Posted on 12/18/2004 10:02:21 AM PST by Ellesu
"If the National Park Service wants to honor blacks being free from slavery and blacks getting the right to vote, that's fine," said Michael Givens, first lieutenant of the state division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "Just don't do it under the pretenses of Reconstruction."
...
Givens, of the SCV, said Reconstruction was a terrible time for Southern whites, who he said were "punished" by Northern whites, or "carpetbaggers," who came South. "The genesis of bad relationships between the races is Reconstruction," rather than slavery, Givens said.
Some people have the idea that the quarrels over the Confederate Battle Flag are about history or heritage against Orwellian efforts to control the past. The problem is that those who defend the flag are every bit as much interested in controlling and determining just what the historical record is, and excluding inconvenient facts. Givens wants monuments and memorials to represent just his own militantly revisionist understanding of history, and it's hard to see what separates such a flag defender from the angrier and more embittered opponents of the CBF.
The question of just who is falsifying or distorting or changing history isn't as easy as some would make out. Plenty of people who didn't have a voice when Confederate monuments went up have one now, and use it just as the SCV and other groups always have. I doubt it's a matter of one side rather than the other wanting to "erase" history. It's just a result of living in a country where more people have a say in what we remember.
Like the way they did "Iko Iko" though.
LOL!
We can't do the 30 foot poles here because of the by-laws and covenants. I tried to disband the HOA here, but there are a few who love to intrude on others and their property. A couple of us then joined the HOA in order to make it as inactive as possible. I fly flags off my deck unless there is bad weather or we are away.
Yes, however, I don't hear anyone from the south calling for the ban of anything. It is one side wanting to ban flags, monuments, street names, etc. It seems to me that the southerners have not protested or called for the banning or removal of anything "northern." You appear to be taking the middle ground (somewhat) on this issue, but there is a difference when one side wants to erase any vestige of the other.
i DESPISE HOAs. period. end of story.
the "workers", employed by ours have a habit of stopping school-age children & asking them FAR too PERSONAL questions about their parents & their "home life".
can you say, "PRIVACY INTRUSION", children? SURE you CAN.
free dixie,sw
Amen brother!
a friend of mine MAY have stopped that "practice" over the weekend. he called the HOA office & told the "nice lady" that if he heard of HIS children being asked questions about THEIR home life, that his wife would make a "personal visit" to see "the questioner".
i KNOW his wife & she gives new meaning to the term, "SCORPION" when aroused.
trust me, you wouldn't want "a personal visit" from Bonnie! LOL.
free dixie,sw
I have to wonder what type of questions those were... I cannot believe how some of these HOA types act. I have a neighbor who lived in a townhome when he was first married back in the late 80's. He told me that the Architectural Control Committee used to carry clipboards and walk around the neighborhood (even in the back yards!!) noting changes that were not approved. It's a damn good thing I didn't live in that neighborhood. I would have physically removed them from my yard and it would not have been pretty!
These are questions that can probably be resolved in a calm and moderate way, even though some groups on both sides take extreme positions on such questions for propagandistic reasons, like fund-raising and membership drives. If the pro-CBF groups seem to be less controlling now, it's because they were in control for over a century, and they determined what was built and what wasn't. So now the more radical of them don't act so much to take things down as to try to prevent new monuments -- like the Lincoln statue in Richmond or the projected National Historical Park commemorating Reconstruction -- from being established. But some of them are as radical and as determined to impose their vision as anyone on the other side.
I can understand why some Southerners are so upset about efforts to take down flags and monuments. But it is a two-way street. Plenty of what the most militant Confederates say is offensive to others, even to those who don't otherwise have a strong opinion about the Civil War. To say that Reconstruction and Black Suffrage weren't closely related or that enmities between Black and White can be put at the door of Reconstruction, and slavery be more or less ignored, as the SC SCV man does, is to take a wrong-headed view of things, and it calls one's opinion on other issues into question.
We're seeing forms of this type of activity all over the place. The ten commandments are suddenly being removed from courtrooms after being there for generations. Nativity scenes that have been placed in certain areas for 200+ years are now suddenly not welcome. Crosses are being taken down in certain buildings and town sqaures. It's the same thing. These neo-leftist-idealists are practicing a form of censorship and they have their "thought police" out in full force to ban or protest anything that does not conform to their ideals. As for the Confederate flag being used by hate groups, let me remind you that the KKK has marched under the American Flag for well over 100 years and slavery was conducted under the American flag. We do not equate the American flag with racism - and rightfully so. Those who truly know the history of the Civil War know that what is being advertised by the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume, etc is simply not accurate. Unfortunately, too many Americans are afraid to challenge these folks on anything for fear of being called the "R" word.
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