Tonio
Asperger's Poster Child
The other day I saw a bumper sticker that had the Confederate battle flag with the message "Fighting Terrorism Since 1861."
Now, I can understand the feelings of today's Southerners who see the flag as a benign symbol of regional pride. I happen to disagree with them, because it wasn't so long ago that the flag was the chosen symbol of those who used murder and violence to defend segregation. But on the whole, I think it's admirable to take pride in being a Southerner.
What I don't like, however, is equating the Union cause in the Civil War with the kind of murderous religious fanaticism embodied by al Qaeda. Not that I condone what General Sherman did to Georgia, but to compare him to Bin Laden seems unrealistic. Besides, the bumper sticker referred to the year when the war started.
In my view, it's a mistake to romanticize the Southern cause as some noble struggle for independence. The South seceded because slaveowners wanted to expand slavery into the territories and the Republican Party was opposed to any such expansion. True, the majority of the Confederate soldiers, the grunts, didn't own slaves. But the Confederate politicians and much of the officer corps, especially the junior officers, were very pro-slavery. (General Lee was a notable exception.) As I see it, the slaveholding aristocracy was using poor Southern whites as cannon fodder to feed its own greed.
(If I had been Lincoln in 1861, I might have been tempted to offer the South a deal: recognition of the Confederacy as an independent nation in exchange for the complete abolition of slavery.)
Now, I can understand the feelings of today's Southerners who see the flag as a benign symbol of regional pride. I happen to disagree with them, because it wasn't so long ago that the flag was the chosen symbol of those who used murder and violence to defend segregation. But on the whole, I think it's admirable to take pride in being a Southerner.
What I don't like, however, is equating the Union cause in the Civil War with the kind of murderous religious fanaticism embodied by al Qaeda. Not that I condone what General Sherman did to Georgia, but to compare him to Bin Laden seems unrealistic. Besides, the bumper sticker referred to the year when the war started.
In my view, it's a mistake to romanticize the Southern cause as some noble struggle for independence. The South seceded because slaveowners wanted to expand slavery into the territories and the Republican Party was opposed to any such expansion. True, the majority of the Confederate soldiers, the grunts, didn't own slaves. But the Confederate politicians and much of the officer corps, especially the junior officers, were very pro-slavery. (General Lee was a notable exception.) As I see it, the slaveholding aristocracy was using poor Southern whites as cannon fodder to feed its own greed.
(If I had been Lincoln in 1861, I might have been tempted to offer the South a deal: recognition of the Confederacy as an independent nation in exchange for the complete abolition of slavery.)
Ever see a woman sit in a hoop skirt?