The other day, I was sitting at a stoplight, behind a pick-up truck, spacing out. Tapping my fingers on the steering wheel to some silly tune on the radio, I noticed the truck’s bumper-sticker, with the words, “Secession: It’s The Right Thing To Do.”
I have to admit, my first impulse after seeing this bumper sticker was to drive around to the truck’s driver, roll down my window and yell, “Hey, moron, the South lost. It’s time to move on already, Einstein!” And in my younger years, I might’ve done so. (With youth comes a great deal of chutzpah and stupidity.) But I decided I wasn’t interested in endangering my life, so I just kept my mouth shut. When I drove by the guy a few minutes later, I did look at him rather dismissively, shook my head and sped by. I might’ve cut him off, too. (Old habits die hard.)
It’s been nearly 150 years since the start of the Civil War. It’s a fascinating part of our history. (Just ask Ken Burns.) But why won’t this thing go away?
To a degree, I understand Southerners’ need for preserving their legacy and heritage. I think I have a good understanding about why many people feel the war was not so much about slavery but about states’ rights and economic subjugation and such.
But how long can you hold onto something? Even I can’t hold a grudge that long! Especially because when all is said and done, we’re talking about owning human beings in a country that is supposedly founded on freedom and equality?
When I was in Louisiana a few years ago, a Baton Rouge native tried to explain it all to me. (Down there, they talk about the war like it was last month.) “We Southerners just never got over the war,” she said. “There was so much pain and anguish there. The cruelty and barbarism of the North is something we’ll never, ever forget. We just can’t. It’s in our DNA now.”
In your DNA? Secession? Maybe it’s just something a boy living in a Mid-Atlantic state and born to New York-bred parents can’t get. But to me, in an age when our president is African-American and our newest is Supreme Court justice is a Latina, talking about seceding from the Union seems about as archaic as gathering up rocks to toss in defense of stampeding dinosaurs.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/07/09 at 11:11 AM | Comments (3)
Comments
Alan—thank you for writing in your blog last week about “the avalanch of mail” you received in response to your article about the mysterious East Baltimore building. It made me feel very good that of all the letters published in the J.T.‘s print version last week, my father’s was chosen. He is 92, and his memory, apparently, extends back 81 years. He feels so purposeful when he writes these letters and sees them in print. So glad he got to share this with others. It is truly L’Dor v’ Dor.
Posted by joyce wolpert on 08/12/09 at 02:36 PMFace it Feiler, you’ll never be a redneck!
Posted by Frank on 08/12/09 at 10:45 AMYour lumping all Southerners into your bigoted basket is something I have come to realize is the trait of a person that hopelessly stupid. Stupidity cannot be cured. You seem to be one who is terminal. How sad for The Baltimore Jewish Times. I had hoped for better journalism.
Posted by Linda Steinhauser on 08/07/09 at 04:51 PM
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