Jefferson Davis defied the laws of his government, and he became a
traitor. He left his job as a senator of the United States, and
allowed himself to be crowned president of the confederacy. Davis was
certainly not a noble man, being president, he was ultimately
responsible for all the deaths and ruin brought about by this unholy
war. But Evil? As far as I'm concerned, Jefferson Davis was just
another puffed up loser. No more and no less than Adolph Hitler or
Czar Nicholas II, or
chang kai shek, or many many others. So why do we spend so much of
our energy lifting Jefferson Davis up as if he were a fallen hero?
And by the way, Jefferson Davis is my great-great-great uncle. My
great grandmother Sarah Davis Hickman was his niece. But I feel no
kinship, nor a need to hold him up. He did what he did for his own
reasons, and he paid for them. Just as do each of us.
What should concern us, trouble our Souls, is the fact that those who
worship the likes of Jefferson Davis, are actually yearning for a
return to those long ago days. No, say what you will. But tell me
this, how many Black people do you know who hold up Jefferson Davis as
some fallen hero? Davis represents all that was ugly then. And
worshiping him today is simply a sign that bigotry and racism continue
to be seen as acceptable. And the same is true of the Confederate
Flag. And so is dressing up in the Losers Uniforms and play acting
that we are back in those "glory days". We are in deep denial if we
believe in any part of what the confederacy stood for.
When the Colonies took up arms against England, there were many local
folk who supported the King. But look around the history books and
tell me if you find any English Flags fluttering above local court
houses following the establishment of the Union.
Today, none of us have any control over who we are related to. Past
or present. In fact, none of us living today have any claim to that
short lived Confederacy. Some of my relatives fought for the Union,
and some for the Traitors. But that was what was going on back then.
We have no say, nor in fact do we really have a firm understanding of
the events and the forces at play back then. We have enough on our
hands sorting out today's mess.
Jefferson Davis was just a man who lived and went about his business
back in another time. And that flag, and all the other trinkets of
the Losers, should be tucked away for our grandchildren to see as a
backdrop to lessons about how our ancestors failed to treat one
another with respect. The flag now posted at the Charleston Court
House should be shown as a reminder to future generations, that once
upon a time our People did not know how to treat one another. That
flag represents the collective shame of All People in All of these
United States.
And upon you, uncle Jefferson Davis, I close the cover of the book.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/1/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Parry writes: "Unlike the Germans after World War II who collectively
> shouldered blame for the Holocaust and the war's devastation, America's
> white Southerners never confessed to the evil that they had committed by
> enslaving African-Americans and then pushing the United States into a
> bloody
> Civil War in their defense of human bondage."
>
> Supporters gather for a rally to protest the removal of the flags from the
> Confederate Memorial Saturday, June 27, 2015, in Montgomery, Alabama.
> (photo: Julie Bennett/AL.com)
>
>
> Confronting Southern 'Victimhood'
> By Robert Parry, Consortium News
> 01 July 15
>
> Many white Southerners are getting their backs up again over demands that
> the Confederate flag and other symbols of slavery be removed. But the core
> problem is that the South never admitted that slavery and then segregation
> were wrong, instead offering endless excuses, writes Robert Parry.
>
> Unlike the Germans after World War II who collectively shouldered blame for
> the Holocaust and the war's devastation, America's white Southerners never
> confessed to the evil that they had committed by enslaving
> African-Americans
> and then pushing the United States into a bloody Civil War in their defense
> of human bondage.
> Instead of a frank admission of guilt, there have been endless excuses and
> obfuscations. Confederate apologists insist that slavery wasn't really all
> that bad for blacks, that the North's hands weren't clean either, that the
> Civil War was really just about differing interpretations of the
> Constitution, that white Southerners were the real victims here - from
> Sherman's March to the Sea to Reconstruction. Some white Southerners still
> prefer to call the conflict "the war of Northern aggression."
> Indeed, Southern white "victimhood" has been at the heart of much bloodshed
> and suffering in the United States not only during the Civil War and the
> ensuing decades but through the modern era of the civil rights struggles of
> the 1950s and 1960s to the present bigoted hatred of the first
> African-American president and the coldblooded murders of nine black
> churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
> Dylann Roof, the alleged perpetrator of the Charleston murders, apparently
> was motivated by racist propaganda that highlighted incidents of
> black-on-white crime and led Roof to believe that he was defending the
> white
> race, under siege from blacks, another excuse used to justify the
> Confederate cause.
