CONFEDERATE THEME WOULD BE AT HEART OF ALL-MALE MILITARY COLLEGE IN BEDFORD COUNTY (TN)

The Nashville Tennessean ^ | 11 July 2002 | Maura Satchell

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Plans are under way to build an all-male private military college in Bedford County with strong Confederate ties. The Southern Military Institute, whose organizers received national attention when they publicly called for such a school to be built in the South in 1997, has received a zoning exemption to build its school on a 446-acre site just west of Shelbyville, Bedford County Planning Director Sam Riddle said ''All the necessary approvals at the county level were granted,'' Riddle said.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Fascinating. This is worthy of a little discussion here.

[TADSLOS]

First, he said, the school will be strictly privately funded

Better keep it that way, lest the usual pack of jackals catch wind of any hint of public funds and come a'running for a feeding frenzy.

[Commander8]

Well, now I know where I'll be sending my boys when they become teens.
Hoorah for Dixie!!!!

[Moose4]

This was all the rage back in 1997 around the time that the courts finally strongarmed VMI into going co-ed. I remember reading a lot about this on the League of the South's website. I had no idea it had progressed to this point.

In all honesty, having gone coed doesn't seem to have done bad by VMI and The Citadel, but I'm not that in touch with things at those two schools (have friends that went to VMI and a co-worker with a son at The Citadel). But having a Southern male-only option can only be a good thing.

I will now sit back and wait for the predictable hysterical reaction from feminazis, guilt-ridden Southerners, liberal transplanted Yankees...and the anti-Southron crowd on FR. :)

}:-)4

[CatoRenasci]

This proposed SMI holds itself out to be what The Virginia Military Institute was in some bygone golden age. It's supposed to exclude women and be "Christian." I'm a little suspicious the proponents would like it to be all white, too. Well, there were no women back in the Old Corps when I was a cadet in the 60's, but there were non-Christian cadets, including Asians, an arab or two and a good sprinkling of Jewish cadets. I had several Jewish Brother Rats who had Confederate and even Revolutionary ancestors. No blacks when I started, but the Corps integrated during my cadetship. So, this place looks quite a bit narrower than the VMI I knew more than 30 years ago, let alone VMI today.

On a practical level, there will be no ROTC and hence no real professional military training, just drill and some sort of cobbled together military exercises. Academically, the place is on a shoestring, so I don't expect it to be able to attract a particularly capable or distinguished facutly or obtain accreditation easily. On that basis, who would choose to attend such a place? If my Brother Rats were representative of the sort of men VMI draws, not many: I can only imagine half a dozen or fewer of my classmates who would have been attracted to a place like this SMI. So, I suspect the place would get middling to poor students who are ideologically/religiously motivated. Hardly the sort of liberal education the founders of VMI had in mind or that VMI provides today. It was recently ranked by USNews as the best public national liberal arts college in the US -- but at that it still didn't make the top 50.

[Arkinsaw]

and a good sprinkling of Jewish cadets. I had several Jewish Brother Rats who had Confederate and even Revolutionary ancestors.

The largest Jewish Military Cemetery outside of Israel is the Jewish Confederate Cemetery in Richmond.

[Catspaw]

Upon entrance to the institute, each student will be required to enlist in one of the U.S. military's reserve programs: the Marine Corps Reserves, the National Guard, or Air Force or Army Reserve.

How old are the students and how old does someone have to be to join the reserves?

[Arkinsaw]

Just another confirmation of Dr. Richard Nisbett's groundbreaking study proving that Southerners are indeed more violent than the rest of us.

Interesting. Does that include black Southerners? Cajun Southerners? Native American Southerners? Female Southerners? Seems sort of weird that all Southerners would have additional testosterone regardless of other factors.

It also sounds like someone thinks that this is necessarily a negative thing. I would say that its generally a good thing that your country at least have a few people with some testosterone otherwise you end up like the Kingdom of Berkeley.

[flying Elvis]

LOL, Georgia State University is hardly a bastion of southern white male masculinity. Only 26% of the students are white male Georgia citizens.

[Chemist_Geek]

It might be interesting to get in touch with the SMI faculty search comittee...

[sonofron]

then it's true, the average johnny can whip ten average billys(more yanks died in the civil war)

[cf_river_rat]

illuminati signed up 2002-07-07. (from his user profile)

Southerners are indeed more violent than the rest of us (from his post above)

That's just another confirmation that illuminati is more bigoted than the rest of us. The referenced article states that these students reacted more strongly when insulted. Nowhere is it indicated they reacted violently. illuminati, you purposely skewed the findings of this study and posted here to start trouble. Thanks for the link. Here is a quote from that study which you conveniently forgot to include.

