Take the War North

Hind sight is 20/20. We now know that Lee should never have taken the war to the North. Let's face it: Gettysburg was the beginning of the end; just a real bad choice all around. But was Jackson wrong as he lie on his death-bed in asking the message to be sent to Lee to take the war northward? Yes and no. Yes, in that it was a military decision of monumentous import that turned out poorly. But no, for another reason:

The Book of Ecclesiastes says there is a time and a season for everything under heaven. It was not the time to take the war north, nor was their manner of warfare the correct one. To wit: today is the time, and the war of words and cultural genocide against Southrons is the form of warfare. Now, where is it, precisely, that I am going with all this?

Here is my premise: for the last 150 years the South has been blamed for the unconstitutional war Abraham Lincoln thrust upon us. We have been brow beaten and hen-pecked at every turn for our backward, stubborn opposition to false union (and "progress") and our nostalgic views of "magnolia and moonlight." We have been beaten over the proverbial head most of all for our "Negro servitude," our "peculiar institution," or (dare I say it?!) just plain slavery of Blacks. Old news, I know, but I'm going somewhere with this.

For a few decades now, many people have been openly embracing Southern Nationalism as a philosophy of politics and we're just plain sick of the "meddlin' Yankees" dictating to the South how to live her own life culturally and politically. We are beat over the heads in newpapers, magazines, TV and radio and now the internet by carpetbaggers and scalawags who want us to change our ways and renounce our past, our ancestors and our heroes. Some of us, of late, have been hankerin' for a way to really get up in the face of those damned meddlin' Yankees and their scalawag turncoat friends. Now, in a small way, I have one:

The official name of Rhode Island: The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Ever hear it put that way in a school book or class room? Yeah, me neither, until recently. A Black legislator took it upon herself to be offended at her State's name (on behalf of everyone else everywhere, no doubt). I understand it was largely her doing that got a ballot measure put on the ballot to drop the second half of the State's name. After all, "Providence Plantations," can only be a terrible reminder of her State's role in the slave trade! That terrible word, "Plantations," can of course only mean a slave owner's farm, right? Here's the facts, folks, during the Colonial Period, Rhode Island ended slavery, but many of her ships brought thousands of "Slave Coast" war captives to our shores for sale in other colonies (later States). Rhode Island was among the foremost to flag vessels for this explicit reason. Here's another lesson: a "plantation" was simply an English term for a farm where cash crops are grown, usually on a large scale. I may be wrong here, but I believe hemp was the reason for the usage of the word "plantation," not the presence of slaves.

Ever wonder how many slave ships flew any of the three national flags of the Confederate States of America? Precisely zero. There were no slave ships ever to fly the Stars and Bars, the Stainless Banner or the Blood-stained Banner. Not one. The importation of slaves was banned from the get-go in the Southern Nation.

Yet how many times have you ever seen Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or their ilk protesting outside the Rhode Island governor's mansion or capital building?  Same exact number: zero, nada, no-never-not-once. Where is the indignation? Where are all the offended Blacks? (So far I know of only one!) Why hasn't Ta-Nehisi Coats been screaming about this one in his drivel-filled columns? He knows better than to believe the historical record when it says there were Blacks who volunteered for the Confederate Cause. Where's Al Sharpton? He hasn't been complaining too loudly. Has his racist rat-smelling nose even picked up this scent so close to home? Jesse Jackson has not seemed to notice, either, and by golly, he knows for sure that Civil Rights still don't exist for people of color. If the race-baiting crowd can't clean up their own houses and back yards, how dare they come down to Dixie by the bus load and protest and how dare they set up boycotts? They certainly aren't invited by Southrons of any color.

To the meddlin' Yankee invader: GO HOME! You're not welcome in Dixie and you're not wanted in Dixie. Southrons are proud of their heritage, the blight of that peculiar institution, notwithstanding. We love our land and we long for the day when the program of Southern Cultural cleansing will come at last to an end so we can get on with the business of being a free and sovereign nation again. And that has nothing to do with the colors of our skins. It has everything to do with our Southern culture and values.