To paraphrase American poet Shawn Carter, I just read a magazine that messed up my day.
The New Republic's Brian Beutler published a piece earlier this week calling on the United States to make April 9 a national holiday. Tomorrow will mark the 150 anniversary of Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse - a day that Beutler thinks should be called "New Birth of Freedom Day."
Beutler has put me in a bind.
I'm not a Confederate sympathizer, and I cringe every time I pass the giant Confederate flag on I-165 en route to Montgomery. But, Beutler's piece is bullying and heavy handed. It contradicts the very advice that he claims to adhere to; it sugarcoats the North's history on race; and his proposed name for a national holiday is laughable.
Condemning slavery and Jim Crow is the easiest, laziest form of progressive thought.
Congratulations, Mr. Beutler, you're right. Racism is terrible. Cue the fireworks. Look, objectively, we can all agree in 2015 that slavery and Jim Crow laws were wrong - but they also don't paint a complete picture of America's treatment of minorities both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Slavery and Jim Crow are also the only racial topics that are even adequately addressed in textbooks (yes, even Southern textbooks). It's every other American injustice that we gloss over.
The new birth of freedom? Hardly.
As Randy Newman writes in his song "Rednecks," the slaves were indeed free. They were free to be put in a cage in Harlem in New York City, and free to be put in a cage in the South-Side of Chicago and the West-Side, and free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland, and free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis, and free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco, and free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston.
More @ AL
It can be argued that "progressive thought" is an oxymoron. The word thought implies logic, rational deliberation, and the use of facts. None of this applies to liberals, for whom the primary force is emotions. Listen to a liberal and you frequently hear feelings as in "I feel", it makes me feel" or "don't you care", have a heart. When they do use "thought" it is usually as a means to justify a decision based on their emotions.
ReplyDeleteWhat they refuse to take into consideration is that emotions/feeling are subjective and subject to change. Advertising today is based on manipulating the emotions. You are encouraged to buy a product, not based on the merits of a certain brand (Ford vs Chevy, Coke vs Pepsi) but on a feeling you are suppose to have because you have that product.
I do thank Mr Beutler for the notion of a national holidy to celebrate "New birth of freedom day". I am gratiful that I was NOT drinking any thing at the time I read his comments. It was good for a belly laugh. Given the current depraved state of this country, he has zero clue as to irony of his statement.
Tell how free are we when you must pass through a security screening to prove you are not a terrorist when flying. How free are you when you are being spied on by your own government, even though you have done nothing to warrent it. How free are you when you are increasingly censorred in your speech or stating an opinion, lest it hurt somebodies feeling. How free are you when you can not practice your religious faith in your every day life. How free are you when the rule of law is ignored and those who knowingly violate the law go unpunished because of who they are or know? Go rob a local gas station and you will go to jail. Go steal 1.6 billion dollars of other peoples funds entrusted to your company and lie under oath before a congressional committe, and walk away smiling because you have friend in high places to protect you. How free are you when you can have your money and property confiscated by LEOs because it was "suspicous" but there was zero cause to think it was used or due to illeagal drugs. You were never changed with a crime, it was just taken from you and you must that it was NOT used in a crime for you to get it back. How free are you when the Federal Government enacts laws that dictate what kind of light bulbs you can use in your house, or how many gallons your toilet can hold when you flush it. How free are you when you are force to pay other peoples medical procedures, even though you object to it and consider it highly immoral and evil (abortion). how free are you when the Federal Government will send paramilitary armed men to stop you from freely buying a product that the other parties is willing to sell to you (raw milk). How free are you when you are forced to pay dues to a union as condition of employment? How free are you when the Federal Government tell you, you can not go on lands, parks or monuments that belong to the public. How free are you when, elected officals try disarm you and dictate what kind of firearms you are allowed to own, even though, you have never misused them or threatened any one with them.
And you average American, who in many ways is an idiot, has zero idea about what that war was fought over, except for repeting the offical line that it was about ending slaverly and how great a president Lincoln was. (Barf)
Great comment and I'll put it up. Thanks.
DeleteThat would bring forth a problem of monumental proportions.
ReplyDeleteThe yearly visit would expose the true history of the Confederacy and instead of delegating the Confederacy to the obscurity of red Necks would elevate it to become level with the Spanish American war(another inside job) and the Whiskey Rebellion (Washington's finest moments).
Hadn't thought of that. :)
DeleteWe need a holiday to celebrate the Confederacy. Not all the Confederate states
ReplyDeletesurrendered. Just Lee. Hail CSA!!
:) Yes, the government never surrendered.
DeleteAnd does he fail to mention this to be their first taste of unemployment? Even though we made a national holiday (Labor Day) of it? Progressives are close relatives to Muslims.
ReplyDeleteProgressives are close relatives to Muslims.
DeleteTwo peas in a pod.