see extreme racism and rampant bloodshed, and I see ignorance.

How unfortunate for you. However, you see that because you choose to. I don't see that, so it's all in how and what you individually choose. I can't imagine there is an upside of choosing to create this anger in yourself. Just our of curiosity -- does the anger enhance or detract from the warm fuzzies of phony moral superiority you seek by South-bashing?

But it should be remembered there were good and brave men — and boys — on both sides of the war, even while the southern cause was dishonorable.

What's more dishonorable -- fighting to protect your home and family from an invader? Or invading and warring on civilians? How about an invading army that steals everything that isn't red-hot or nailed down? Shoots pet dogs? Burns whole towns, homes, barns, crops in the field --even farm implements so no food could be grown? How about an army that shoots livestock and throws the carcasses in streams and down wells to contaminate drinking water? How about an army that quarters horses in church buildings, just for spite, and digs up corpses looking for valuables? How honorable is that, on your scale of honorability?

How many cities, towns, farms and homes were burned in Michigan during the war, Mr. Stoy? You know where most of the burned towns were? In the South. There were over 10,000 fights in the war, from minor skirmishes to heavy combat, and virtually ALL of them were fought in the South. The South was INVADED, Mr. Stoy. Get that through your head. Invasion for the purpose of killing and thieving is NOT HONORABLE. And that WAS the purpose of invasion -- not freeing slaves. That didn't come until later in the war, and it wasn't a humanitarian move -- it was a military one. So you can take your talk of dishonorable causes and swallow it. Try not to choke on it.

One recalls such stories as of the Confederate chaplain who was forced to go into combat to kill, and instead successfully aimed for the legs, in order to simply take soldiers out of the fight.

One also recalls that southerners were not unified in secession, and it was the rich and powerful planters and politicians who ignited war.

No -- some of them influenced secession, true, but it was Lincoln calling up a freaking ARMY that ignited war.

A recent New York Times article said that besides the “secession ball,” many other events are being planned elsewhere in the South, including a parade in Montgomery, Ala., with a mock swearing-in of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy.

You don't like Southerners seeing their history differently that you see it -- and celebrating it? Too bad. Maybe if the seeds sown by the union victory continue to fruition, the USA will eventually become the totalitarian paradise in which you could dictate to Southerners, on penalty of death, that they not celebrate their heritage. But we're not there yet, and part of the reason is because Southerners refused to grovel after the war -- and still refuse to.

Katharine Seelye quoted Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina NAACP, “I can only imagine what kind of celebration they would have if they had won.”

He said he was dumbfounded by “all of this glamorization and sanitization of what really happened.” When southerners refer to states’ rights, he said, “they are really talking about their idea of one right — to buy and sell human beings.”

If Seelye's quote is accurate, Randolph is simply wrong -- just like you. There was far more to it than that. Even the Mississippi's secession document makes that clear.
http://one80dts.blogspot.com/2011/03/backsassin-yet-another-journalist.html

Pitts suggested the South finally accept reality.

I suggest that Pitts -- and you -- learn the truth.

“Instead, too many in that storied region are still absorbed in fighting a war that ended in 1865, seeking to vindicate a cause long ago lost,” he wrote, and he said of Forrest “A man who betrayed this country, founded a terrorist group and committed mass murder is a man unworthy of honor. It is pathetic that that even needs to be said.”

You Confederacy-bashers just keep getting it wrong, don't you? Not "seeking to vindicate a cause long ago lost" but seeking to counter victor lies with truth. By the way, Nathan Bedford Forrest's country was the Confederate States of America and he did not betray it. He didn't found a terrorist group, nor did he commit mass murder. You and Mr. Pitts might want to keep an eye in the mirror on the length of your noses....

An old Pete Seeger song, “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?,” asked “When will they ever learn?”

In the case of Confederates, probably never.

After all, it has been 150 years.

Obviously, in your case, there's no desire or incentive to learn the truth, regardless of how much time has passed. To use a Southernism, go ahead on pushing your victor fables and planning your truce ball, but don't expect people who know the truth to applaud it.

