Cyrano Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sat May-23-09 09:07 AM
Original message
Should Obama send a Memorial Day wreath to a monument in Arlington that honors confederate soldiers?
Edited on Sat May-23-09 09:09 AM by Cyrano
There’s a monument in Arlington Cemetery which honors confederate soldiers. Starting with Woodrow Wilson, American presidents have sent a wreath to this site on Memorial Day.
Should Obama send one? Let me sum up my opinion as succinctly as possible. No.
The goal of the Confederacy was to destroy the United States. And when they failed, and the freed slaves were getting to “uppity,†an ex-Southern general founded the KKK which many southerners willingly joined.
“Jim Crow†is the name that was applied to the practice of Southern bigotry after the Civil War. It wasn’t slavery, but it sure as hell didn’t stop the endless lynchings that took place anytime a black man dared to look at a white woman. Or let a bunch of rednecks pull off a Saturday night lynching just for the hell of it. Or dared to do anything, anywhere that some bigot found offensive.
For a few centuries, the American South was a really ugly, dangerous place to be if you weren’t a white Christian.
Lyndon Johnson’s “Civil Rights Act†and “Voting Rights Act†supposedly put an end to this crap once and for all. But try telling that to the ignorant wingnut elements of the Republican Party (many, if not most) who still “honor†the South with their despicable rebel flags on their pickup trucks and flying in their town hall squares.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of the ignorance, bigotry and hatred that existed, and to too large a degree still exists today in what was once the Confederacy.
So someone really needs to explain to me why President Barack Obama should send a wreath to a confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery? (For that matter, why is there even a confederated monument in Arlington?)
I bet Cyrano was expecting to be canonized for this post, but... Yeah, let's see how that would look: the first black President not laying a wreath for Confederate soldiers, who were granted status as American soldiers before Obama's father was born in some godforsaken monkey-eating country.
WeDidIt (1000+ posts) Sat May-23-09 09:12 AM
Response to Original message
1. I can name three reason why he MUST send the wreath
Edited on Sat May-23-09 09:12 AM by WeDidIt
1) Florida
2) North Carolina
3) Virginia
Many people who voted for Obama in those three states had ancestors who fought on the side of the Confederacy, and they are very proud of that heritage.
Besides, it would show how big of a person Obama is.
In other words, it's all politics, all the time.
Zomby Woof Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat May-23-09 09:32 AM
Response to Original message
9. Federal law was changed in 1913
Under U.S. law, Confederate Veterans are officially the one and the same as all other U.S. Veterans - given the same full legal status in terms of benefits, burial rites, and so forth. Hence, the reason this rite started under Wilson.
It was an act of reconciliation. By this point, veterans from both sides of the war were dwindling in number. They often attended reunions at battlefields, as friends. When the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in 1922, Confederate Veterans had front row seats alongside Union Veterans.
This was an American war, fought by Americans. The law as it was changed in 1913 was a measure to acknowledge that great sacrifices were made on BOTH sides, by American soldiers and sailors. Sending a wreath recognizes this simple fact, even if the (self-)righteously indignant among you do not.
As for some other points in your post, keep in mind that Nathan Bedford Forrest disbanded the Klan when they went too far with their violence and aims. Any version which continued after him (it was a spent force after Reconstruction, until being revived in the 1920's in Indiana - not exactly a southern state) was without his approval. Forrest opened a school for ex-slaves, by the way. He knew there was value in business by having an educated labor force. He was a racist, to be sure, but no worse than Lincoln, if you actually do any research on this subject. Forrest would have scoffed at the idea of colonization.
Racism was (and sadly still is) a national and global phenomenon. Don't think for a moment when black Americans went north to escape the oppression of the south, that they were welcomed with flowers and candy. A quick read of Malcolm X's autobiography offers some insights there. Also, James Loewen's book on "Sundown Towns" reveals that the north and midwest were supremely unfriendly to black Americans, as they were heavily populated with such types of towns. The territory of Oregon? Off limits to black settlers. Eventually, the Washington Territory was created out of Oregon's northern half, and black Americans did settle there - the first one to do so was named George Washington Bush, incidentally (history has a sense of humor).
There are many other fallacies in your outraged diatribe, but I learned long ago that one can't reason about these things with those who have their minds made up.
So yes, I think President Obama should send the wreath. That would truly bring the point of reconciliation home.
Holy shit, Zomby must be on some new meds, because that a-hole is one of the most rabid DUmmies in history. Still:
Cyrano Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat May-23-09 10:02 AM
Response to Reply #9
14. I'm aware of most of the facts you've stated.
However, my hostility stems from modern day Southern politicians and the rural, uneducated, uninterested people who vote for them on a regular basis.
Do your really think that Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, and so many other (rural areas) of many southern states have arrived at the 20th Century (not to mention the 21st)?
No matter how much I might want to reach out a hand of reconciliation, do you really think I'd pull back anything but a handful of spit?
I've lived in the South. And the past ain't over yet. Hopefully, it will someday end. But not as long as each generation keeps passing on their historic hatreds to succeeding generations.
Sounds like Cyrano got caught at the Sonic with someone's dick in his mouth. Cyrano, you ****ing imbecile, this was dealt with in 1913. Almost 100 years ago. Your argument is MOOT. Not to mention you're an asshole with a broad brush.
What a DUmbass Cyrano is.
