Thursday, April 27, 2006

Glenn F-S Going PC

I mentioned earlier on that I agreed with the Eureka Reporter editorial (was it last week?) on same sex marriage. Good things don't last forever, though. Today, E/R Editor, Glenn Franco- Simmons, goes even further into the world of political correctness in this editorial and lashes out at people who display confederate flags.

He explains how so many people find confederate flags offensive and that it's insensitive to display them in public, likening anyone who would do such a thing to a racist bigot. He also calls the movement for secession (the Confederates in the Civil War) "treasonous".

Whatever, Glenn. While I'm not going to quibble over the fine points of how southerners felt about slavery or whether it was a civil war or War of Secession. I'm just fed up with this PC thing people have about being sensitive to everyone on every issue.

A lot of people are offended by the sight of one thing or another. If we keep trying to appease everyone's sensitivities, no one will ever be able to display anything, anywhere. Heck, seems to me we're almost there now.

I actually saw a confederate flag on a car in Henderson Center, myself, the other day. I wonder if it was the same one Glenn saw? Didn't think much of it except for wondering what message the driver had in mind when he put it on his car. Other than that, it didn't bother me in the least. For those who were bothered by the sight of that flag; Get over it.

"We should have freed the slaves first and then fired on Fort Sumter."
Confederate General James Longstreet, Gettysburg, 1863

8 Comments:

At 12:50 PM, Blogger Anon.R.mous said...

Thank god you got to this first Fred, I was all ready to cover this PC crapfest. The more I hear about civil war was over slavery, the more I believe my tax dollars are wasted at public schools.

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1862


I was much pleased the with President's message. His views of the systematic and progressive efforts of certain people at the North to interfere with and change the domestic institutions of the South are truthfully and faithfully expressed. The consequences of their plans and purposes are also clearly set forth. These people must be aware that their object is both unlawful and foreign to them and to their duty, and that this institution, for which they are irresponsible and non-accountable, can only be changed by them through the agency of a civil and servile war. There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. While my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more deeply engaged for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy. This influence, though slow, is sure. The doctrines and miracles of our Savior have required nearly two thousand years to convert but a small portion of the human race, and even among Christian nations what gross errors still exist! While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who, chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day. Although the abolitionist must know this, must know that he has neither the right not the power of operating, except by moral means; that to benefit the slave he must not excite angry feelings in the master; that, although he may not approve the mode by which Providence accomplishes its purpose, the results will be the same; and that the reason he gives for interference in matters he has no concern with, holds good for every kind of interference with our neighbor, -still, I fear he will persevere in his evil course. . . . Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom have always proved the most intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?


Robert E. Lee letter dated December 27, 1856

And for the record, no, I do not have any rebel flags in my home.

 
At 1:00 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Thanks for the quotes.

I read somewhere that General Grant once said that, if he thought the war was about ending slavery, he would have fought with the confederacy.

 
At 2:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am one of the most UN-PC people around. It's a bunch of crap for the most part.

Yes, we can be sensitive to certain issues in certain circumstances, but for anything and everything just so no one gets upset?

Look at children's sports teams. Some leagues do not even keep score of the games so neither team wins or loses. Part of growing up is learning how to be gracious when you win OR lose. I guess people forget that same lesson applies to many other areas in life. So we get the PC-parade.

 
At 3:32 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

Agreed.

 
At 6:39 AM, Blogger Nick Bravo said...

The flag is a symbol of rebellion against the state. Nothing to with slavery. Course I watched Dukes of Hazard when I was little so I saw it as a symbol of rebellion long before the PC teachers got to me.

 
At 7:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

slavery is unacceptable. secession is not, and that's what glenn is really afraid of since california would be the first state to break free!

 
At 1:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know - Oregon might beat us to it. I've heard more talk about succession coming out of Oregon than California.

 
At 4:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My family was orignally from the south and were John F. Kennedy liberal democrats. I was raised that slavery was bad but that the war was about states rights and seccession. Glen needs to lighten up.

Ever read up on R.E. Lee - makes for some interesting reading in that Lincoln asked him to head the army, but he declined because he was from Virginia and needed to stay that way and for him the issue was states rights.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home