Sincerely,
Connie Ward

Backsassin' yet another "journalist"

Earlier this month, I came across a link to an article in Southern Heritage News And Views email list that caught my attention -- 'Sons' want to rewrite Civil War history. It was attributed to Stephen Dick at CNHI News Service.

It was actually the replies to Dick by a couple of "sons" that made me curious about his opinion column. So I followed the link. I was only a few paragraphs into the claptrap when I felt a backsass coming on.

Here's the link to Dick's column, http://blogs.cnhins.com/node/935 and my backsass is below:

---

Mr. Dick,

Perhaps you think the Sons of Confederate Veterans "rewrite history" because they know things you don't know, so you think they're just makin' it up. Let me help you get beyond that.

Ever heard of "sectionalism"? For decades before the war, the northern states had victimized Southern states using slavery as the excuse. Lincoln's own Secretary of State, William Seward, knew this and said so as early as 1850 in a speech about statehood for California: "Every question, political, civil, or ecclesiastical, however foreign to the subject of slavery, brings up slavery as an incident, and the incident supplants the principal question."

Read that again. The incident, slavery, supplants the principal question. In other words, there were other issues -- issues that today, people like you refuse to acknowledge, so greatly do you desire to cling to the all-slavery, only-slavery explanation. I guess, for some reason, it gives you the warm fuzzies of moral superiority, which you simply can't get if you look at the WHOLE PICTURE.

Read Georgia's and Mississippi's secession declarations, and try not to be so blinded by the passages that mention slavery, as most people are, that you can't read further. Try to read on beyond them and see what the OTHER problems were. Both documents are LISTS of ways the north had victimized these two states using slavery as the excuse, but I'll use only Mississippi's in this letter.

Although the document begins with "Our position is thoroughly identified with slavery," it sure mention lots of OTHER issues. Lots of 'em. See for yourself.

With slavery as the excuse, the north had "...deprived the South of more than half the territory acquired from France....dismembered Texas and seized upon all the territory acquired from Mexico..."

Territory? TERRITORY? But-but-but we're told it was ALL ABOUT SLAVERY and ONLY ABOUT SLAVERY. This is because people like you QUIT READING after "Our position is thoroughly identified with slavery...."

Not this time. Keep reading.

What other ways had the north victimized Mississippi and its people using slavery as the excuse? Well, it "...trampled the equality of the South underfoot ...promoted insurrection and incindiarism in our midst... enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice...

In other words, Mr. Dick, slavery was the excuse for stirring up sheer, blanket HATRED in the North for Southerners.

Moreover, it " ... seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better ... "

Hmmm.... sounds like the more things change, the more they stay the same, huh? To this day, northern do-goodism is frequently about bellyaching over problems -- indeed, sometimes making them worse -- without offering solutions.

Oh, but don't stop reading now. "It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives .... it has broken every compact into which it has entered for our security..."

Security? SECURITY? Mississippians were concerned about their security? Concerned for their very lives? Yes, in case you're having trouble with that part of the document, it means slavery was the excuse for putting the lives of the Southern people in danger. But-but-but we're told it was ALL ABOUT SLAVERY and ONLY ABOUT SLAVERY -- that keepin' their slaves was the only thing Southerners cared about. Right? RIGHT?

Keep reading, Mr. Dick, we're not finished yet. IIf killing Southerners didn't work out, the north designed and desired economic ruin for the South, using slavery as the excuse:

"....It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system ... "

And we know, don't we, that's EXACTLY what the north's war against the South achieved -- economic ruin so devastating it lasted for generations.

All about slavery? Only about slavery? Only to the extent that the north used slavery as the excuse to vent its hatred of the South, and as the method whereby to acquire the South's wealth for itself....

I've shown you how to pull the scales from your eyes using Misssissippi's secession document; see if you can do it for yourself using Georgia's.

Then, remember this. Only the states of the Deep South seceded, in part, due to issues related to slavery. The states of the upper South seceded ONLY AFTER Lincoln called forth a freaking ARMY to invade the seceded states.

