Hot rhetoric helped aggravate the situation in 1860-61 and the same issues can still inflame today. I hope nobody’s blood pressure is getting too high. We need all the healthy voters we can get for 2012.
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Well, Colonel, it will be a challenge. We've been under the influence of strong 'divide and conquer' politics for far too long. 'They've' proven it works, too.
One guy said it all, and I sure wish we'd listen.
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General Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca tribe, drew up the articles of surrender which General Robert E. Lee signed at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Gen. Parker, who served as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's military secretary was an educated attorney who was once rejected for Union military service because of his race. At the meeting, Gen. Lee was at first taken aback at the presence of an Indian being in such a position.
After he got to know Parker, Lee is said to have remarked to him, "I am glad to see one real American here."
Parker replied, "We are all Americans."