> Yet, the overriding reality has been centuries of white racist violence
> against blacks - from the unspeakable cruelties of slavery to Jim Crow
> lynchings to the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights
> leaders to recent police shootings targeting blacks.
> Considering that grim history, what is perhaps most remarkable about white
> Southerners is that they as a group have never issued an unequivocal
> apology
> for their systematic abuse of African-Americans, let alone undertaken a
> serious commitment to make amends. Instead, many white Southerners pretend
> that they are the real victims here.
> We see this pattern again with the white backlash against public calls from
> South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others to retire the Confederate battle
> flag and other pro-slavery symbols. This weekend, news reports revealed a
> rush among white Southerners to buy the flag and clothing items featuring
> the flag. And across the Internet, Confederate apologists rushed to reprise
> all the sophistry that has surrounded the pro-slavery cause for
> generations.
> In Arlington, Virginia, I encountered some of that when I again urged the
> County Board to petition the state legislature in Richmond to remove the
> name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from roadways that pass
> Arlington National Cemetery (founded to bury Union soldiers killed in the
> Civil War) and that skirt historic black neighborhoods in South Arlington
> (conveying a racist message of who's still the boss).
> Jefferson Davis's name was put on the stretch of Route One in the early
> 1920s amid a surge of Confederate pride, a period of increased lynchings of
> blacks, a growth in Ku Klux Klan membership, and release of the movie,
> "Birth of a Nation," celebrating the KKK as the brave defender of innocent
> whites endangered by rampaging blacks. In 1964, as a counterpoint to the
> Civil Rights Act, Virginia extended Jefferson Davis Highway to a roadway
> near Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon.
> 'Rankled' and 'Crazy'
> A year ago when I first suggested removing Jefferson Davis's name, the
> local
> newspaper treated my appeal as something of a joke, referring to me as
> "rankled" and prompting angry responses from some Arlingtonians. One
> hostile
> letter writer declared, "I am very proud of my Commonwealth's history, but
> not of the current times, as I'm sure many others are."
> A top Democratic county official confronted me after a public meeting and
> upbraided me for raising such a divisive issue when there were more
> practical and immediate issues facing the county. The official said the
> state legislature would think Arlington County was "crazy" if it submitted
> a
> recommendation on removing Davis's name.
> However, after the Charleston massacre, I wrote to the board again: "When
> even South Carolina's Republicans say it's time to retire old symbols of
> the
> Confederacy - especially ones associated with slavery, white supremacy and
> violence - isn't it time for Arlington County to petition the state
> legislature to rename Jefferson Davis Highway something more appropriate to
> our racial diversity?
> "As we've seen tragically in recent days, symbols carry meaning. They
> encourage behavior, either good or bad. And, in the case of Confederate
> symbols, it is clear how individuals like Dylann Roof interpreted them, as
> a
> license to murder innocent black people. As for Confederate President
> Davis,
> not only was he a white supremacist who wished to perpetuate slavery
> forever, but he also authorized the murder of captured or surrendering
> black
> soldiers of the Union Army, an order that was acted upon in some of the
> final battles of the Civil War.
> "There's even an Arlington connection to some of those U.S. Colored Troops
> murdered based on Davis's order. Some were trained at our own Camp Casey
> before marching south to fight for freedom. Some Camp Casey recruits fought
> in the Battle of the Crater in a desperate effort to save white Union
> troops
> who were being slaughtered in battle. However, after the fighting stopped,
> Confederate troops - operating under President Davis's order - executed
> captured USCT soldiers." [See Consortiumnews.com's "The Mystery of the
> Civil
> War's Camp Casey."]
> My letter continued: "As a longtime resident of Arlington, I have often
> wondered what we think we are honoring when we name a major highway after
> Jefferson Davis. Are we saying that we think slavery was a good idea? Are
> we
> saying that we believe in white supremacy? Are we saying that we favor
> murdering black people simply because of the color of their skin? What
> message are we sending to our children - and indeed perhaps to some
> troubled
> young people like Dylann Roof?
