. . .
H1 “One hundred and fifty years ago today, Northern immigrants battled Southern serfs in Western Maryland.”
H2 “And they could not even agree on the name of the skirmish. The Northerners named battles after nearby bodies of water and Southerners after nearby towns. Antietam versus Sharpsburg.”
H1 “Given the outcome, the United States refer to it as Antietam. They still don’t agree on the name of the Great Campaign. The War of Northern Aggression or the War of Southern Terrorism.”
H2 “The war was always about slavery not state’s rights in the South. The stalemate in Miller’s cornfield and on Burnside’s Bridge was enough to cover for Lincoln to expand the endeavor from saving the Union to starting the abolition of slavery in the South and new states in the West.”
H1 “As they always say, tactically inconclusive but strategically significant.”
. . .
H1 “A person and a society are measured by whether property rights are protected or human rights are cherished. In the South, property rights were exalted; human rights were actively and systematically violated.”
H2 “Humans want to be free with perhaps some societal restraints to guide behavior, yet humans instinctively desire to colonize property and to enslave others. True to form, the colonists stole property from the Red man and denied liberty to the Black man. Civilization emerges when those impulses are restrained by mutual consent.”
H1 “You mean government. The colonists in America rebelled and obtained independence, yet slavery in many incarnations continued unabated.”
H2 “The caste system and class condescension continued in the South. The descendants of the English continued the subtle oppression of the descendants of the Irish and the Scots. Southern society was an extension of the rigid social and economic hierarchy in the British Isles.”
H1 “Blacks were slaves and three fifths of a human, the most perverse mathematical formula in the history of humankind. Most Whites in the south were indentured servants, share croppers, peasants and serfs. Servitude served up along a continuum. Despite their lower-class status, poor Whites could take comfort in their legal superiority over Blacks. That was a great palliative and motivator.”
H2 “From its adoption in 1791, the Bill of Rights rarely protected lower class Whites south of the Mason-Dixon line. The Thirteenth Amendment changed the laws on the books, but the Hundred Year War of Terror raged in the South from 1865 to 1965. Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 changed the legal landscape somewhat, although events on the ground changed slowly.”
H1 “Americans have tolerated Made In The U.S.A. terrorism on her soil for over two centuries. The South ante bellum and post bellum was and perhaps less so today is an aristocracy and oligarchy operated by and for a small elite.”
H2 “And nothing threatens ignorance like education. High schools and higher education in the South were reserved for wealthy white males. By contrast, in the North education is exalted. At the bequest and behest of Benjamin Franklin and others, the University of Pennsylvania was open to all citizens.”
H1 “Religiosity is provided to supplant free thought and ratiocination. Religion provides pat answers and precludes probing questions.”
H2 “The South also reveres the military because of the need to maintain internal discipline by force and fear and to repel threats and challenges to its medieval system.”
H1 “Lincoln and his fellow Republicans sought to maintain the Union over any other goal. For both strategic and humanitarian motives, he emancipated the slaves in two phases. His conviction and efforts maintained the Union. Now the Republicans campaign in the South and exploit anti-African American racism and fears of lawlessness among White voters.”
H2 “If the South had won the rebellion, the United States of America would have fewer stars and perhaps fewer stripes for the departed former colonies on its flag. The United States of America Sans The South would be a Blue Nation. Without all the government subsidies from the Blue States to the Red South States, the United States S.T.S. would have a less unbalanced budget. The South would be a White Mexico today.”
H1 “Funny how life turns out. The ‘Southern Strategy’ is an ironic development. The old Republicans freed the slaves and the new Republicans play on the fear of the freed slaves. In this election, the Southern Strategy is now the National Strategy.”
H2 “And look at wage rates. The public relations guys have a clever slogan – the ‘right to work.’ What they should say is the ‘right to work for a pittance.’ Keep them enslaved in subtle ways.”
H1 “Leaves you wondering whether anything really has changed.”
H2 “Demographics are destiny. Black and Brown are slowly trumping White.”
H1 “Old times there are not forgotten.”
H2 “Look away.”
. . .
[H1 = Historian 1; H2 = . . . ]
[September 17 is the one year anniversary of the Occupy movement and the four year anniversary to the day (Monday, September 15, 2008) when even those in power had to acknowledge the economic charade and chimera that was on the verge of collapse.]
[See the “e-ssay” titled “The Great National Dissolution: Resolving The Great Civil War (April 18, 2011)“]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Old times there are not forgotten; look away!
Mankind’s Motto: To Colonize And To Enslave
How many Virginians does it take to change a light bulb? Five. One to call an electrician, two to mix drinks, and two to talk about how good the old bulb was.
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