Were Confederate soldiers terrorists?

Smarter Than All Y'All said:
The perception of racism is based upon the fact that other furloughed convicts also committed crimes after being released, but they aren't mentioned in the ad. Only the "scary-looking black guy" is.
Click to expand...

I was referring more specifically to the Jesse Helms ad.

I have no doubt that you are correct that political power-players tolerate the decision to appeal to some people's people's worst instincts in trying to get a rise out of the average voter.
 
If there hadn't been a south the modern day GOP would act much like modern Democrats and would probably face the Socialist or Progressive party in elections.
 
Bittermark said:
Then why should it just be a Confederate history month?

I'm OK with lamenting the deaths, but the Confederacy was a disaster for the south and the nation. There's nothing to be proud of there.
Click to expand...

I'm not really interested in the aspect of having a Confederate History Month, so much as not wanting people to whitewash or denigrate the participants in a historical event that profoundly impacted the country.

Holding it against people of the South, especially the soldiers, that their part of the country was the Confederacy is as juvenile as holding the existence of slavery in their era against our country's founders as an invalidation of their contributions.
 
Adam Weinberg said:
I'm not really interested in the aspect of having a Confederate History Month, so much as not wanting people to whitewash or denigrate the participants in a historical event that profoundly impacted the country.

Holding it against people of the South, especially the soldiers, that their part of the country was the Confederacy is as juvenile as holding the existence of slavery in their era against our country's founders as an invalidation of their contributions.
Click to expand...

Nothing I said can be construed against holding against the people of the south who do not worship the Great Treason.
 
Southern Man said:
If you are referring to this:

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988/willie-horton

I don't see that as racial or racist at all. Horton was a murderer and he should have been executed, not let out on weekend passes. The fact that he's black is irrelevant. In fact, I find it racist of you to suggest otherwise.
Click to expand...


The Massachusetts inmate furlough program that allowed Horton's release actually began under Republican Governor Francis Sargent in 1972.

In 1976 Democrat Governor Dukakis vetoed a bill to ban furloughs for first-degree murderers.

Confessed rapist John Zukoski, who had brutally beaten and murdered a 44 year-old woman in 1970, became eligible for furlough and was paroled in 1986.

A few months later he was arrested and indicted for beating and raping a woman.

Why didn't the Bush campaign mention the fact that the program began under a Republican?

Why didn't the Bush campaign use Zukoski as their poster child?

I wonder?
 
Adam Weinberg said:
It's certainly going to be interpreted as insensitive by many.

But there's no way to deny that the Southern states have a heritage of people who fought in the civil war. I wouldn't seek to delete that, and as Hunter says:

"Complicated historical questions have been whittled down to politically correct bromides, more digestible to children and politicians."

I added the emphasis because the statement amuses me.

I do think it's also offensive (though not to as many people) to cast off the recognition of war dead and veterans of our country's civil war based on whether they sided with the Union or the Confederacy. That's not in the spirit of reconciliation or respecting our country's history.
Click to expand...



I don't think it's merely about "honoring the dead". This is only my experience, but when I lived in the south I heard many people call the civil war "the war of northern aggression", and I heard many people, including highly educated people, say the nation would have been better off if the south had won.

I don't think they mean that entirely seriously, but I got the distinct impression that there has always been an overt effort in the south to whitewash their history, and to bestow honor and romance on the confederate cause.....honor and romance that it doesn't deserve.

There was a right side and a wrong side in the civil war. If someone died fighting on the wrong side, that's a tragedy for their family. But it doesn't make the cause they fought for honorable.
 
Dixie said:
It was a REPUBLICAN who emancipated the slaves... Abraham Lincoln!
Click to expand...

The only slaves freed by Lincoln were those in the Confederacy. In other words, he freed slaves in a nation in which he had no authority.
 
Adam Weinberg said:
No. The soldiers who fought for the Confederacy were absolutely not terrorists. They were engaged in a political rebellion, but the same could be said for our own Founding Fathers.

Roland Martin, whose opinion I generally respect, is way off base here. From his use of language, you would think he is one of those folks who confuses Al Qaeda and the actual terrorists who attacked us with every potential middle eastern adversary and militant we might face in Iraq and Afghanistan as a consequence of being there.

Jack Hunter (The Southern Avenger) had a piece not too long ago that speaks to quite the opposite of Martin's article, though he notes that in their contemporary setting, the Confederates were branded as terrorists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el4QAFgleKw&playnext_from=TL&videos=4zBGJ5znFHc
Click to expand...

Finally, a voice of reason in this thread.
 
Smarter Than All Y'All said:
The Massachusetts inmate furlough program that allowed Horton's release actually began under Republican Governor Francis Sargent in 1972.

In 1976 Democrat Governor Dukakis vetoed a bill to ban furloughs for first-degree murderers.

Confessed rapist John Zukoski, who had brutally beaten and murdered a 44 year-old woman in 1970, became eligible for furlough and was paroled in 1986.

A few months later he was arrested and indicted for beating and raping a woman.

Why didn't the Bush campaign mention the fact that the program began under a Republican?

Why didn't the Bush campaign use Zukoski as their poster child?

I wonder?
Click to expand...

That wouldn't have helped their agenda, which was to win an election. What does this have to do with the fact that you claimed the ad was racist when it clearly was not?

Sound like sour grapes since Dukakis lost by a landslide. That fool.

dukakis_tank.jpg
 
I am as southern as anyone. But I am also an american citizen and a patriot. I am glad the south lost the US Civil War.

Whatever you claim the reasons for the war may have been, to wish for the south to have won is treasonous thinking.
 
evince said:
I hate it that sooo many Americans defend and honor the people who would have torn this country appart to retain the power and finacial gain that owning other human beings gained them.

To pretend this war was about something else is spitting on this country we NOW have.
Click to expand...

The North kept slaves and used slave labor before and during the war...why was that if they fought against slavery???
 
I'm glad the Southern Democrats lost the war, defeated by Northern Republicans joined with patriotic factions of Southern Republicans fighting subversively.
 
Southern Man said:
I'm glad the Southern Democrats lost the war, defeated by Northern Republicans joined with patriotic factions of Southern Republicans fighting subversively.
Click to expand...

Since there were a variety of political parties on both sides, and virtually none of those are unchanged (if they exist at all), attempting to place blame or cedit with current political parties is nonsense.

Either be glad the nation remained intact or not. But to try and credit today's republicans with the victory, or blame todays democrats for the war is cheap partisan bullshit.
 
Your knowledge of Southern history is sorely lacking. Democrat flatlanders were slavers, and the Piedmont and especially mountain folk would have none of it.
 
Southern Man said:
Your knowledge of Southern history is sorely lacking. Democrat flatlanders were slavers, and the Piedmont and especially mountain folk would have none of it.
Click to expand...

My knowledge of southern history is excellent.

Tell us, are you claiming that the Piedmont area (and especially the moutainous regions) had no slaves solely because they disagreed with the institution???

Also, this is a nice attempt at diversion, but really doesn't address anything I said. Your partisan nonsense and refusal to actually debate an issue is getting old.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top