I suppose it's too much to expect you to issue an apology to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. We'll just have to settle with using your attitude as a marvelous illustration of what the South seceded from.

Backsassin' a Feminist

Note to readers: Before you read this post, and the one before, go read Time to Bring Back BACKSASS, which serves as an introduction to my comments about both Raven and Christine, who posted to/about me at the Civil War Memory blog.

Following The Raven's, um, pithy and cogent post (smirk) already dealt with here, Christine M. Smith posted:

I'm sorry, but I can't help but "throw my oar" in on this one. Let's hear it for "the pernicious fallout of the sexual revolution" and "the dark underbelly of of radical feminism".

By all means! Let's hear it for hating men. Let's hear it hating them, but wanting to be like them. Let's hear it for joining with Jessica Valenti in making sluthood respectable! Let's hear it for inventing the phony "rape culture" on college campuses. Let's hear it for mindless hookups and one-night-stands. Let's hear it for women moving into every aspect of the job market and taking jobs from men -- except for the dangerous ones (men still constitute 94% of workplace deaths and 97% of military combat deaths). Let's hear it for putting our college men into "re-education" classes to teach them to hate their masculinity and define themselves as dangerous rapists. Let's hear it for "title-nining" men's collegiate sports out of existence to accomodate women who aren't interested in sports.

Let's hear it for killing a million preborn babies every year -- just in the USA. Let's hear it for the fatherless family, which results in some of the worst social pathologies in our culture:

85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (Source: Center for Disease Control)
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (Source: National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools.)
75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes (Source: Rainbows for all God's Children.)
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes (Source: Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26, 1978)
70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept 1988)
85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home (Source: Fulton Co. Georgia jail populations, Texas Dept. of Corrections 1992)

These statistics translate to mean that children from a fatherless home are:
5 times more likely to commit suicide.
32 times more likely to run away.
20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders.
14 times more likely to commit rape
9 times more likely to drop out of high school.
10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances.
9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution.
20 times more likely to end up in prison.

Gimme a break.

Christine continues:

Look at all they have done for Connie. They have given her life meaning and purpose AND also, might I add, helped her to be able to do write what she writes. Sure we had women writers before the SR and RF, but we have many more now that we've had it and they are writing the gamut from "literary" fiction ( always hate to use that term because I'm never quite sure that all fiction isn't literary in some way) to erotica!

This is hilarious. First, my life was given meaning and purpose by God, and the meaning and purpose was given depth and richness by family, work and interests. Some godless, leftist philosophy with the hatred of men at its core doesn't impart meaning or purpose -- at least, not any worth having.

No feminist helped me to write what I write, except, perhaps, by providing the model for the antagonist in Southern Man.

If more women can write now, it's because men have made it possible. In the 20th Century, men invented labor-saving devices that freed housewives from the drugery of housework, freeing them up to go to school or take jobs and yes, write novels. So if you write -- thank a man for inventing everything that made it possible to write in the past -- machinery to harvest trees for paper, and the labor of the harvesting; the printing press (Thanks, Mr. Gutenberg), book-binding, typewriters, offset printers, vehicles for shipping books, and more... These were the work of men. M. E. N, men. And men make it possible to write the way we do today. Men invented computers, the Internet, industrial laser printers, Amazon.com. Look around you; nearly everything you see was invented by a man or men. Women may write, thanks to men -- but they don't invent. Sorry, they just don't.

Somewhere in there Connie falls and she has a right to write what she does.

Yes, I do. I know that distresses folks like you. It really sticks in your craw for people you don't believe deserve praise or honor (for example, Southern white men, unless they're bleeding heart liberals) to be praised or honored. You know what? Tough.

However, this quote from her web page from her book pretty much says it all:

Quotables from Southern Man
“I know it hurts you to think there are people who believe you did what you’re accused of. But they’re not our people. ... They’re the people who hate you, anyway, because you’re a Christian man, and you have a family you love and take care of. They’re the people who want me to support myself, they want the government to raise the children, and they want you to disappear. Don’t give their opinions any weight, not any, for one second longer.”
Patty Stevenson to her husband, Troy

This quote, while taken out of context, perpetuates the ideas elsewhere on her page. She is always seeking to lay blame, couching it in the less than subtle terms as "the other".

