Doctor offers heritage group money for dorm name

CNN.com ^ | 19 May 05 | AP

[CurlyBill]

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A black doctor has offered $50,000 to a Southern heritage group to buy the naming rights to a Vanderbilt University dormitory at the center of a legal fight over whether it should be called Confederate Memorial Hall.

[lentulusgracchus]

So you're a Southern Unionist whose ancestors broke with their neighbors -- their States -- to make common cause with the Union, in memory of Andrew Jackson's vision.

That isn't a reason to despise other Southerners who just as validly looked back to Jefferson and recognized overweening theories of federal power when they saw them.

Lincoln's theory of Union was just Hamilton warmed over. The fly in Lincoln's ointment being that Hamilton's vision wasn't the one, in the end, that the People accepted. They specifically and explicitly rejected amalgamation into a nation-state.

That Lincoln made us into one anyway, by force of arms, without the People's consent and against our interest because the business community wanted it, causes us to draw what conclusions about Lincoln's politics of war instead of votes?

[lentulusgracchus]

Hey, that fellow has a Confederate flag and the word "redneck" painted on the window.

Maybe you should go in there and burn him out. For his own good, of course, so his children can hold their heads up.

[4CJ]

You're lucky! I had just about all of them in hardback, but now I have only one - the others were lost in one of our moves. Of course, now I can just mention what I want for Christmas or birthdays.

I love his books, even have "Safari" even though I'll never go on one. He is brilliant, and I learned much about Africa, her cultures and the mentality and courage of her inhabitants.

[4CJ]

That would be funny if you hadn't nailed it - it IS their attitude. A few here would prefer that ALL Southerners had been lined up and shot - men, women and children. They've said as much repeatedly on thread.

Maybe they are simply closet liberals, wanting our land and possessions for FREE.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Considering, the regional invectives thrown out on message boards, I'll admit my posting of the pic looks like a cheap shot upon all Southerners. The fact that I am from the South myself doesn't mitigate it a great deal, because of message board anonymity. Especially considering that my impression of the UDC is that of a heritage and not hate group, I'll admit I was guilty of a gratuitous impulse.

So you're a Southern Unionist whose ancestors broke with their neighbors -- their States -- to make common cause with the Union, in memory of Andrew Jackson's vision. That isn't a reason to despise other Southerners who just as validly looked back to Jefferson and recognized overweening theories of federal power when they saw them.

But I don't hate the Confederate soldiers who fought for honorable convictions in the 1860s nor their present day descendants who honor their heritage without hate. But my model of the Confederate movement of the 1860s is that of a lot of ordinary honorable Southern men from Robert E. Lee to the private rifleman being suckered to fight the slave oligarchy's battles. Lincoln is demonized for not being a 100% saint in his motives, but the underlying slavery cause behind at the first wave secessions in particular is often glossed over.

[lentulusgracchus]

Lincoln is demonized for not being a 100% saint in his motives, but the underlying slavery cause behind at the first wave secessions in particular is often glossed over.

Chipping a layer of white marble off Lincoln's legend is necessary to understanding what sort of politician he was, and how to appraise his policies and his methods. A number of Southern writers have undertaken the same work on Robert E. Lee, who was lionized by a claque of failed Southern generals seeking refuge in the shadow of the legend they sought to create. If Lee was a great general, great beyond reproach, a veritable Hannibal's Hannibal, and Lee failed, then how could they have been expected to succeed? This was not a good reason for exalting Lee, whatever his good qualities were, but it was done relentlessly by the generals who aligned themselves with the postbellum Southern Historical Society.

The problem of putting Lincoln in perspective is worse, since he was instantly pounced upon before his body had cooled by Northern politicians with a similar agenda to the Southern generals', or even worse.

Studying the Lincoln presidency and legacy, and that of Reconstruction, is like trying to do forensic examination of a corpse that has been cosmetically restored by someone who keeps trying to snatch the cadaver from your operating theater because a) they don't want you playing with it or disfiguring it and b) because they have something to hide and don't want you fooling around in their evidence.

[lentulusgracchus]

A few here would prefer that ALL Southerners had been lined up and shot - men, women and children. They've said as much repeatedly on thread.

Yes, I'm surprised they haven't been handed their papers by the mods. So to say isn't to express mere partisanship so much as pure hatred and odium.

Southerners' posts have been pulled for saying far less.