The personification of the neo-confederate hate movement. The truth always comes forth it just takes a little time:
One of America's greatest leaders murdered by a coward
Posted on 10/19/2004 5:14:54 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
As I drove down 5th street yesterday, I spied a bumper sticker that addresses an issue I have been waiting for an excuse to write about. It was in the back window of a pickup truck, whose ability to operate I found simply amazing, strategically situated between an empty gun rack and another sticker depicting Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) urinating on "Osama" with a devilish grin on his face.
I will leave the "Osama" reference and defamation of an innocent newspaper comic strip character alone for the purposes of this article, and will concentrate on the content of the other bumper sticker. It was a simple, Confederate flag, next to which was written the words, "Heritage not Hate". Now, if I have ever read something more deserving of one of my diatribes, I cannot recall.
This statement, which for the record I believe to be sheer nonsense, speaks of an issue with which I had very limited experience before relocating to North Carolina, but an issue of importance nonetheless.
All my life, the Confederate flag was something of a joke to me. M history classes in high school and earlier had taught me that the Confederate defeat during the Civil War was a good thing, that the moral argument against slavery (espoused by the Lincoln government in Washington) was a black and white issue, about right and wrong, and that the Union triumph is 1865 was righteous.
Granted, the history I was taught spoke from a biased perspective, from the moral high ground of the abolitionists and northern intellectuals, and never really addressed the true, underlying reasons for the Civil War, which I would come to learn much later. After considering all the information I have been able to locate on the subject, after long hours of trying to understand just where the Confederacy was coming from and why they wanted to defend their way of life, I have come to a few conclusions.
Naturally, these conclusions reflect my upbringing and Northern perspective, and I am more than confident than my loyal readers will have more than a few comments of their own to contribute.
First of all, "Heritage not Hate", is an extreme cop out. Sure, the Confederate flag, displayed in the year 2004, some 140 years after the actual conflict ended, may stand for some long forgotten Southern pride issue. It may stand for the struggles that people in the Southeastern region of the United States suffered through and the wars that they fought.
It may stand for some perceived difference between the North and South, which apparently has persisted to this day, and may fondly recall the era of Southern dominance of the United States.
Woops, little mistake there. The South has never "dominated" anything. It is another region within the greater whole, just as it was then and remains so today. As for the "Not Hate" part of the bumper sticker, a more laughable statement I cannot recall. There are far too many damning coincidences that will forever relegate the Stars and Bars to the level of racist propaganda.
Why is it that hate groups all over the country, to this day, fly the Confederate flag as a symbol of their ideology. White Supremacist organizations,
, the sad, pitiful remnants of the Klu Klux Klan, along with many other neo-Nazi and racially motivated groups all include the Confederate flag amongst their symbols of worship.
Is this coincidence? Are people who fly the Confederate flag, be it in bumper sticker form or on the end of a flagpole, trying to align themselves with such openly evil and backward-thinking organizations? I don't think so. I think that people fly the flag to recall the once glorious Confederated states of America and celebrate their history, while at the same time somehow overlooking the racial implications inherent in the very symbol they hold so high.
Make no mistake. Whether you choose to recognize it or not, the fact remains the same: The Confederate flag is a racist symbol. It was during the Civil War, it remains so today. I challenge anyone to show me an African-American person with a Confederate Flag bumper sticker or "The South will rise again" written in their computers screensaver.
Is this a coincidence? You would sooner find a swastika flying outside the Israel embassy as you would a Confederate flag flying at an N.A.A.C.P rally. To me, the symbols have long been morally relative to each other. Both stand for hate, oppression, and the wanton murder and destruction of a group of people because of some perceived inferiorities. Plantation owners in the South, before and during the Civil War, treated slaves the same way they treated horses and sheep.
They were not human beings, quite the contrary. They could be bought and sold like farm equipment and with as much compassion. So to during the Nazi era in Germany; Jews were not considered people in the same way that German citizens were, therefore their wholesale murder could be justified. Anyone who cannot see the glaring similarities between the Confederate flag and the Swastika needs to pick up a history book and do some research.
