A Confederacy of Dunces, By GAIL COLLINS

[jefferson_dem]

A Confederacy of Dunces By GAIL COLLINS
April is the cruelest month. Or, if you live in Virginia, Confederate History Month.

The state is buzzing over Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proclamation urging citizens to spend the month recalling Virginia’s days as a member of the Confederate States of America. Although since McDonnell had previously turned April over to child abuse prevention, organ donation and financial literacy, perhaps it was O.K. to just pick your favorite.

The original Confederate History proclamation was a miracle of obfuscation. It did not even mention slavery. On Wednesday, the governor apologized for that and said that slavery “has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation.”

People, what’s our bottom line here. The governor of Virginia has decided to bring slavery into his overview of the history of the Confederacy. Good news, or is this setting the bar a wee bit too low?

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The love affair with all things Confederate is way more worrisome. Once again, it’s in to talk secession. The Republican attorneys general are lining up to try to nullify the health care bill.

“Many issues of the Civil War are still being debated today,” said Brag Bowling of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which led the push to get that proclamation in Virginia. That seems extremely depressing, as if we were Serbs stewing about what the Turks did at the Plain of Blackbirds in 1389.

Actually, a national discussion of Civil War history sounds fine — as long as we could start by agreeing that the whole leaving-the-union thing was a terrible idea. In the proclamations, it generally sounds as if everything went swimmingly until the part where the South lost and grudgingly rejoined the country.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/opinion/08collins.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

[lunatica]

1. It's that darned War of Northern Aggression

that happened after the South started it.

[tularetom]

3. If you ain't tough enough to finish a fight you started, lie about it

Every kid knows that.

[iamjoy]

4. Uh, The North Started It

if you listen to many Confederates, the Yankees started the war. The southern states just wanted to peacefully leave the Union. So, the Federal troops should have just quietly left the forts, etc on the land of seceded states. Heck, the Confederacy were willing to pay for the land, but President Lincoln wouldn't even discuss it. He sent the Navy to reinforce Fort Sumter and that was that.

History is often a matter of perspective, not absolute fact.

Me, I think the South did start it, but I am aware of the alternate viewpoint.

[lunatica]

5. How can anyone not be aware of the alternate viewpoint?

You made my point.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. History is written by those that are seen as the victors..

and they are not always compelled to be truthtellers..

Those that "lost" also have an interest in keeping the story favorable to themselves.


and the actual truth lies somewhere in between those two stories

[elleng]

2. Posted earlier.

Waste Land always gets my attention.

[nealmhughes]

6. Recalling Virginia's days as a member of the CSA, eh?

Let's see: armies stripping the fields bare, untold suffering on every side, slavery, blockade, the destruction of Petersburg and Richmond, poverty for generations, loss of its western territory, occupation and massive death. Division of the people on loyalist/Confederate sides, now what have I left out?

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Truth be told..there was no real "winner" in our Civil War......

[gorfle]

9. I agree.

And I often wonder whether America would have engaged in things like Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan had the States held more sway than the Federal government since the Civil War.