Because of their closer identification with a culture that values strong personal reaction to insults, we expect high testosterone Southerners to tend more toward violence when insulted.

We expect indicates pure speculation, and no evidence is presented in this article to affirm this speculation. Contrarily, the study is actually centered around testosterone, not geographic origin. The "violent southerner" drivel you allude to is merely an aside to the true focus of the article. You should be ashamed of yourself for trying to disrupt this thread with bigoted conjecture and not facts.

Because of their closer identification with a culture that values strong personal reaction to insults

I, for one, feel insulted by your disruptive behavior. I believe our society needs more righteous indignation and less "tolerance" of so many of the insulting things we endure simply to avoid conflict.

Visit the Southern Military Institute web site here:
http://www.south-mil-inst.org/

[dvwjr]

Hmmm. SMI? It's been done. Just a cheap imitation of the real thing, the VMI. Just like this movie was a cheap musical re-make of the 1938 film classic "Brother Rat" starring Eddie Albert, Ronald Reagan, Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman and Priscilla Lane.

dvwjr
VMI '79

About Face

Warner Bros, 1952, Color, 93 minutes.

A musical remake of the stage play "Brother Rat." Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken, and Dick Wesson are cadets at the Southern Military Institute, where they find plenty of ways to get into trouble. Co-stars Virginia Gibson, one of the brides from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Light fare, but fun.

Producer: William Jacobs
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Screenplay: Peter Milne (based on the stage play "Brother Rat" by John Monks Jr. and Fred F. Finklehoffe)
Song Score: various
Choreography: LeRoy Prinz

Cast: Gordon MacRae [Tony Williams], Eddie Bracken [Boff Roberts], Dick Wesson [Dave Crouse], Virginia Gibson [Betty Long], Phyllis Kirk [Alice Wheatley], Aileen Stanley Jr. [Lorna Carter], Joel Grey [Bender], Larry Keating [Colonel Long], Cliff Ferre [Lieutenant Jones], John Baer [Hal Carlton]

Songs: If Someone Had Told Me; No Other Girl for Me; Spring Has Sprung; Wooden Indian; I'm Nobody (Joel Grey); Tar Heels; Reveille; S.M.I. March; They Haven't Lost a Father Yet


Poster Art, "About Face"


Theatre Art, *"Brother Rat" *

[ravinson]

Plans are under way to build an all-male private military college in Bedford County with strong Confederate ties... The school will display the Confederate flag and celebrate Confederate Memorial Day...

Might as well be true to the Confederate tradition and put this Nathan Bedford Forrest quote on their school logo:

"If we ain't fightin' fer slavery then I'd like to know what we are fightin' fer."

[dvwjr]

Damn. I just looked at the bigger picture of the theatre poster for the 1938 movie "Brother Rat". Look closely in the background at the two VMI "Cadets" on the shoulders of the others.

How could they have known? :-)

"In Glorious Black and White"
What marketing! Too bad the limited number of technicolor cameras prevented Brother Rat from being filmed in stunning technicolor. It almost happened. To think that "Bill the Bugler" was in the movie and still active when I was a cadet. Amazing.

[CatoRenasci]

Hmmmm. I noticed that and remarked on it to my daughters when I saw the cover on the video. One of my Brother Rat's father was rooming in 113, where Eddie & Ronnie, etc. were rooming in the flick, you can see his name "Harvey" on one of the rolled up hays in the movie. Remember in that far off day before widespread videos when the State (I think) showed Brother Rat the weekend before Christmas furlough and, with dykely encouragement, the Rats all trooped up town to see it?

I think I once saw that silly About Face on late night boob tube, but it was distinctly unmemorable. Much better was Mardi Gras.

VMI '70

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

It might be interesting to get in touch with the SMI faculty search comittee...

Hmmmm....could teach Spanish there! LOL.

[Budge]

Academically, the place is on a shoestring, so I don't expect it to be able to attract a particularly capable or distinguished facutly or obtain accreditation easily.

Stop and think a moment. It could mean that the socialists/liberal teachers/proffesors won't want to work at a school with a shoestring budget. They want the biggest bucks they can get to spread their hatred and lies about America.

There are some teachers/professors out there that actually believe in the United States, Bill Of Rights and the Constitution.

Perhaps SMI can draw from the later and teach young minds full of mush that the U.S. really isn't the great Satan, and that Capitalism is the foundation of this nation.

[Dante3]

According to Thomas C. Mades (The Washington Times, June 15, 02) more than 10,000 Jews fought for the Confederacy. Among the officer corps was Abraham Myers, a West Point graduate and a classmate of Lee's. The city of Ft. Myers wasnamed after him.