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'Gods and Generals' ... and an angry Mayor Dow
Mobile Register ^ | 10/13/03 | Jim Van Anglen

Posted on 10/13/2003 7:07:18 AM PDT by stainlessbanner

When George Ewert , director of the Museum of Mobile, wrote a stinging movie review of the Civil War film "Gods and Generals," he likely did not expect an equally harsh critique from Mayor Mike Dow .

Ewert's review, "Whitewashing the Confederacy (SPLC link)," was not kind to the Ted Turner film.

"'Gods and Generals' is part of a growing movement that seeks to rewrite the history of the American South, downplaying slavery and the economic system that it sustained. In museums, schools and city council chambers, white neo-Confederates are hard at work in an effort to have popular memory trump historical accuracy," the city employee wrote.

And this: "It is cloying and melo dramatic, and its still characters give an endless series of ponderous, stilted speeches about God, man and war."

In turn, Dow was not kind to Ewert, reprimanding the city employee in a Friday letter. The mayor called Ewert's review unnecessarily strongly worded, inflammatory and counterproductive.

"Why, in your very public position with all the local 'Southern Heritage' controversy that city leaders have had to manage and after several years of a hard-fought political calming of this issue, would you inject yourself so strongly and carelessly into this topic in this manner?" the mayor wrote.

"I need for you to use your better judgment and please cease and desist publishing potentially inflammatory articles of this nature without your board chairman's or my awareness and approval. Leave that to others who have less to do."

The city, particularly Dow, has come under fire in the past from Southern heritage groups claiming unfair treatment.

Ewert's review was printed in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. The Montgomery-based organization's Intelligence Project monitors hate groups and extremist activities.

At the end of the movie review, there is a line that notes Ewert's position with the city.

Mobile City Council President Reggie Copeland also scolded Ewert, saying at last week's council meeting that he "would accept nothing less than a public apology. ... I am very displeased with that gentleman, and I want some action taken."

Copeland made the comments after hearing about the review but before reading it. He later told the Mobile Register that the review was "not as strong as I thought it would have been. ... I just wish he would have kept his mouth shut."

Ewert, contacted last week, declined comment except to say that he would be preparing a statement for Dow. In a letter to Dow dated Oct. 9 -- one day before Dow's letter -- Ewert said the review was written in his capacity as a historian and private individual.

"I regret that anyone may have taken my comments in a 'personal' matter," Ewert wrote. "My intent was not to offend but to offer a legitimate criticism and context for the movie in question, a privilege that should by rights be open to anyone. If, again, there were those who were offended by the movie review, I offer my apologies."

Don't shoot ...:

Area veterinarian Ben George , a Confederate Battle Flag and Confederate-heritage advocate, praised Dow for his response to the review. But George said Ewert did not apologize and should resign or be fired.

"He (Ewert) shot somebody; he said he's going to shoot somebody again," George said.

George in the past has made himself something of a thorn in Dow's side, organizing demonstrations in front of Dow's house, plastering posters criticizing the mayor during the last city election and using other tactics to push his Confederate heritage agenda.

George complained to Dow after reading Ewert's article. "My staff and I have had to deal with an unnecessary and increased fallout as a result of your article," Dow stated in his letter to Ewert.

George compared the situation to the firing of a Mobile police officer, accused of using the n-word and expressing a lack of interest in helping evacuate public housing residents in case of flooding.

Ewert, like the police officer, George said, has proven himself intolerant toward part of Mobile's population, namely Confederate heritage proponents like himself.

George said he and several others planned to speak at Tuesday's City Council meeting about Ewert's comments, along with concerns that Dow has not kept his word on settling previous disputes. But, he said, the speakers may reconsider.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: alabama; dixie; generals; gods; godsandgenerals; moviereview; museum; splc
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To: Non-Sequitur
"Try again. Missouri and Maryland ended slavery by January 1865. Kentucky and Deleware lost their slaves in December 1865,..."

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed January 1, 1863.

101 posted on 10/13/2003 12:19:20 PM PDT by gatex
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To: Non-Sequitur
"Under what authority could Lincoln have ordered the freeing of slaves in the North?"

I have no idea.

102 posted on 10/13/2003 12:20:28 PM PDT by gatex
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To: Non-Sequitur
"And when the confederacy was proclaimed it went out of it's way to..."

Let's not change the subject. The Union was passionately involved in, and was gleefully enjoying the profits from being slavers long before the Confederacy existed.

For the Union to have then, much less carry on to this day, that they were the opponents of slavery, or of superior morality, is absolutely laughable.

The North, the Union was both favorable to slavery, and to an all powerful, centralized, federal government.

As all peoples throughout history have enslaved others, this is hardly a shame that only the Union should bear; it is a shame shared by all humanity.

However; unlike the Union, the South stood aginst socialism.

103 posted on 10/13/2003 12:20:34 PM PDT by laotzu
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To: gatex
This Emancipation Proclamation actually freed few people. It did not apply to slaves in border states fighting on the Union side; nor did it affect slaves in southern areas already under Union control. Naturally, the states in rebellion did not act on Lincoln's order."

If you want to consider over 3 million people "few", I suppose you could say that. Two million was CSA president Jefferson Davis' estimate of confederate states slaves freed as of September of 1864, only 18 months after the EP was issued. Naturally, states in rebellion did not follow Lincoln's order. But the United States Army did follow it, and they enforced it so well that by June 19 of 1865, (Juneteenth day in Texas) there were no slaves left in areas that were in rebellion as of Jan of 1863. All told, over 3 million slaves were liberated by the EP.