Always? Really? Always? My, my. I do believe Christine has fallen into The Raven's habit of making judgments about huge things based on a tiny sampling that may not even be representative. Take, for example, this quote. Seventy-four words out of a 120,000-word novel that she hasn't even read. Thus, she doesn't know that the protagonist's wife is the one who "blames others" -- and vocalizes it only two or three times. The protagonist, Troy Stevenson, puts most of the blame on ... himself. It's called "personal responsibility" or "taking responsibility for your own actions". What a letdown, huh, Christine? I know that disappoints you.

And because this is still America, she has every right to do so. Others have the right to disagree. She makes it terribly hard for people who want to write substantive works of fiction about the south, to do so.

This is the funniest thing in her entire post, simply because I've been here before. You gotta hear this folks.

Years ago, I was in an internet chatroom with a bunch of critics of the Confederacy and disapprovers of Southern heritage. This was back when I was publishing my original 180 Degrees True South e-zine. One day a young fellow who was a member there (who, incidently, hated my guts) -- I'll refer to him as X -- posted:

You know, I'd have a lot more respect for the neo-Confederates if they would just be honest about the Confederacy and stop with the "happy darkie" stories and the ole " the north had slavery too" argument. It's all shallow and historically dishonest.

It seems to me they could take the moral high ground and admit to the negatives while still honoring the common soldier, but that's just me. I think the League of the South and other neo-confederate groups are making it very hard for people like me to be proud of our confederate ancestors. I think there is a big difference between honoring the common solider (sic) and worshiping (sic) at the alter of the League of the South.

Well, that just begged for commentary in One-Eighty, so here's what I wrote:

... don'tcha really, really wonder how the League "makes it hard" for X to honor his Confederate ancestors? I'm trying to picture how they do that. I'm trying real hard. Do you suppose, every time he starts to feel a little Confederate pride creeping up on him, a couple of dudes from the League, wrapped in trenchcoats with the collars turned up and fedoras pulled down over their eyes, come to his house and break his thumbs? No? Then how do you suppose they do it?

If X wants to honor his Confederate ancestors, there's nothing stopping him. Nothing, zero, zilch, nada. He can do it, if he wants to, no matter what the League does -- or doesn't do. He can do it whether the League even exists or not. Pardon me for stating the obvious like this, but some folks have blinded themselves to the obvious and you sometimes have to point it out.

Any proSoutherners out there amongst my readership who "worship at the altar of the League of the South"? Well, tell me about it, will ya? I wasn't even aware that the League HAD an altar....

I find myself in the same hilarious situation with Christine. Now, would anybody out there care to venture a guess as to how I make it hard for people who want to write substantive works of fiction about the south, to do so? Does Southern Man give off some kind of vibration that causes people's hands to swell up, like Chris Pine in Star Trek, so that they can't type? Maybe she thinks *I* use a crystal ball, chicken bones or Miss Cleo, to determine who is contemplating writing "substantive works of fiction about the south" -- and then call 'em, write 'em or email 'em with the dire warning, "If youse knows what's good for youse, youse'll stop tinking about writin' that "substantive work of fiction about the sout'." Or... "You write-a substantive work-a fiction about-a the south, I break-a you face..."

No, the fact is, this claim of hers is utterly risible. I am not making it "terribly hard for people who want to write substantive works of fiction about the south, to do so," or for anyone to write anything about anything.

What this is, ladies and gentlemen, is a very transparent (and totally ineffective) attempt to put the chill on me...to make me feel guilty about preventing the writing of "substantive fiction" about the South; to bring on pretzelizing attacks of guilt and remorse so I'll stop this glorification of Southern men, stop being so pleased with my region, its history and culture, and don the race-and-slavery hairshirt liberals think is the proper attire for generational Southerners.

Ah.....no. The answer is no.

Backsass -- Quoth the Raven

ThERAven writes

(Quoting me) "There probably wouldn’t be any links to Southern Unionists on my page...."