> "Please, finally, petition the legislature to remove Davis's name from
> these
> Arlington roadways - and keep at it even if it requires multiple efforts.
> It
> is way past time to do so."
> I have received no reply from the County Board. My guess is there will be
> the same timidity about riling up the Confederate defenders who will draw
> fury from their bottomless well of victimhood. When my letter circulated on
> some local message boards, it did prompt a number of hostile responses (as
> well as some supportive comments).
> But history should tell us that a grave injustice that is not confronted -
> that is allowed to lie dormant while its perpetrators nurse their imaginary
> grievances - will resurface in a myriad of ugly and destructive ways. It is
> best, albeit difficult, to take on the injustice and demand accountability.
> (Update: Sadly, some of the comments to this story only prove my point.
> Confederate apologists just can't bring themselves to admit that American
> slavery was one of history's great evils. Instead, they engage in endless
> sophistry, obfuscation, excuses and misdirection. The goal apparently is to
> confuse the topic and distract from the heart of the matter - that many of
> them still believe in slavery and white supremacy. If they don't, why don't
> they just say so.)
> Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories
> for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest
> book, America's Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book
> (from
> Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry's trilogy
> on
> the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for
> only $34. The trilogy includes America's Stolen Narrative. For details on
> this offer, click here.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
> valid.
>
> Supporters gather for a rally to protest the removal of the flags from the
> Confederate Memorial Saturday, June 27, 2015, in Montgomery, Alabama.
> (photo: Julie Bennett/AL.com)
> https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/29/confronting-southern-victimhood/https:
> //consortiumnews.com/2015/06/29/confronting-southern-victimhood/
> Confronting Southern 'Victimhood'
> By Robert Parry, Consortium News
> 01 July 15
> Many white Southerners are getting their backs up again over demands that
> the Confederate flag and other symbols of slavery be removed. But the core
> problem is that the South never admitted that slavery and then segregation
> were wrong, instead offering endless excuses, writes Robert Parry.
> nlike the Germans after World War II who collectively shouldered blame for
> the Holocaust and the war's devastation, America's white Southerners never
> confessed to the evil that they had committed by enslaving
> African-Americans
> and then pushing the United States into a bloody Civil War in their defense
> of human bondage.
> Instead of a frank admission of guilt, there have been endless excuses and
> obfuscations. Confederate apologists insist that slavery wasn't really all
> that bad for blacks, that the North's hands weren't clean either, that the
> Civil War was really just about differing interpretations of the
> Constitution, that white Southerners were the real victims here - from
> Sherman's March to the Sea to Reconstruction. Some white Southerners still
> prefer to call the conflict "the war of Northern aggression."
> Indeed, Southern white "victimhood" has been at the heart of much bloodshed
> and suffering in the United States not only during the Civil War and the
> ensuing decades but through the modern era of the civil rights struggles of
> the 1950s and 1960s to the present bigoted hatred of the first
> African-American president and the coldblooded murders of nine black
> churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
> Dylann Roof, the alleged perpetrator of the Charleston murders, apparently
> was motivated by racist propaganda that highlighted incidents of
> black-on-white crime and led Roof to believe that he was defending the
> white
> race, under siege from blacks, another excuse used to justify the
> Confederate cause.
> Yet, the overriding reality has been centuries of white racist violence
> against blacks - from the unspeakable cruelties of slavery to Jim Crow
> lynchings to the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights
> leaders to recent police shootings targeting blacks.
> Considering that grim history, what is perhaps most remarkable about white
> Southerners is that they as a group have never issued an unequivocal
> apology
> for their systematic abuse of African-Americans, let alone undertaken a
> serious commitment to make amends. Instead, many white Southerners pretend
> that they are the real victims here.
> We see this pattern again with the white backlash against public calls from
> South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others to retire the Confederate battle
> flag and other pro-slavery symbols. This weekend, news reports revealed a
> rush among white Southerners to buy the flag and clothing items featuring
> the flag. And across the Internet, Confederate apologists rushed to reprise
> all the sophistry that has surrounded the pro-slavery cause for
> generations.
> In Arlington, Virginia, I encountered some of that when I again urged the
> County Board to petition the state legislature in Richmond to remove the
> name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from roadways that pass
> Arlington National Cemetery (founded to bury Union soldiers killed in the
> Civil War) and that skirt historic black neighborhoods in South Arlington
> (conveying a racist message of who's still the boss).
