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Pitts: About the Confederate battle flag, remember this: Nazis have a heritage, too
The Salt Lake City Tribune ^ | 3 March 2008 | Leonard Pitts

Posted on 03/03/2008 10:37:49 AM PST by Rebeleye

They will tell you the Civil War was not about slavery. Remind them that the president and vice president of the so-called "Confederate States of America" both said it was. They will tell you that great-great grandpa Zeke fought for the South, and he never owned any slaves. Remind them that it is political leaders - not grunts - who decide whether and why a war is waged. They will tell you the flag just celebrates heritage. Remind them that "heritage" is not a synonym for "good." After all, Nazis have a heritage, too.

(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: confederacy; confederate; confederateflag; dixie; ushistory
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To: ichabod1

Vegetarianism, too. And I’ve read that Hitler liked dogs.

But he was still Hitler.


61 posted on 03/03/2008 11:11:09 AM PST by chesley (Where's the omelet? -- Orwell)
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To: ichabod1
That is the antithesis of states rights.

Armed rebellion is not a state's right.

62 posted on 03/03/2008 11:11:18 AM PST by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Are you seriously arguing that the 10th Amendment (implicitly or explicitly) authorizes states or their residents to take up arms against the federal government?


63 posted on 03/03/2008 11:11:26 AM PST by mngran2
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To: Badeye
When Leonard Pitts loses his picture of the Olympic Athlete’s in 1968 holding up the black power fist, then I might actually consider what he has to say about such matters.

I note everyone here bashing Pitts doesn't even attempt to refute any of his arguments.

Leonard Pitts gave voice after 9/11 in an unmatched way, and for that I will ALWAYS listen to this AMERICAN has to say:

http://www.ornery.org/essays/2001-09-12-1.html

64 posted on 03/03/2008 11:11:34 AM PST by King of Florida (A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

Who had armed forces there to begin with? And do you think that invading the entire South with the intent of slaughtering and burning their cities to the ground was a proportionate response?


65 posted on 03/03/2008 11:11:41 AM PST by pcottraux (I can't tell the difference between Carl Cameron, Chris Wallace, or Bill McCuddy.)
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To: ichabod1
I will grant you Pickett’s Charge was foolhardy and unexplainable in light of Lee’s other battles.

You mean like Malvern Hill? Or what he saw Burnside do at Fredericksburg?

66 posted on 03/03/2008 11:13:30 AM PST by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: pcottraux
And do you think that invading the entire South with the intent of slaughtering and burning their cities to the ground was a proportionate response?

Ask the Germans and the Japanese if that was a proportionate response to their wars as well.

67 posted on 03/03/2008 11:14:39 AM PST by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: silentreignofheroes

Now you sound like a smarmy court-appointed defense attorney who’s client got caught red handed.

“Your Honor, those fingerprints on the murder weapon could have been from years ago.”

Or better yet, you sound like Johnnie Cochran ...

“Judge Ito, for all we know Mark Fuhrman planted that bloody glove. You know how the LAPD had it in for my client....”

Have you any idea just how ridiculous your statement was?


68 posted on 03/03/2008 11:15:01 AM PST by Emperor Palpatine ("There is no civility, only politics.")
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To: Non-Sequitur

Well...actually, yes, it was. Not even a comparison.


69 posted on 03/03/2008 11:15:19 AM PST by pcottraux (I can't tell the difference between Carl Cameron, Chris Wallace, or Bill McCuddy.)
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To: pcottraux
Secession is not necessarily the same thing as Treason. The South believed they had a right to secede . . .

And so did much of New England prior to the Civil War. They threatened to walk away from the Union at least twice.

70 posted on 03/03/2008 11:15:25 AM PST by Racehorse (Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

You have no idea what the hell you are talking about.


71 posted on 03/03/2008 11:16:23 AM PST by ontap (Just another backstabbing conservative)
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To: pcottraux
It was about States’ Rights.

LOL!!! Yeah ... States' Rights to permit slave ownership. There would not have been a civil war except for slavery. It's silly to pretend otherwise.

72 posted on 03/03/2008 11:16:49 AM PST by r9etb
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To: Rebeleye

Leonard Pitts is a racist moron. He won the affirmative action Pulitzer Prize, and thinks he earned it. My local paper carries him, since he’s leftist and black. The only column he ever wrote that I enjoyed was when his nephew was arrested and he spent a whole column crying the “Whitey be pickin’ on me” blues.