And why is that?

Well, The Raven, I probably wouldn't put links to Southern Unionists on my page because I'm not interested. There are lots and lots of causes I'm just not interested in, and that's one of 'em. Capisci?

She continues:

That's right, Connie Chastain writes romance and "southern fiction", such as "southern Man", which "reveals the pernicious fallout of the sexual revolution, the dark underbelly of radical feminism". An anti-feminist, middle-aged woman living in rural Alabama? I'm shocked.

You're shocked? Well, no, actually, what you are, The Raven, is a bigot. A triple bigot, actually. You're prejudiced against (1) middle aged women, (2) rural folk and (3) Alabamians. It's always people who are quickest to point fingers and call others bigots who turn out to be the biggest bigots of them all. Although I have to wonder what this has to do with me, my novel and my website. I'm not middle-aged; I'm a Boomer. And I don't live in rural Alabama. I haven't lived in the Heart of Dixie since Nixon was in the White House. I live in west Florida, in an MSA with a population of roughly 500,000. Hardly rural.... And while I am adamantly opposed to radical feminism (that's the phrase on my website, The Raven -- radical feminism), I support women's rights. Betcha didn't know there's a difference, didja? Perhaps you need to have you reading comprehension skills tested and bolstered....

Folks, when you are dealing with critics, like The Raven here, who just make crap up as they go along, you have to realize, they don't care about truth and reality. They have talking points they must push...

She sez:

This is how you describe yourself: I'm a ninth-generation Southerner. Born in Georgia, I grew up a preacher's kid in Alabama, attended Alabama Christian College (now Faulkner University) and married a Louisiana boy....I'm a culturally conservative Christian but I don't write Christian romances, per se. I do write from a Christian worldview and with the motives of undergirding traditional morals and advancing noble and virtuous ideals.....the reason I write is to honor such men; in fact, to glorify them ... particularly Southern men, who are so often unfairly maligned in popular culture.

Looks like there's generations of fundamentalist Christian denialism running through your family tree, and all over your website. Charitably, I'd call that "marketing". You write pablum for nitwits. It ain't illegal, but don't confuse Levin's blog, or Andy Hall's or any other contentious provider of historical inquiry with "pop culture".

Oh, my -- to paraphrase Fritz Hollings, "There's too much assumin' going on heah!" -- not to mention a whole lot more bigot-ing. Folks, don'tcha just gotta wonder how she knows there's "generations of fundamentalist Christian denialism" running through my family tree -- based on reading sixty-one words? How do you suppose she knows that? Crystal ball? Chicken bones? Collect call to Miss Cleo? Or did she put her hands on her computer monitor and the "knowledge" just flowed up her arms and into her brain? In any case, she is claiming knowledge she can't possibly have -- claiming to know the religious beliefs of nine generations of a family, most of whom are long since deceased....

And exactly how does she conceptualize "fundamentalist Christian denialism"? Does she really have a problem with traditional morals? Does she find noble, virtuous ideals offensive? If morality, nobility and virtue is "pablum for nitwits," then what does she approve of? Meatier stuff for lofty intellects... like iniquity? Exploitation? Baseness? Hedonism?

And where did she get the notion that I was confusing "Levin's blog, or Andy Hall's or any other contentious provider of historical inquiry with 'pop culture'"? Maybe The Raven's concept of "pop culture" is confined to civil war blogs, but that's just more erroneous "assumin'." (She seems to have an unlimited capacity for assumin', doesn't she, folks?) According to Wikipedia, the current meaning of "popular culture" is "culture for mass consumption, especially originating in the United States." Currently, blogs are too new to be more than a blip on the pop-culture radar screen, although that will likely change as the digital era progresses. However, when I say "pop culture" I'm talking about TV, movies, books, music, magazines, etc. And in those segments of the popular culture, Southern men -- Southern white men, anyway -- have indeed been disproportionally and unfairly maligned.

