Dialogue
From: vaproto@optonline.net
Chuck,
Everyone who responded in the newsletter regarding the “black Confederate” issue was superb, especially my old friend “Wild Bill” Vallente (Commacks version of old Nathan Bedford). But you know, I have started to have real problems with the discourse today. I went to my Civil War Roundtable to hear a presentation by an author who wrote a book on Lincoln and the Constitution. Dutifully, I made some notes on the matter to be trotted out in the Q&A session. But when he began the lecture, he presented a “history” that was so far from what I recognize
as history – though it did have some of the same events, etc. – I soon realized that it would be pointless to listen to him never mind ask questions. So feigning an aging bladder, I made myself scarce and spent the next hour (they only gave me 40 minutes to talk about Mosby!) wandering about Barnes & Noble. I was able to hear, however, during the Q&A, his happy admission that Lincoln had made the President into a person worthy of obedience and never mind all those tiresome and problematic limitations. It was very nice to hear one member suggest that Adolf Hitler had achieved the same thing – and for the same reason! Maybe I should have stuck around for the Q&A!
In any event, the problem here is that “dialogue” today is impossible. It’s like trying to discuss subtle and complex matters with someone who speaks another language or comes from another world with no concept at
all of one’s interpretation of history. How can one discuss historical matters when the other person’s “history” has nothing in common with one’s own but the series of events – and those only on the most basic level – Lincoln was born….etc. This author presented his version of history as if it was the only version of history. True, he did present some points that I believed credible and certainly events might well be interpreted to mean at least some of what he posited, but these people present history as if it was a “given” and any question raised, no matter how well sourced and credibly argued is bluntly dismissed as “revisionist” and “neo-confederate”. One cannot “dialogue” or debate when only one point of view is permitted.
It is the same thing with this “black” question. Yesterday, a liberal(!) black commentator was fired from that leftist bastion NPR because he said something politically incorrect. Actually, because he had the temerity to appear on a “conservative” news station (and I might take at least some issue with that determination), apparently NPR was looking for an excuse to let him go. Why do I bring this up? Because we can argue the existence of black Confederates, loyal slaves, noble servants and proud Southern blacks until the Last Trump – and it won’t make a damned bit of difference. It won’t matter to the “black community”; it won’t matter to academia; it won’t matter to “establishment” (hack) historians, it won’t matter to the media and it certainly won’t matter to the shivering, sniveling, white politicians who cringe and crawl before the NAACP, a group whom conservative blacks consider obsolete and having sold out to liberal politicians for power, money and a place at the public trough. All the proof in the world is going to change absolutely nothing! As Juan Williams found out, say what’s expected, do
as you’re told and agree with the new Plantation Hierarchy in DC or you’re out on your $600 slacks.
But there is more. I guess at 69 I’ve lost patience with trying to bring sense and reason to a population that doesn’t understand or want either. That author found no problem with Lincoln ending habeas corpus, using
the military to intimidate voters to insure his election, waging total war – including bringing destruction and death on civilians and non-combatants – and all the other monstrosities committed by Lincoln and his sycophant “government”. Indeed, he believed it to be a good thing albeit one person in the audience made the very rapid and proper connection between Lincoln and Hitler. In the same way, all the years and effort spent to “educate” black Americans to the facts about the war and slavery and so on finds us with blacks marching against a woman who was doing nothing more than flying the Confederate flag at her home, blacks throwing hissy-fits when any Confederate symbol makes it way into the public venue and all the rest of the letters, blogs, teachers,
administrators, corporations, politicians and entertainers who don’t even want us to display our symbols on our own property or person. It seems to me that our “educational efforts” – at least with the establishment institutions – is getting us nowhere. Oh, we have certainly gained the respect and sometimes the support of objective,
intelligent, rational people, but when such are put against the vast majority of mental zombies who respond to the battle flag as Pavlov’s dogs responded to a dinner bell, well it is obvious we are not getting very far.
So, what to do. I strongly urge that we forget these people! That we stop trying to wean the “black community” away from their liberal masters or trying to convince hack historians that Lincoln was not the Fourth Person of the Trinity or demanding that our educational establishment actually learn something or allow their god of “diversity” to extend to us and not just the Black Panthers and the North American Man-Boy Love Association. Instead, we should put our time and money into legal defense of our First Amendment rights (while such things still exist) and otherwise, tell those howling haters in the cheap seats to f…ah, stuff it! This will leave us infinitely more time to further develop our arguments, viewpoints, historical facts, sources and etc. to present to those who actually might be willing to learn something.
Many years ago, one pundit asked the brilliant commentator, author and poetess Dorothy Parker to use the word “horticulture” in a sentence. Without skipping a beat, Ms. Parker said, “You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think.” I do believe that is true today as well. God knows, hundreds – nay thousands of our best minds and most noble characters have tried to lead “the black culture” and so many others to the well of enlightenment only to have them refuse not only to drink but even to look. Enough! The devil take them if they wish to continue in their ignorance. Let us spend our limited time and resources educating those who are willing to learn and stop spitting into the wind. Everybody knows what happens when you do that.
Valerie Protopapas
