Re: Take Down the Rebel Flag

On Fri, 18 Jan 2002 [email protected] wrote:
>         I forgot to add that 1. I'm 13 (that would explain the less than
> perfect grammar skills)

Yes, it would explain the less than perfect reasoning skills as well.

To be honest, I would not have known.  I've read many messages from people
3 or 4 times your age with even less perfect grammar.

> and 2. My definition of a Yankee. I guess I shouldn't
> be surprised that someone as "politically correct" as yourself would always
> abide by dictionary definitions.

It's considered "politically correct" to use a dictionary?  Where I come
from it's considered a necessary skill.

> When I called you a Yankee I figured you
> might have realized that I was not making assumptions, but merely mocking
> your anti-South attitude.

Next time you mock me, please mock me for something I am.  I am not
anti-South.  I've lived in the South since long before you were born (hey,
you're the one who brought up your age!) and I love it here.  Well,
except for the lousy traffic and corrupt politicians, but then that's
hardly a specifically Southern problem.

You make mock me, if you wish, for being anti-racist.  Are you
anti-racist?

>         I do have to give you credit for one thing though. You caught me on
> the "Yankee owned and operated" argument. I guess I didn't do all my
> homework. Regardless, the fact that the ships were either Yankee, Dutch,
> English, or Spanish owned still shows the South's noninvolvement (for lack of
> a better word) in the kidnapping of Africans from their homes.

Non-involvement in the international trafficking in slaves hardly
makes Southerners innocent in the slave trade (and I'm still not convinced
that no slave ships were Southern-owned, never mind if that's even
relevant).  At the very least they provided a market for slaves,
encouraging further trade.  Oh, let me guess, you subscribe to the school
of thought that the slaves were "better off" in the hands of genteel
Southern plantation owners than they would have been in darkest Africa?

The "Yankees" whom you deride made it illegal to own slaves, which the
Southern states saw as interference in their local affairs, seceeded from
the Union, yada yada yada.  I hope I don't need to recount the history to
you.

>         Oh and by the way, there still are many Japanese Americans that find
> it hard to be proud of the country that interned them or their ancestors.
> Many are still lobbying Congress for a better pay-back than the measly
> $20,000 they originally received.

Funny you should bring up reparations.  $20,000 is still more than any
slave or descendant of a slave has been given.  Make no mistake, Japanese
internment was wrong; but the very fact that they have at least been
considered worthy of *some* reparation says a lot about the
relative political clout of Japanese Americans vs African Americans.

And that still doesn't answer my point -- that there is no systematic use
of the American flag to intimidate Japanese Americans today, unlike the
rebel flag vis-a-vis African Americans.

Niel