Life isn’t measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away George Carlin? Vicki Corona? Maya Angelou?
Lately I’ve been a busy little camper talking about my amazement with the speed and intensity with which the protests over the death of George Floyd have advanced. Not just by the longevity of them, heading now into their third week with no let up or dwindling of crowds in sight, but also with the speed in which they have forced actual systemic change at the state and local levels as to how policing will be done going forward. The speed is nothing short of breathtaking.
One of the reasons for the speedy success of these protests is the incredible diversity of the crowds. Thanks to the wonders of cellular technology, the constant visual drum beat of black lives coming to a violent, unjustified end at the hands of police finally forced non black Americans to say, What the fuck?!? This has been going on for how long? And with the wind in their sails, and their brothers and sisters finally at their side, they’re doing the only intelligent thing there is to do. They’re pushing the envelope beyond police brutality, and into the roots of systemic racism itself.
Teri and I literally cheered last night when MSNBC switched to camera shots of a bunch of ordinary citizens in Virginia knocking the heads off of confederate statues before pulling them down. Ditto when NASCAR announced that they’re banning traitors rags from display at their races and on NASCAR properties. This lasting affection for a reviled and defeated ideology is something that I’ve never understood.
The statesmen and generals who led the confederacy were nothing more than common traitors. Period. Full stop. They led an armed insurrection against the United States, and were defeated. And yet, when it was over, instead of being tried and hung, they end up with statues and monuments? Explain the logic of that one to me, please.
And it’s not like these statues are deeply rooted in some long standing nostalgia. The vast number of confederate statues and monuments went up not during reconstruction of the following years, they went up during the struggle for desegregation, as a way of rubbing black noses in the fact that they were still second class citizens in some parts, and as a earning to watch their steps.
But as these symbols of bigotry and hatred come down, you know what you’re not seeing? You’re not seeing riot geared cops replete with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, charging in to save these sick, twisted symbols of white superiority. And you know what else you’re not seeing? You’re not seeing a phalanx of bed sheet clad morons streaming out of the darkness, ready to rumble to protect their precious toys. They’re safely ticked in their hidey-holes, darkly threatening vengeance that will never come.
I have always felt in my heart that the vast majority of Americans, regardless of age, race, or creed, were kind, caring, gentle people who believe in what’s right. For once it’s nice to see that my confidence wasn’t misplaced. The actions of these current days won’t fix everything, but it’s a start. For, just like choke holds will never return to policing once they’ve been banned, those statues will never rise to stain the landscape again. I recently tweeted that for my entire life the phrase taking back the streets meant the police clearing out protesters, and what a refreshing change it was for it to finally mean the entire community taking them back from the police. Change is coming, whether the racists and haters like it or not, there’s no turning back now. And thank God for that.
To know the future, look to the past.before the insanity of the 2020 election, relive the insanity of the 2016 GOP primary campaign, and the general election, to see how we got to where we are. Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange are available as e-books on Amazon, at the links above. Catch up before the upcoming release of the third book in the trilogy, President Evil III: All The Presidents Fen
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The statues mostly went up after 1915 – they’re intended to remind black people of their (alleged) place at the bottom of the social pyramid.
It’s like all the bases named for confederates were named after WW1.
My point exactly PJ…It isn’t like these are hallowed shrines dating back to the conclusion of the war…They’re intimidating by design…
And as others have pointed, those generals didn’t exactly earn the honor. John Hood in particular was a case of nonstop blunders. He was so reckless that he made Custer look strategic. It got him a mangled arm at Gettysburg and a shot off leg at Chickamauga. And yet despite needing to be strapped in the saddle every day, he still didn’t learn a damn thing. He thought marching on Tennessee would make Sherman break off his March To The Sea in Georgia. Instead, he ran into a fresh army of Union troops led by General Thomas, who kicked Hood’s ass so bad that the latter finally did everybody a favor and resigned.
Amazingly, he lived long enough to be done in by typhoid fever after the war, long before the fort got named.
Yes, the WW I-era names of confederate generals were intended to placate racists when the army needed to recruit black people by promising them equal consideration.
? anastasjoy, that’s awful! I had never heard that bit of history!
To southerners, the confederacy had the right to separate and form a new country, and the constitution says nothing about once in, there’s no exit. That is the Crips and the Bloods, and the Sharks and the Jets. You know, “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way, from our first cigarette to your last dyin’ day.”
But it was old Honest Abe, who insisted on preserving the union, and even said in a letter to Horace Greeley (8?22/1862) “I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. … If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”
Old Abe was morally right, but politically and constitutionally he had no solid foundation. Had it not been for the mood of the country at the time, he couldn’t have gotten away with it legally.
Yes, to the Union, the confederacy was traitorous, but it had the right to secede, there being no prohibition.
The sad and ironic part is that those who still tout the rebel flag, etc, are not descendants of the original slave holders, for the most part, but descendants of the “white trash and the caarpetbaggers who moved south after the war and failed to make good. That lumped them together as that group Lyndon Johnson so eloquently – in his way – described when he said:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”