Honor Jefferson Davis? Hell NO!

Author Joshua Zeitz in his thoughtful article ‘Dixie’s Victory’(in The American Heritage Magazine, Sept. 2002), observed that although Confederates only got as far north as Pennsylvania, their “great-grandchildren have captured America’s culture”. Zeitz then went on to clarify pointing to NASCAR (a deep South hick sport if ever there was one) as well as “Country and Western music” (mostly pure heehaw garbage, though there are a few exceptions – like Johnny Cash whose songs crossed into Rock) and bible –punching fundie religion. In Zeit’z own words:

“In the mid-twentieth century the arrival of Southern rural traditions in the urban marketplace created a new breed of Southland culture that exploded onto the national scene. At the same time, the millions of white Southerners planting new roots in the North introduced the rest of the country to their conservative religious and political culture and to once-regional pastimes like stock car racing and country music. The consequences have been revolutionary.”

As I've noted before, most Southern idiosyncrasies (like NASCAR, country & western music, hayseed dancing) which I have zero use for, are more or less harmless pastimes, so I don't get off on thumping anyone for pursuing them, even fellow Yankees who embrace these "cultural affections" (afflictions?). I have much more serious issues with the (now much more extensive) embrace of pro-Confederate style politics, including trying to cut the government down to the scale it can't do anything - oh, except to create armies to occupy sovereign nations- and rendering public workers little better than modern day sharecroppers or slaves.

I have similar reservations about Southern-Bible thumping and hellfire (fundy) religion, which I believe is little better than the old Carnival barker charades that used to ply their way through old Southern and Western towns with their Bearded Ladies, Lizard men, and midgets...all to try and attract attention from the mentally feeble or gullible.

I have even greater problems with trying to dignify anything to do with the traitors that initiated the Secession from the Union 150 years ago, and I object to any attempts to glorify these miscreants now. Chief among them is Jefferson Davis, who rumor had it, surrendered to Yankee troops while disguised in a woman's dress! I'm not sure I buy this, but in a way it makes sense. Jeff Davis was just the kind of loathsome twerp and heavy-handed rascal to try such a means of escaping rightful Yankee justice.

Now, the latest insult from these losers is the news that last week, the Kentucky division of the "Sons of Confederate Veterans" (SCV), an organization composed of descendants of soldiers who fought for the South during the Civil War (and that attempts to promote a pro-Confederate interpretation of the war), proposed that the state issue vanity license plates bearing the images of the Confederate battle flag and Jefferson Davis, a son of Kentucky who served as the Confederacy’s only president.

This, obviously, is an abomination which can't be tolerated, "vanity plate" or no! Will these traitorous supporters ever get it into their heads they LOST the war? That instead of celebrating their odious leaders they ought to be hanging their heads in shame? Where does it end? I thought is was bad enough when, five years ago - in an issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Review, there was a section devoted to how Southerners were buying KKK outfits and Confederate Battle flags (and other clothing emblazoned with it), for....TODDLERS! How outlandish and over the top can you get? Don't these ignoramouses understand that the Rebel Battle Flag is an affront to all black people? It is an emblem of the slavery and abuse at the hands of the Southern slave owners? Do they need to be given history lessons anew to have this sink in?

Naturally and understandably, the Kentucky proposal has aroused a storm of protest in the state, particularly by African-Americans and black organizations such as the NAACP. One SCV spokesman, quoted by MSNBC, said that "the idea with the plate is that everything with the SCV is to honor Confederate soldiers, heritage and history, and the SCV and get this in front of the public". But there is NO basis to! These Confederates were traitors, especially their leaders like Jeff Davis and Stonewall Jackson. They all ought to have been hung like John Wilkes Booth. Why show these creeps any honor? Why use the plates and Jeff Davis images to insult black people across the nation?

The Louisville Courier-Journal has reported that Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville branch of the NAACP, said the Confederate flag "is offensive. It is an emblem that is mostly associated with the Confederacy and slavery. It is offensive to African Americans." Cunningham vowed to launch a legal challenge to the license plate, but the state’s Transportation Cabinet revealed that the SCV has yet to file an application for the plate.

Okay, but when they do may I suggest to Mr. Cuningham that he ask the Southern Poverty Law Center to handle this case and stop it in its tracks? Their website can be found at:

http://www.splcenter.org/

Make no mistake, the South - while we can allow it to entertain its idiosyncrasies, cannot be allowed to continue to flout its most corrosive values in our faces. Especially those that have attempted to justify both slavery and secession as some kind of "honor"!