If you care to display a symbol that represents the brutality and viciousness and lack of humanity that was involved in something like the slave trade, as the Confederate flag clearly does, you are entitled. The first Amendment to the Constitution allows you the freedom to display just about whatever you care to, but consider this. If you are going to fly the Stars and Bars, don't sugar coat it. Don't downplay the racial aspects and idealize the cultural aspects. They are one in the same.
Be up front and honest about your feelings. Confederacy= Hate I think would be a far more realistic bumper sticker, and as we speak I am in negotiations to have a number of said bumper stickers produced. Let us just call a spade a spade and forget about the "Heritage not Hate" nonsense. It is hateful, you know it is, and beating around the bush about it only takes away from the power of the argument. Let the responsive mud slinging commence!
it's almost 4AM!
free dixie,sw
it's almost 4AM!
free dixie,sw
Yes waaaaay past my bedtime *LOL* good night!
Look at the giant picture of his hero.
A traitor which murdered one of America's finest leaders when this nation was being torn in half, caused by the politicians representing the slave cotton empire.
Watch how none of the neo-confeds will repudiate 'bushpilot' postings.
No buzz lines here Mr. Mindreader. How long have you been a member of the thought police? You do NOT know your history. Segregation was EVERYWHERE in the country until the early 20th century --- yes, alive and well in places like NY, MA, PA, and NJ and everywhere else. As for slavery (another issue entirely) ... it was alive and well in Union States like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. THESE were the states unaffected by the Emancipation Proclamation. Your sweeping indictment of the south is obsessive and ignorant.
Yo is not in my vocabulary. I didn't take ebonics. And those that love their heritage have a place in conservatism. Who the hell made YOU the spokesperson for the Conservative movement? And don't be so sure about Ronnie Reagan either. Bet you didn't know he was an honorary member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Or that he was kin to JOHN H. REAGAN of Texas, Postmaster General of the Confederacy. You sound like a refugee from DU. Stay in your cesspool of New York and worship your God Hillary. And keep your nose out of the South.
Thanks Brother! :) I needed a new target for the range!
hehehe!
actually, since the GREAT seat of HATERS & ANTI-Semites is in the north, if i were you i'd keep my mouth shut about racism.
are you REALLY dumb enough to believe that lincoln, the GREAT spiller of INNOCENT blood, was a GOOD man, much less "one of America's finest leaders"?
lincoln was actually just a CHEAP,SCHEMING POLITICIAN and a SHYSTER railroad lawyer,who was NO BETTER than "slick willie klintoon".
had Germany won WW2, you'd believe that hitler was a saint. (the WINNERS write the history, after all and FOOLS believe whatever MYTH the government chooses to tell! and given the damnyankee penchant for institutional ANTI-Semitism, every bad thing in the world would be blamed on the Jews, as well.)
btw, getting killed does NOT wash away the EVIL done by anyone;the deeds during their life, rather than their manner of death determine whether a person was good or evil.
so go over to DU and peddle your HATEFILLED nonsense;they'll LIKE you.
free dixie,sw
Tex does Yo bother you? Well Yo, yo, yo :) How many times has your horse taken you to NY? Don't forget your hat on the way out.
The personification of the neo-confederate hate movement. The truth always comes forth it just takes a little time:
One of America's greatest leaders murdered by a coward
I have only had the misfortune of being there once. But then again, God is merciful........:)
Coward? I don't think so, you may recall that John Wilkes Booth died FIGHTING.
You Neo_Lincoln Loving types just don't get it. Lincoln was a TYRANT. And if you read my posts, I have NEVER made a secret of my loathing for the Great Dictator. And you can post all the pictures you want. I need targets for the shooting range.
By the way, as I recall, your "Good" Citizens of NY hung negroes from lampposts during the draft riots in 1863.....And the city contemplated seceding.....Sounds like the great "Dictator" Lincoln wasn't popular there either......
Next to Slavery, the South had been cursed by the importation of paupers and criminals who had been transported from England for England’s good, in the early history of the Colonies, to work the new lands.