The Raven continues:

You want a real southern man? A man who exemplifies (your words)....real men who struggle not with imaginary foes, but the real demons that plague the human family. Give me heroes who are the flesh and blood sons of Adam struggling to live up to the nobility of human nature and harness their less noble components. The best heroes are tough, sweet, loving men who take their responsibilities seriously -- men of principle, men of courage...

Real demons, you say? Look no farther than Robert Smalls, whose life is practically beyond imagination. Smalls is a real southern hero. Confederate traitors, starting with Lee, only deserved the end of a rope. Smalls fought hard, beat the odds, demonstrated courage under fire and went on to show great, almost saintly levels of compassion towards former oppressors. Smalls, like the 44th President of the United States, was a genuine Christian. Far more so than those who brandish the label.

This part was really fun to read. It's another example of this woman running off at her mouth about somthing she knows nothing about -- although, if she had checked out my website a bit more thoroughly, and watched the second video on the page for Southern Man, perhaps she would have caught on. (Or not.) My comments about men who struggle with real demons rather than imaginary foes is a reference to the sub-genre of paranormal romance, for which I have limited patience. You know, the novels featuring a were-wolf hero, or a vampire-hero or a space-alien hero or a demon-hero... I even read once about a hero who was a "were-python." No joke. It completely escapes me how these imaginary monstrosities could be considered romantic...

In any case, the "real demons that plague the human family" that I'm talking about on my website, and write about in my novels, are human frailties and weaknesses. In the case of Troy Stevenson, the protagonist of Southern Man, the demon is alcohol, and he faces it down and overcomes it, with the help of God, his faith, his family and his friends. This is the kind of pablum for nitwits that I write -- overcoming personal weaknesses and failings. Obviously, The Raven doesn't recognize the demons that plague humanity-- unless they have an element of racial oppression to them.

More from The Raven:

This is truth vs. lies. Robert Smalls ain't exactly in the SVC honor roll. Your so-called "traditional morals" were used to sanction slavery and here you are, ten years into the 21st century, a volunteer SVC propagandist. You've got a vested interest in ignorance. I understand you've got to earn a living, so go write your pulp nonsense.

Once again, I have to wonder how she knows what MY traditional morals are -- but does she really think a man and wife committed to each other in love, and committed to raising good, decent children is a sanctioning of slavery? Because that's partly what I mean by traditional morals. Is a man committed to making his community better somehow "sanctioning slavery"? Because that's also part of my concept of traditional morals. How about living up to the principles of honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility? Is that sanctioning slavery? I'll freely admit it -- I'm completely mystified by what The Raven would consider "traditional morals." However she may conceptualize it, though, she needs to realize that she cannot mind-read what this term means to others and stop projecting her erroneous concept onto them.

Her parting shot:

Just don't expect anyone who thinks for a living to take you seriously.

Obviously, I don't have to worry about being taken seriously by The Raven. Anybody who lets their runaway emotions bounce them off the wall from one knee-jerk assumption to another -- as we have seen demonstrated here in her post to me -- is not thinking for a living.

Time to bring back BACKSASS!

There's a fellow from New Jersey who has come South to teach Southern children their history.

He seems to have a special interest in the so-called "civil war," because he has a blog about it titled Civil War Memory, with the tagline, Reflections of a Civil War Historian & High School History Teacher.

I don't remember what first brought his blog to my attention a few months ago, but since then, I've visited there perhaps four or five times and commented in four or five threads. Based solely on those few visits, I have made some observations and drawn some tentative conclusions, to wit, that Mr. Levin, the blogger, is extremely biased against the Confederacy -- and against anyone today who does not hold views about the war and the Confederacy that he approves of.

He has a handful of sycophants posting in his comment threads that he is nice to, but dissenters are met with thinly veiled hostility and demands for "proof" of their comments (some of which are simply opinion) -- demands that Mr. Levin usually doesn't require of himself or his satellites.

Recently, I participated in a thread about a commemoration of Jefferson Davis's inaugural in Montgomery sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, relating to the sesquicentennial of the war. I was met with the usual (erroneous) charges from the blogger -- that I was "adding nothing of substance" to the discussion -- and demanding that I provide proof of my opinions...

