"An idea born out of emnity and spite…."
 
From: wildbill4dixie@yahoo.com
 
A friend turned me on to a "discussion" on a blog about one of the latest, but I’m sure not the last, boneheaded ideas to come down the pike. As with most such ideas, i.e., the renaming of streets, buildings, schools, holidays, etc, this one has to do with changing "Lee Jackson Day" in Virginia to "Virginia Heritage Day". It took a while for me to pinpoint exactly what is wrong with the idea of a "Virginia Heritage Day". It didn’t become completely clear to me until after I had stopped lambasting the various groups who are the usual suspects/troublemakers in such conflicts.True, there’s the renaming of a Confederate holiday that irks me, but there was something much much more. "Virginia Heritage Day" isn’t such a bad idea in and of itself. However, if you read this bozo’s column, you’ll eventually realize as I did, that the idea is born not out of celebration, but out of emnity and spite.
 
Bill Vallante
Commack NY
 
http://bearingdrift.com/2009/01/07/sign-the-petition-after-120-years-its-time-to-end-lee-jackson-day/comment-page-3/#comment-12325
 
Another column (and a poll) suggesting that a flag or symbol or statue or holiday be removed – and another gaggle of responses from the usual crowd of suspects who enthusiastically wave their little hands and vote in the affirmative….. Oy!? When will it end?
 
We have:
 
** The super-patriots, who point fingers and scream “TRAITORS”, not ever realizing that the country they claim to love so much was actually born in that cauldron of blood that most people refer to as “The Civil War”. There are dozens, if not hundreds of examples between 1789 and 1860 which clearly demonstrate that secession was indeed considered by many (if not most) Americans to be a viable option for any state, though not necessarily a desirable one. The secession option was taken off the table in 1865, essentially, when the one of the men you revile tendered his sword to a future U.S. President. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing depends pretty much on your own personal opinion/philosophy. What is a certainty however is that the country you purport to love so much was born out of that war. There is no treason involved here, only the bloody resolution of a question that had plagued the new Republic for over 70 years. The men on the pro-secession side are considered to be American veterans by the government they fought against and nearly 500 of them are buried in the Confederate section of Arlington National Cemetery. So stop pounding your chests trying to convince us that you are loyal, proud Americans. It only demonstrates your ignorance and you’re likely to give yourself some nasty bruises in the process.
 
**The Humanists and Social Progressives – “Oh! I simply can’t understand how people could think it was right to own a black man! Oh heavens! Oh heavens! Blah blah blah…” Take a pill and grow up already! Slavery’s been around for 4000 years and it has only recently become fashionable to moan about it having existed at all. In another (more enlightened) day and age, people of the present did not see fit to point accusatory fingers at past peoples and apply the standards of the present to a past age. Someone apparently has been putting “stupid pills” in the water supply however because this type of thing seems to have become very fashionable today. Face it, if you were really all that upset about slavery, you wouldn’t be pi**ing and moaning about it having existed 150 years ago, you’d be doing something about it where it exists today, (in Africa, as it happens), and we all know that you’re not doing that. And as far as people not believing that the “Negro” was the equal of the white man, once again I say, “Get over it!” That’s the way that 99.99% of white America felt at the time and that’s all there is to it. And when I say “America”, I mean ALL of America, north as well as south and ESPECIALLY the “nawth”…
 
“I have had the question put to me often: "Is not a negro as good as a white man to stop a bullet?" Yes, and a sand-bag is better; but can a negro do our skirmishing and picket duty? Can they improvise roads, bridges, sorties, flank movements, &c., like the white man? I say no. Soldiers must and do many things without orders from their own sense, as in sentinels. Negroes are not equal to this. I have gone steadily, firmly, and confidently along, and I could not have done it with black troops, but with my old troops I have never felt a waver of doubt, and that very confidence begets success……” General William T. Sherman, 1864
 
 “We do not like the negroes. We do not disguise our dislike. As my friend from Indiana said yesterday: ‘The whole people of the Northwestern states are opposed to having many negroes among them and that principle or prejudice has been engraved in the legislation for nearly all of the Northwestern states.’ “ Senator John Sherman, Ohio, 1862
 
**The Yankee Transplants from “Noo Yawk”, Noo Joisey” and elsewhere, most of whom have no interest in the culture of the people who built Virginia and whose ancestors have been here since colonial times, but who came instead for the warm weather, low cost of living and cheap real estate. You sold that big house up “nawth”, bought a bigger and more luxurious house in Virginia for a fraction of the cost and banked the remaining equity. Now, with plenty of money in the bank, and plenty of time on your hands, you can engage in your favorite sport – MEDDLING! Funny thing – historically, the Yankee has always seen fit to try and impose his values on Southerners and there are countless examples which would prove me correct. But, has anyone ever seen the reverse? When for example, was the last time you heard of a busload of Southerners getting off the bus in Union Square to protest the statue of General Sherman which sits there? The answer is “NEVER”! This, if nothing else, should give one pause for reflection.
 
**The Southern born apologists (or scalawags if you prefer), dying to show everyone what wonderful, open-minded people they are – I don’t know whether you guys are victims of the educational system or just brain dead. Most Americans have 80 years of existence behind them. You, on the other hand, have 350 years of history behind you – yet, you choose to throw it away. What can I say? If your ancestors came back to life, they’d either shoot you or “buck and gag” you. Personally, I’d pay money to see that, but sadly, it ain’t likely to happen.
 
**The “you lost we won get over it crowd”, who, in shooting off their big mouths, unwittingly demonstrate the shallowness of their life’s philosophy, which is, “winning is everything”…. Ok, let’s have a show of hands….how many of you would want a friend who only wants to be on the winning side? How many of you would want that kind of guy sharing a fox hole with you? Anyone? Anyone? ‘Nuff said.
 
Now, to the subject of “Virginia Heritage Day”. By itself, I don’t consider such a day to be a problem. A Southern born professor who I greatly admire, and a Sons of Confederate Veterans member by the way, is fond of telling his fellow Southerners to lay claim not only to the 1861-65 period, but to all of the South’s history. I could not agree with him more!  Virginia indeed has a long and glorious history and yes, there is more to her history than simply the War Between the States and therefore, much to celebrate. But the idea for such a day comes from the desire to kill off a part of Virginia’s history that many of her founding families still hold dear. It is an idea born not of celebration, but an idea born out of enmity and spite and a lack of regard for others.
 
Here’s the bottom line for – You don’t like “Lee-Jackson Day”? Then don’t celebrate it. A lot of native born Virginians do like it and do celebrate it and they have rights just like you do. In a day and age in which the chanting of “Diversity” has become an almost obligatory mantra your ignorance is most transparent, since the primary definition of the word means “variety”, which includes, among other things, a variety of “opinions”.  And (thankfully), there is no law anywhere which says that the people of a state, or a country for that matter, must hold the same opinions or hold the same things dear. To put it bluntly, that holiday is no skin off your nose. So give it a rest already.
 
“With the exception of a few honest zealots, the canting hypocritical Yankee cares as little for our slaves as he does for our draught animals.” Captain Raphael Semmes, C.S.A Alabama