The negro proving the better worker in servitude than this class, they had been driven off the plantations to squat on unoccupied lands, where they bred like the beasts of the field, getting a precarious living from hunting the forest, and the bolder eking out this by depredations upon their thriftier neighbors.
Their forebears had been paupers and criminals when sent from England, and the descendants continued to be paupers and criminals in the new country, forming a clearly marked social class, so distinct as to warrant the surmise that they belonged to a different race.
As the eastern part of the South and the administration of the laws improved, this element was to some extent forced out, and spread in a noisome trail over Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri.
While other immigrants went into the unbroken forest with a few rude tools and in the course of several years built up comfortable homes, theirs never rose above abject squalor.
The crudest of cabins sufficed them for shelter, beds of beech leaves were all the couches they required; they had more guns in their huts than agricultural or mechanical implements; they scarcely pretended to raise anything more than a scanty patch of corn; and when they could not put on their tables the flesh of the almost wild razorback hog which roamed the woods, they made meat of woodchucks, raccoons, opossums or any other "varmint" their guns could bring down. They did not scorn hawks or owls if hunger demanded and no better meat could be found.
It was this "White Trash" which added so much to the horrors of the war, especially in Missouri, and so little to its real prosecution. Wolf-like in ferocity, when the advantages were on their side, they were wolf-like in cowardice when the terms were at all equal. They were the Croats, Cossacks, Tolpatches, Pandours of the Confederacy—of little value in battle, but terrible as guerrillas and bushwhackers. From this "White Trash" came the gangs of murderers and robbers, like those led by the Youngers, Jameses, Quantrills, and scores of other names of criminal memory.
As has been the case in all times and countries, these dregs of society became the willing tools of the Slaveholding aristocrats.
With dog-like fidelity they followed and served the class which despised and overrode them. Somehow, by inherited habits likely, they seemed to avoid the more fertile parts of the State.
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P.S. The evolution of these historic 'dregs' are the 'rednecks' of today. It's indeed a sad commentary on how some actually like remaining in a backward condition.
The excerpt that you quote was probably written by a Northern author and published by a Northern publisher.
Have you ever BEEN to the South? You remind me of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin". She had never even set foot on Southern Soil.
First: I had an ancestor that fought with Quantrill, and later with the 24th Texas Cav. He was no "trash" as your author suggested. He joined the southern cause after the people he boarded with had been attacked without provacation and the three males in the family hung, the youngest 12 years old!
Second: Not every issue is as cut and dry as you think.
There were some abuses by slave owners, but not every slave was discontented. Some were content to a certain degree, hence the close bonds with their former owners after the war.
Read something a little more neutral in viewpoint, it might open your eyes a little.
Booth was discovered cowering in a barn. He was shot like the cur he was, and lingered for some time in horrible pain and discomfort. A fitting end.
He was not shot "cowering" but was shooting back.
Another revisionist history fantasy of yours Read:
Lieutenant Luther Baker (a detective) yelled, "Surrender, or we'll fire the barn and smoke you out like rats! We'll give you five minutes more to make up your minds."
Booth asked for time to decide. Finally, after some more give and take with the soldiers, Booth yelled, "Well, my brave boys, you can prepare a stretcher for me! I will never surrender!"
After a short time Booth said, "Oh, Captain, there's a man in here who wants to surrender awful bad." The barn door rattled, and David Herold's voice was heard saying he wanted to give up. Herold slowly came out and was slammed to the ground by the soldiers. He was hauled to a nearby tree and tied up with rope.
Still Booth would not come out. Using straw and brush, the cavalry set the barn on fire. Booth was visible to the soldiers because the barn was full of cracks and knotholes. They could see him moving about the burning barn holding his carbine and crutch (his left fibula being broken).
At this point a soldier, going against orders, shot Booth through the neck. Booth's body was dragged out of the burning barn. For a short time the dying man was placed on the grass near a locust tree. Soon, though, the body was moved to the front porch of the Garrett home. Booth was paralyzed and barely alive. (Library of Congress)
Some Cowering........
So where is the 'died FIGHTING' part? What happened? Booth couldn't shoot a man unless his back was to him?
You noticed that about him did you?
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