> Jefferson Davis's name was put on the stretch of Route One in the early
> 1920s amid a surge of Confederate pride, a period of increased lynchings of
> blacks, a growth in Ku Klux Klan membership, and release of the movie,
> "Birth of a Nation," celebrating the KKK as the brave defender of innocent
> whites endangered by rampaging blacks. In 1964, as a counterpoint to the
> Civil Rights Act, Virginia extended Jefferson Davis Highway to a roadway
> near Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon.
> 'Rankled' and 'Crazy'
> A year ago when I first suggested removing Jefferson Davis's name, the
> local
> newspaper treated my appeal as something of a joke, referring to me as
> "rankled" and prompting angry responses from some Arlingtonians. One
> hostile
> letter writer declared, "I am very proud of my Commonwealth's history, but
> not of the current times, as I'm sure many others are."
> A top Democratic county official confronted me after a public meeting and
> upbraided me for raising such a divisive issue when there were more
> practical and immediate issues facing the county. The official said the
> state legislature would think Arlington County was "crazy" if it submitted
> a
> recommendation on removing Davis's name.
> However, after the Charleston massacre, I wrote to the board again: "When
> even South Carolina's Republicans say it's time to retire old symbols of
> the
> Confederacy - especially ones associated with slavery, white supremacy and
> violence - isn't it time for Arlington County to petition the state
> legislature to rename Jefferson Davis Highway something more appropriate to
> our racial diversity?
> "As we've seen tragically in recent days, symbols carry meaning. They
> encourage behavior, either good or bad. And, in the case of Confederate
> symbols, it is clear how individuals like Dylann Roof interpreted them, as
> a
> license to murder innocent black people. As for Confederate President
> Davis,
> not only was he a white supremacist who wished to perpetuate slavery
> forever, but he also authorized the murder of captured or surrendering
> black
> soldiers of the Union Army, an order that was acted upon in some of the
> final battles of the Civil War.
> "There's even an Arlington connection to some of those U.S. Colored Troops
> murdered based on Davis's order. Some were trained at our own Camp Casey
> before marching south to fight for freedom. Some Camp Casey recruits fought
> in the Battle of the Crater in a desperate effort to save white Union
> troops
> who were being slaughtered in battle. However, after the fighting stopped,
> Confederate troops - operating under President Davis's order - executed
> captured USCT soldiers." [See Consortiumnews.com's "The Mystery of the
> Civil
> War's Camp Casey."]
> My letter continued: "As a longtime resident of Arlington, I have often
> wondered what we think we are honoring when we name a major highway after
> Jefferson Davis. Are we saying that we think slavery was a good idea? Are
> we
> saying that we believe in white supremacy? Are we saying that we favor
> murdering black people simply because of the color of their skin? What
> message are we sending to our children - and indeed perhaps to some
> troubled
> young people like Dylann Roof?
> "Please, finally, petition the legislature to remove Davis's name from
> these
> Arlington roadways - and keep at it even if it requires multiple efforts.
> It
> is way past time to do so."
> I have received no reply from the County Board. My guess is there will be
> the same timidity about riling up the Confederate defenders who will draw
> fury from their bottomless well of victimhood. When my letter circulated on
> some local message boards, it did prompt a number of hostile responses (as
> well as some supportive comments).
> But history should tell us that a grave injustice that is not confronted -
> that is allowed to lie dormant while its perpetrators nurse their imaginary
> grievances - will resurface in a myriad of ugly and destructive ways. It is
> best, albeit difficult, to take on the injustice and demand accountability.
> (Update: Sadly, some of the comments to this story only prove my point.
> Confederate apologists just can't bring themselves to admit that American
> slavery was one of history's great evils. Instead, they engage in endless
> sophistry, obfuscation, excuses and misdirection. The goal apparently is to
> confuse the topic and distract from the heart of the matter - that many of
> them still believe in slavery and white supremacy. If they don't, why don't
> they just say so.)
> Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories
> for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest
> book, America's Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book
> (from
> Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry's trilogy
> on
> the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for
> only $34. The trilogy includes America's Stolen Narrative. For details on
> this offer, click here.
> http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
> http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
>
>
>
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