73 posted on 03/03/2008 11:17:28 AM PST by ozzymandus
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To: pcottraux
Slavery was more an issue of economics for the South, and a moral issue for some in the North.

That's actually a great way to sum things up. The WBTS was partially about slavery, but it was about slavery in an economic sense, not a moral sense. I daresay that the majority of Northerners and Unionists, aside from the abolitionists, would today be considered knuckle-dragging racists in their view of black people, even though they were opposed to slavery.

I don't doubt that the Southern political classes, the John C. Calhouns of the world, viewed slavery as an issue to secede over. But it wasn't slavery by itself...it was slavery as the backbone of the Southern agrarian economy.

Now, imagine you're Johnny Q. Reb. You're just some ordinary guy in Virginia or North Carolina or wherever, back in a time where your state was more your home than this overarching concept we call the United States. You're hearing from your elected representatives and newspapers that the Yankees are trying to destroy the way of life you hold dear, and then when the balloon goes up at Bull Run, and the Federals are coming, well, it's fightin' time!

This is the distinction that idiots like Pitts don't always draw. You can legitimately criticize the Southern leadership's views on slavery and how it impacted their decisions to secede. But for the rank and file, slavery wasn't a big deal for them, because they didn't OWN slaves. They volunteered, or were drafted, into what they saw as a war of defense of their homeland. And for the most part, you've got to admit, considering what they had and what they were up against, they did pretty damn good.

That sacrifice, and pride in our homes and the South, is why people like me get passionate when morons like Pitts come after the symbols of the WBTS. Trust me, I get angry at seeing these inbred Deliverance-extra KKK morons (a good proportion of whom are actually from up North, btw) carrying Confederate flags because they're dishonoring hundreds of thousands of war dead. We don't like it any more than Pitts does.

}:-)4

74 posted on 03/03/2008 11:17:32 AM PST by Moose4 (Hey GOP...don't move toward the middle. Move the middle toward us.)
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To: MuttTheHoople
You might remind him that slavery was legal under the Constitution; that the North fought a war that cost over 600,000 American lives and far more in money and property damage, than if they had outright purchased, at the prevailing market price, the freedom of every slave in the country (which the North adamently refused to even discuss);AND unconstitutionally deprived slavery owners of their property without just compensation.

But then, who the hell cares about that scrap of paper??

You might also remind him that is the Confederate Battle Flag is to be discarded ober the issue of slavery, then he had better start another crusafe -- to quickly get rid of the Stars and STripes. Slavery flourished far longer under that banner than it did under the St. Andrews Cross (or under the real "National Confederate Flag". And he also, might be reminded that what Southerners choose to do to honor their ancestors, is none of his damned business. And to nail the Nazi label on something he is too ignot=rant to understand, show him to be a total nincompoop.

Aside from that --- UH ---- there is still doesn't seem to be anything that can be said in his favor.

75 posted on 03/03/2008 11:18:20 AM PST by Turret Gunner A20 (Smart burglars would be lining up up at the unemployment offices.)
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To: Mancolicani

Then explain why the West German government was just too happy to tear down the completely undamaged Karlstadt department store in West Berlin after the war?

There was nothing wrong with it, and the management protested to no avail because they liked the design of the building.

Perhaps only because the architect was Albert Speer?


76 posted on 03/03/2008 11:18:38 AM PST by Emperor Palpatine ("There is no civility, only politics.")
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To: Rebeleye

The secession was largely about slavery, on which the South was wrong — but the war itself was about the right to secede, about which the South was 100% right.


77 posted on 03/03/2008 11:19:52 AM PST by Sloth (Senator He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, D - Illinois)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

“How “The South” remembers the Antebellum years:”

And your solution is to mandate that those in the south forget their past? Good luck with that Josef.


78 posted on 03/03/2008 11:20:12 AM PST by brownsfan (America has "jumped the shark")
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To: pcottraux; Non-Sequitur

I think it’s a pretty good comparison, actually.

Declare war on the United States, fire on our troops, and we’ll level your country to the ground.

The only difference is that I used to live in some of the places the US leveled in that instance.


79 posted on 03/03/2008 11:20:29 AM PST by highball ("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogart)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

That was funny,,

you,re just a finger pointer..

where can we view the picture and read about it?


80 posted on 03/03/2008 11:21:38 AM PST by silentreignofheroes (I'm Southron,,and I Vote..,..)
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