Just to give you an idea how slippery his demands are (follow along here, you'll see), I commented on his observation that "...the Sons of Confederate Veterans can muster little more than a few hundred people from its ranks to commemorate the inauguration of Jefferson Davis." You can read his entire post here:

http://cwmemory.com/2011/02/20/sons-of-confederate-veterans-forced-to-the-back-of-the-bus/

Notice who he is talking about now. The Sons of Confederate Veterans -- people from the organizations ranks. Got that? File it away, we'll get back to it.

I expressed the opinion that,

"...what appears to be disinterest or distancing from events like this one, and from celebrations, commemorations and even positive or neutral acknowledgments of the Confederacy, are largely the result of an insidious encroachment on free thought and free expression in the United States that took hold in the latter decades of the previous century. It’s called political correctness. (Also note that the economy and the appalling unemployment rate are factors in keeping people from traveling to such events.)

Political correctness can cost a person their job, their livelihood. It can cause high school students public humilation, even when they’ve done nothing wrong, and intended — and caused — no harm to anyone. But it is most at home on the campuses of U.S. colleges and universities. I dunno, maybe there’s something about the academic mentality that cozies up to a mental/political/social/cultural Procrustean bed.

It’s kinda McCarthyism in reverse — but it’s amazing that some of the same people who’d get pretzelized over those victimized by McCarthyism are blasé, or even approving, of those McCarthied by political correctness…

His response:

You apparently don’t know the first thing about the First Amendment. I fail to see what any of this has to do with this post. Either say something relevant or go somewhere to post this nonsense. I am getting tired of your little rants. All you seem to do is criticize, but not once have you added anything substantive to the discussion. This is your final warning.

Oooooh, the big bad blogger had given me a "final warning!" (Gasp!)

A visitor chided him for the double standard he exhibited toward me and another commentor and he replied, "My response to Connie is based on a number of interactions on this site. On a number of occasions I had to delete comments that were personally insulting."

Well, this is not true, and I couldn't resist pointing out that since the posts were gone, "there’s no way to know now whether they were personally insulting or not. However, I contest the charge. I don’t deny they may have been insulting — I’d say justifiably so — but not personally insulting. You just don’t like being disagreed with."

I also defended my knowledge of the First Amendment, followed by:

To summarize — you mentioned that there isn’t much participation in SCV events, they’re falling short in their efforts of Confederate commemoration, and failing to make their case in the court of public opinion. I simply explained a huge part of the reason for that — the stranglehold political correctness has taken on this country in the past several decades.

Do you truly not see that I was offering an explanation for what you observed? How do you conclude that supplying an explanation for your observations is somehow irrelevant? You may not agree with the explanation, but that doesn’t make the explanation irrelevant.

Yes, I am adding something substantive to the discussion. That you may not like it doesn’t mean it isn’t substantive. And, I note, criticism when deserved certainly is substantive.

Now. Go ahead and wield that delete button.

Pay close attention, folks, because what I'm about to show you next is an example of how this fellow works. As is perfectly clear from my post (and indeed, from what he originally posted that I was responding to) he narrows the subject down to give it an entirely new meaning that it didn't have in his original post, or my subsequent response.

My comment was that the SCV and its supporters were few in number because of the possibility that political correctness could cause problems. Anyone who knows any thing about PC knows how that works. For example, getting mendaciously written up in the Southern Poverty Law Center's so-called "Intelligence Report" as a violent, inbred, scum-sucking racist can get you expelled from school, fired from your job, etc. That's just an example, though, and as another example, I included a link to The FIRE.org, (http://thefire.org/) an organization that defends against encroachments of free expression on college campuses.

So, Mr. Levin replies:

So, what evidence do you have that some some vague notion of PC is responsible for their lack of involvement in yesterday’s commemoration? Keep in mind that even if their absence was due to their concerns about the political consequences that does not imply PC. Politicians are always concerned about public perception. We don’t need the SCV to remind us of this. It’s also possible that some public officials white/black disagreed with the scope of the event. By the same token we could also argue that the overwhelming support by public officials in 1961 was also POLITICALLY CORRECT since they understood that their attendance would likely translate into votes.

