Lil’ Ol’ Disagreement in the Deep South
I’m torn. Kay Ivey, Governor of Alabama said with respect to the public celebration of Confederate war “heroes” who fought so bravely to preserve the institution of slavery, “We don’t need out-of-state liberals telling us what to do.” OK, so should I be angered or amused? I feel both ways at the same time.
It’s funny that someone who runs a state that ranks #46 in healthcare, #47 in education, #48 in economic opportunity, and #46 in safety (due to the preponderance of inter-racial hate crimes) would suggest that she doesn’t need help pulling her part of the country up out of the gutter, whether that help comes from liberals, Buddhists, nudists, flutists, sexual prudes or radical dudes, ancient Druids or bodily fluids.
At the same time, as someone pointed out on Facebook, Ivey (who succeeded the faaahhn southern gentleman Governor Robert Bentley when he was arrested and plead guilty to two violations of campaign finance law, the second Alabama governor in the last 25 years to be convicted of crimes and removed from office), appears not to understand what the U.S. Civil War was about. Given the ethos of the state, slavery might still be legal in Alabama today if it weren’t for the intervention of “out-of-state liberals.” Apparently, Ivey believes that Alabama has every right to remain a cesspool if it so chooses, and it makes me quite angry to hear that this level of stupidity and hatred lies at the very top of one of our state governments.
(Pictured above: Ivey and Roy Moore, whom she vigorously supported in his failed bid to become U.S. senator when Jeff Sessions became attorney general)
“Society is like a stew,” Edward Abbey once said. “If you don’t stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.”
It really is true. Think of the character of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. Two of the most arrant sociopaths on Earth.
Craig,
In your moral outrage and sanctimony, you appear to have little knowledge of the causes of the US Civil War.
Slavery was not the only origin of the civil war, it became a popular cause during the war and exploited by the Unionists to justify the war once the Northern Sates became victorious.
Colonel Robert E Lee, probably summed up the attitude of the true origins of the when he was offered command of the Union Army. Although Lee opposed secession, and slavery, he though of himself as having a first loyalty to his State of Virginia, when Virginia seceded from the Union, he had no alternative but to fight for Virginia.
The complexity of issues involved in the origins of the civil war are often lost in the propaganda of the winning side, and the popular misconceptions of history often created by the judging the way people thought in the past by present day attitudes and values.
I’m a descendant of one of the few conservative families who helped William Wilberforce and his campaign to abolish the slave trade.
The UK never actually had slaves, Somerset v Stewart (1772) decided no slave the condition of slavery did not exist under English law).
in 1807, William Wilberforce persuaded parliament to pass the Slave Trade Act, abolishing the slave trade throughout the British Empire and on the high seas. In 1833 the Slavery Abolition Act abolished slavery as an institution and British West Indies land owners received compensation totaling £20 million.
Members of my family served on board ship of the Royal Navy which enforced anti-slaving by force of arms, including intercepting slave ships from Europe, United States, Barbary pirates, West Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. These ships, especially US slavers, were often heavily armed and resisted capture, sometimes sought aid from naval units of the national indentiy.
No one who listened and was inspired by the message of Dr Martin Luther King jnr could ever use the terms of belittlement and divisive contempt you employ toward Governor Ivey, or the people of the State of Alabama.
Most of the Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil were courageous and sincere, most behaved well and believed in the cause of States Rights. The overwhelming majority had never owned a slave, (only about 6% of Southerners owned slaves).
It was a time when people living the older states with less industry and far less immigration, still believed loyalty to the United States was of less importance than loyalty to ones own State.
Most regarded interference by the federal government in the internal affairs of individual states as an attack of the state and it’s people by ‘foreigners’.
No one want’s to be told their great-grandfather was ‘evil’ and they should live in perpetual shame for actions that occurred over 150 years ago.
In the UK there are many Statues to Oliver Cromwell, a man who brought immense suffering and injustice to a large part of the population (including my family). Cromwell was a pretty tyrannical figure, but he’s part of the nation’s history and I don’t want his statues removed
There’s also a statue of George Washington Statue in front of the National Gallery in London.
The Statue was a gift from the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1921. George Washington was an large slave owner with more than 300 slaves. During his lifetime, George Washington actively opposed the emancipation of slaves. Should we remove his Statue in London ? What about statues of Washington in Los Angeles and other places in California ?
How about Statues of Andrew Jackson ?
Attempting to re-write history is very dangerous, especially when forcibly imposed by outside influences.
,
Re-writing history and refusing to celebrate historical villainy are two different things. Next time you’re in Germany, count how many memorials to Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Treblinka you see.
I don’t know what will happen to statues of Andrew Jackson, but I suspect they’ll eventually be removed from places where their purpose is to celebrate his greatness.