104 posted on 10/13/2003 12:20:52 PM PDT by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: Ditto; gatex
I'm guessing that, having been provided clear evidence, that it suddenly doesn't matter that the North kept slaves after those in the South were freed.

Now, how did I know ahead of time that you really didn't think it mattered?

105 posted on 10/13/2003 12:25:56 PM PDT by laotzu
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To: laotzu
I'm guessing that, having been provided clear evidence, that it suddenly doesn't matter that the North kept slaves after those in the South were freed.

I'm asking again. What Northern states kept slaves after making those in the south free. Name just one of those "Northern states".

Bonus question: How many stars were on the Confederate Battle Flag.

106 posted on 10/13/2003 12:30:35 PM PDT by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: Ditto
"...If you want to consider over 3 million people "few", I suppose you could say that...."

That is from the quote on the link to the Emancipation Proclamation that said there were still Northern states with slaves--

Do you now agree there was "one" Northern staate.

107 posted on 10/13/2003 12:31:54 PM PDT by gatex
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To: gatex
"Thus, when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued January 1, 1863, it declared slaves free in those areas still fighting against the Union (which it listed very carefully) and said nothing about slaves behind Union lines...."

Under what provision of the Constitution could Lincoln have issued an executive order to free slaves in areas not in rebellion?

108 posted on 10/13/2003 12:34:33 PM PDT by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
You do have a point. I was looking at this from his museum job, not as a city employee. I have to agree with your remarks.
109 posted on 10/13/2003 12:34:39 PM PDT by Sunshine Sister
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To: Sunshine Sister
Only reason I noticed is that I used to work for the City of Atlanta. If I had written a controversial article for the local paper, using my title with the City, without his permission, he would have been VERY unhappy and I probably would have been disciplined or fired. (And I would have deserved it.)
110 posted on 10/13/2003 12:38:30 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . Nihil sub sole novum. . .)
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To: Ditto
See post #75.

Does it matter that the North did/did not keep slaves after those in the South were freed? Or, is that something you will decide only after finding out?

111 posted on 10/13/2003 12:38:55 PM PDT by laotzu
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To: Sunshine Sister
"his" = "my boss's" - sorry! :-D
112 posted on 10/13/2003 12:39:14 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . Nihil sub sole novum. . .)
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To: Ditto
"Under what provision of the Constitution could Lincoln have issued an executive order to free slaves in areas not in rebellion?"

None that I know of.

So, you agree that there were slaves in NORTHERN states after the Emancipation Proclamation?

113 posted on 10/13/2003 12:39:34 PM PDT by gatex
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To: laotzu
However; unlike the Union, the South stood aginst socialism.

The Confederate government took pocession of all cotton crops for the duration of the war. They required all shipping to carry government goods free of charge. They set production quotas for a long list of materials. They pressed private labor into the war effort without compensation. They exerted control over the economy that Lincoln never even dreamed of. And of course, like all central planners, they bungled the hell out of it.

114 posted on 10/13/2003 12:41:58 PM PDT by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: Ditto
Secretary of State Seward, appointed by Lincoln, said of the EP, "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we cannot set them free."

New York World, 7 January, 1863

115 posted on 10/13/2003 12:44:34 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: gatex
So, you agree that there were slaves in NORTHERN states after the Emancipation Proclamation?

No. I asked you to name the NORTHERN state that still had slavery! Is that so freaking hard for you to do? Just spit it out. Was it Vermont? Maine? Ohio? Michigan? Pennsylvania? I also asked how many stars were on the Confederate battle flag. Don't you know?

116 posted on 10/13/2003 12:44:59 PM PDT by Ditto ( No trees were killed in sending this message, but billions of electrons were inconvenienced.)
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To: Ditto
And of course, like all central planners, they bungled the hell out of it.

That's classic Ditto - what do you think the centralized banking/treasury and Clay's American System was about? They were central planners - centralizing powers.

117 posted on 10/13/2003 12:47:33 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: Ditto
The Union had slaves before the Confederacy.

The Union kept slaves after those in the Confederacy were freed.

If the Confederacy had freed their slaves, the Union would still have been against secession.

Explain how these facts fit with your contention that the war was about slavery.

118 posted on 10/13/2003 12:49:05 PM PDT by laotzu
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To: laotzu
Why, do you think, is such a mis-representation(United States) called for?

Because, depending on exactly what you are talking about, I don't think it is a misrepresentation. I think the key misrepresentation is that slavery was the only issue, just as I think it is a misrepresentation to say it wasn't an issue at all. But that is hardly surprising given the complexity of life and the all too common simplifications that people rely on to make any sense of it. But as far as the United States being a single nation and not a loose collection of states, I think it is telling that Southerners didn't dance in the streets on 9/11 like the Palestinians because the Yankees finally got some pay back for their imperialism. And despite Washington excesses that most people on Free Republic probably agree upon, I don't see a whole lot of regret from people down South about being citizens of the United States as opposed to the CSA.

119 posted on 10/13/2003 12:51:47 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: Ditto
"I asked you to name the NORTHERN state that still had slavery"

Your question has been answered three times!!

Save us the mambo lesson, and tell us the answer you obviously are waiting for.

120 posted on 10/13/2003 12:52:08 PM PDT by laotzu
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