Which means we are back to the starting point and that is why your argument lacks substance.

Well, duh. Who said anything about PUBLIC OFFICIALS (to borrow his use of screaming caps)? I didn't narrow my comments to them. Neither did he, in his original post. In fact, his point was all about the lack of a turn out on the part of SCV MEMBERS.

When I again attempted to point out the chilling effects of political correctness (which he evidently confines to the concept of politicians doing things to get votes), he again attempted to confine the lack of participation to public officials, or "civic leaders":

So, you don’t know that the lack of participation was the result of a disagreement with the day’s proceedings. Do you believe that the decision of African American civic leaders can also be explained by political correctness. I guess based on this reasoning that everything can be explained this way. What a revelation.

What I'm passingly curious about is whether he realizes he's attempting to manipulate the thread to misconstrue my point. This man is an academic. He ought to recognize what he's doing. On the other hand, it's possible he truly doesn't see what he's doing. In any case, when you are trying to communicate with someone who is determined to not only misunderstand and misconstrue, but to erroneously restrict the subject matter in order to score points, there's not much point in continuing the discussion.

So enough of the blogger. However, earlier in the comments thread, someone else posted something to me which lead the thread off into an area that, in the words of Bugs Bunny, "could pwoove to be fun!"

Someone named Robert Moore asked me,

"As an aside, I’m curious, Ms. Chastain, If there were an organization dedicated to the perpetuation of the memory of Southern Unionists, would you have a link to it under your “ProSouthern Links” section of your webpage? What about the simple “leave-aloners”… if there was an organization for them? What about Southerners who opted for the blue uniform?

I admit to being a bit surprised that someone who hangs out on such a "scholarly" blog (smirk) would check out the romance-author website of little ol' moi... But I replied:

There probably wouldn’t be any links to Southern Unionists on my page, but it would depend on what their website said. My people are from the mountains of north Georgia, which is said to have given a lot of support to the Union.

As for Southerners who opted for the blue uniform, you may include my GG-grandfather in that group. He was a Confederate soldier who was evidently captured, took the oath of allegiance to the Union and joined the Union Army. Family legend says he was sent “out west” to “fight Indians.” He is buried on a hillside in Gilmer County, Georgia; his headstone is carved with “A. J. Hensley, Lieutenent, 12 Tennessee Cavalry.” He was proud of his Union service and would wear his uniform to court day in Ellijay for years after the war. As a teenager, I joked about being more embarrassed by him than by the unwed mothers in my ancestry, but in fact, his descendants were proud of him.

http://members.cox.net/connie_ward/genealogy.html

Mr. Moore, I am proud of America’s men in uniform, even if I don’t agree with every imperial mission their government sends them on around the world. It is quite possible to honor soldiers without honoring every aspect of their mission.

And that's how it stood for over 24 hours, until I was notified by e-mail that there were new comments on the thread, one from "The Raven" and one from "Christine, " which included direct copy-pastes from my writer's website & blog, and I knew I'd have to comment on my CW Memory experiences here on One-Eighty. (The Raven? As in "Nevermore"? Christine? Red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury? I begin to feel like I'm in some kind of cockamamie horror flick, ha!)

Incidently, before I wrote this post, I checked several pages at Mr. Levin's blog for a copyright notice. I didn't see one, so I went ahead and copied-pasted here some of the comments from Mr. Levin, Mr. Moore and myself. If there is a copyright notice and I missed it, and if Mr. Levin wishes me to remove the copy-pastes here, I will be glad to do so and replace them with paraphrasing. All he has to do is send me the link to the page with the copyright notice on it.

However, everyone take note that MY webstite DOES have a notice on every page that reads, "Original Material © Copyright 2010 by Connie Chastain" and my blog shows, "Original Material Copyright 2008 - 2011 by Connie Chastain." Apparently, Ms. Raven (I assume her to be a woman based on her remarks) and Christine don't have a lot of respect for the concept of copyrights....

More to come, so stay tuned!

Backsass on the way!