Dixie's dilemma

Athens Banner-Herald ^ | January 6, 2003 | Michael A. Fletcher

[SeeRushToldU_So]

My daughter is in the 8th grade and these T-shirts are very popular. I am waiting for something similiar to this to happen here.

[PistolPaknMama]

You seem to think that because what one wears is relatively unimportant in life or at least in school, then the government should dictate the matter. I think just the opposite.

Let me give you an example of "relatively unimportant." Some 40 years ago my father built a workshop on his property. Nice workshop...cement block, windows, a door that locked. Fast forward to 30 years later when we built another building on the same property to house two boats. We had to get a building permit from the local government and meet certain standards. This is not a public building where public safety standards have to be met. In other words it is "relatively unimportant" the quality of this shed since it has nothing to do with the public. It only needed to keep two boats out of the weather. Yet the government intervenes in this "relatively unimportant" matter and the shed ended up costing us about $15,000.00.

Where do we draw the line on "relatively unimportant" and government interference in private lives and private decisions.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

We don't see a lot of these here in Pennsylvania......lol

[varina davis]

It is the flag of a defeated nation that deserved to be defeated. There is nothing romantic about the lost cause. Slavery was evil; secession was illegal and treasonous.

Wow! Are you ever history challenged.

[maro]

No slavery, no Civil War. Without slavery, the South would not have developed into an agrarian, aristocratic society dependent on exports and imports from Britain. The imposition of high tariff rates by the Federal government would not have been perceived by the South as ruinous. Alabama would have developed more like Ohio, with the land owned by freeholders. There would have been no plantation culture, since without slavery plantations don't make money. (By the way, I find it somewhat strange that the descendants of poor Southern whites would wear the emblem of rich, snobby plantation owners who would have snubbed those poor whites at any social function. Slavery kept down the white man because it debased the value of white labor.) Now, would some group have eventually decided to secede for other reasons (like the Louisianans with their distinctive culture)? Maybe. It may be that the secession issue was an inherent drafting ambiguity in the Constitution that had to be decided by force of arms sooner or later. But nonetheless, I am confident that without slavery, there would not have been a Civil War as we know it.

[TexConfederate1861]

Ms. Davis:

Get used to it...he is one of the members of the WLAT Brigade...dedicated to bad-mouthing anything Southern or Confederate....

However Maam, My pen is at your disposal to combat the evil Yankee horde!

[PistolPaknMama]

The imposition of high tariff rates by the Federal government would not have been perceived by the South as ruinous.

Explain please. At the time the north invaded the south, the south was funding some 75% of the federal treasury which was being spent in the north as "industrial development." You don't call that ruinous?

Slavery kept down the white man because it debased the value of white labor.

The very reason for the race riots in NYC and exclusionary laws in the north. The yankees realized that free, or cheap, black labor meant no jobs for whites. They didn't want them either.

I am confident that without slavery, there would not have been a Civil War as we know it.

Then what kind of "civil" war would there have been?

[sarasmom]

Yall aint from aroun heah, are ya?

As a transplanted yankee, born and raised in the North,I understand your attitude, and I hope you can come to understand what the South considers the extremely offensive and naked hypocracy of the North.

This country endured a viscious and brutal civil war.The death toll was huge, on both sides.The actual battlefields were primarily located in the Southern states, who did indeed lose that war.Northern women were not brutally raped by invading soldiers.Northern homes were not burned to the ground.Northern landowners were not summarily deprived of family owned property.Northerners did not endure the decades of poverty and subjugation and the attempt of the "victors" to completely erradicate a society.

After all these years, one would think the North would get over their pride of victory and attempt to deal honestly with history and reality.

BTW, speaking historically on behalf of my Sioux ancestors,why dont you all get off my lands, and take your slaves with you?LOL!

Or am I, and my people, not an equally deserving minority who obviously would be mortally offended by the sight of a particular flag?

Stupid PC Barf alert.I get so sick of the inane worship of politics over reality.

[error99]

Thank You
Thank You
Thank You

[WFTR]

Exactly! In case I wasn't clear, my point was that I don't want young people broken to the idea that they should have to get government permission for everything that they do. The clothes that they wear are not important, but it is important that they learn to want a government that must justify itself to them and not become a people who think that they must justify themselves to the government.

I Resolve for a Free New Year
Bill

[x]

You need to document your claims. Grant's wife did have servants who were apparently her father's slaves, but you'd have to prove that she "brought along one of her slaves on all of her visits to Grant's headquarters during the Civil War." After 1863, they would not have been slaves in areas where slaves had been liberated. Some freed Southern slaves remained with their masters after after emancipation simply because they didn't know what else to do or where to go, or because they had some feeling for their former masters, or because their former masters didn't run them off. Why single out Mrs. Grant or apply the worst interpretation to her case?

As for Lee, he said he disliked slavery but thought it necessary, unavoidable and beneficial for the time being and for years to come. If all opponents of slavery were like him, there might still be slaves and slaveholders in the US.

[Morgan's Raider]

WOW! 70 posts and nary a cut'n'paste word from you-know-who. Ain't it been a(relatively) peaceful and, uh, 'civil' thread?

Well, hell, I ain't gonna conjure him up. Maybe he's playing opening act for algore's book tour.

[Morgan's Raider]

Never mind, "x" just stirred up the s**t pile.

[x]

Ban all message clothing at secondary public schools. It is a distraction from the essential purpose of the place. Ban all message clothing at secondary public schools. It is a distraction from the essential purpose of the place.

I don't think that would work in the public schools. The courts and lawyers wouldn't allow it.

There may be some public schools that require uniforms, but I'd be surprised. I doubt Clinton would have come out for uniforms in public schools if he thought it were at all possible to require them.

[Torie]

Actually some public schools do require uniforms, but they are magnet schools. I think there are some courts that have slapped the first amendment on clothing restrictions, or message clothing in public schools (although perhaps not magnet schools), but the decisions are silly and should be dumped. No one is restricting message clothing or clothing off school property.

[thatdewd]

After 1863, they would not have been slaves in areas where slaves had been liberated.

Out of curiostity, which areas were those?

[PistolPaknMama]

but it is important that they learn to want a government that must justify itself to them and not become a people who think that [young people] must justify themselves to the government.

Oh no, you made yourself perfectly clear! Thank you!

[PistolPaknMama]

As for Lee, he said he disliked slavery but thought it necessary, unavoidable and beneficial for the time being and for years to come. If all opponents of slavery were like him, there might still be slaves and slaveholders in the US.

Yes but Lee freed his slaves when he left to serve in the Army of Northern VA. Grant still held his slaves until they were freed by Constitutional amendment in 1867 (not by the "emancipation" proclamation.)

[PistolPaknMama]

nary a cut'n'paste word from you-know-who

Who? Who? WHO?

Don't respond. Yes he's off doing the liberal thang and creating discontent among the ill-informed masses...or is that massahs?

[PistolPaknMama]

Actually some public schools do require uniforms, but they are magnet schools.

I've never heard of "magnet schools." Where does one find a magnet school?