Dear Southerners:

[Minimalist]

You apparently would fit in fine in the south....of 150 years ago.

[arewethereyet]

That's true in a lot of places in NC.  I was born on the Outer Banks so the 'southerners' I experienced later in SC were quite a shock to me.  And they are still fighting the war...just ask 'em.  

It's odd, but I found Northern Virginia to be more like the South in places than North Carolina. Maybe it was moving from California and seeing "The South Will Rise Again" that spooked me.

When I saw signs posted every month for the KKK rally to be held - public invited - I was convinced that I had entered an alternate universe.  When I saw them marching down the highway, I nearly had heart failure.  

[Nope]

Another NC resident right here. Hello

When I was a teen, the KKK left leftlets on everyone's lawn. My grandmother threw them away before I could see but some kids in our class said they were invitations to join the klan. My neighborhood had people of all races so I have no idea what the hate group thought they would accomplish. Maybe they thought they would frighten people. That was in the 80's and I haven't heard anything else about them

[Polaris]

It's odd, but I found Northern Virginia to be more like the South in places than North Carolina. Maybe it was moving from California and seeing "The South Will Rise Again" that spooked me.

When I saw signs posted every month for the KKK rally to be held - public invited - I was convinced that I had entered an alternate universe.  When I saw them marching down the highway, I nearly had heart failure.  

Seeing as how I am part Syrian (and the fact it shows to the point people have walked up to me in public and mentioned it....last time was in Maryland), I should just grow my beard out and then walk by them with my middle finger fully extended.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Tell the shitheads, will ya?

Brotha, if you think I'm a loudmouthed asshole here, you don't know the half of it.


Things are changing, but it's not a battle, not even a war; it's a struggle, a knock-down drag-out, and that shit takes centuries, you know that much. 

---

The American flag is more racist than the Confederate flag as more evil focused on racial differences was ever done by the United States than the Confederate States and the American flag represents the United States.

Except that the US fought to eradicate the states' right to legalize slavery, while the Confederacy fought to uphold it, and thereby added 600,000 to the bloodroll of slavery.

[Polaris]

Tell the shitheads, will ya?

Brotha, if you think I'm a loudmouthed asshole here, you don't know the half of it.


Things are changing, but it's not a battle, not even a war; it's a struggle, a knock-down drag-out, and that shit takes centuries, you know that much. 

---

The American flag is more racist than the Confederate flag as more evil focused on racial differences was ever done by the United States than the Confederate States and the American flag represents the United States.

Except that the US fought to eradicate the states' right to legalize slavery, while the Confederacy fought to uphold it, and thereby added 600,000 to the bloodroll of slavery.

The North did not care about the rights of slaves...it was entirely a war based on states' rights and the North only changed its tune on slavery to entice slaves to revolt against the South.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Brotha, if you think I'm a loudmouthed asshole here, you don't know the half of it.


Things are changing, but it's not a battle, not even a war; it's a struggle, a knock-down drag-out, and that shit takes centuries, you know that much. 

---

Except that the US fought to eradicate the states' right to legalize slavery, while the Confederacy fought to uphold it, and thereby added 600,000 to the bloodroll of slavery.

The North did not care about the rights of slaves...it was entirely a war based on states' rights and the North only changed its tune on slavery to entice slaves to revolt against the South.

So, what right was it that the South was fighting to defend? The right for a state to determine its own foreign policy? The right for a state to not receive federal defense?

Oh, wait, it was for the right of the state to permit slavery.

What's truly pathetic about the "states' rights" revisionism is that assholes like you must actually ignore the Confederate Constitution in order to make your "argument".  You see, the Confederate Constitution forbids any Confederate state from abolishing slavery. How's that for "fighting for states' rights"?

Don't believe me -- look it up for yourself, and learn that you've been fed a line of revisionist bullshit. From the Confederate Constitution:

Sec. 2. (I) The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States; and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired.

Source: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp


In other words, the individual states of the Confederacy were not permitted to ban slavery.


Additionally, the North's change of position on slavery vis the Emancipation Proclamation was not moved in  order to encourage slave rebellion -- as a sensible reading of that document would reveal -- slaves in rebellious states were freed, but slaves in loyal states were not. Clearly, this was not to encourage rebellion, but to impose a moral casting upon the war, to claim the moral upper hand (especially when you consider the anti-slave feelings of the European countries which suffered from the Union blockade, this was designed to speak to European parliaments).


I'd suggest you learn a little history, and perhaps discretion in speech as well. There's little sadder than someone who is speaking obviously in ignorance.

[robvalue]

Southerners to Min:

"Best of three?"

[Brakeman]

Being a southerner myself, I would like to remind you of the true character of the south immediately proceeding and during the civil war. The south was exceedingly christian and nary a slaveowner missed church. While the civil war was overtly over slavery, in the homes of the southerners it was a war over theological interpretation and doctrine of god's ratification of slavery. When brother fought against brother in Tennessee, it was while screaming over a family bible.

Very little of the southern population owned a slave, slaves were always expensive. The small minority of slaveowners could not have had any political sway even in the deepest south if it hadn't been for the tacit support from god in the bible, and the racist preachers and pastors that took up the slaveowner's cause. The southern baptists split from the baptists for a reason, and that reason was the furor over the morality to own slaves.

[Nope]

Being a southerner myself, I would like to remind you of the true character of the south immediately proceeding and during the civil war. The south was exceedingly christian and nary a slaveowner missed church. While the civil war was overtly over slavery, in the homes of the southerners it was a war over theological interpretation and doctrine of god's ratification of slavery. When brother fought against brother in Tennessee, it was while screaming over a family bible.

Very little of the southern population owned a slave, slaves were always expensive. The small minority of slaveowners could not have had any political sway even in the deepest south if it hadn't been for the tacit support from god in the bible, and the racist preachers and pastors that took up the slaveowner's cause. The southern baptists split from the baptists for a reason, and that reason was the furor over the morality to own slaves.

Southern Baptists broke away from Northern Baptists over the issue of slavery.

http://www.civil-war.net/pages/mississip...ration.asp

This is from the Mississippi Declaration of Secession. 

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery - the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product, which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.

Even today, poor southerners tend to vote against their own interests as long as god is invoked. It shouldn't be surprising that southerners in the 1800's did something similar. 


East Tennessee wanted to break away from the south but was not allowed. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_in_the_American_Civil_War