April 26 is Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia. The state also observes Robert E. Lee's birthday. I, for one, will not be joining the festivities. I view the idea of celebrating the Confederacy in any way the same as I would view celebrating the Third Reich. Yes, a lot of people died. It is deeply saddening that so many suffered. It is also deeply saddening that so many suffered because the Confederacy (and the Nazis) were dedicated to upholding a brutal system of white supremacy.

Politics Daily ran this column by Carl Cannon. I do not believe liberalism can protect democracy from Nazis or neo-Confederates, but I like his myth-busting analysis.

Why Liberals Are Right to Refuse to Honor the Confederacy
by Carl Cannon

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/12/why-liberals-are-right-to-refuse-to-honor-the-confederacy/

You wouldn't think, 145 Aprils after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, that we'd still be arguing about the causes of the conflict that led them to that place, and cost 620,000 Americans their lives. But we are, and arguing as well over a related question: Who should be honored – and who should be blamed?


Perhaps it is precisely because the price of keeping the union together was so dear that the passions endure, erupting every so often over one pretext or another. This month, the proximate cause of debate was the decision by Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia to keep a campaign promise he made to the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 2005, when he was running for attorney general.

McDonnell's six-paragraph proclamation declared April to be "Confederate History Month." The governor appears to have seen the offending document as innocuous, and much of it was, but it was underpinned by a sentiment that does not reflect a universal view among Virginians; namely, that it is important to pay homage to "the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War." The proclamation also had had an important omission, these critics asserted, namely any reference to slavery.

In the outcry that followed, including personal protests from some high-profile African American Democrats from Virginia who had bolstered McDonnell's 2009 Republican candidacy, McDonnell quickly made amends. A new paragraph was inserted into the document:

WHEREAS, it is important for all Virginians to understand that the institution of slavery led to this war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders, and the study of this time period should reflect upon and learn from this painful part of our history ...

This is a pretty thorough mea culpa, and as direct a refutation of Southern revisionism as anyone could ask for, so continued criticism of McDonnell from liberal Democrats can understandably be viewed as partisan posturing. But political jockeying notwithstanding, liberals are indeed right to confront this issue forcefully, whenever it arises.

McDonnell's edict was issued on April 7, the date in 1865 on which a weary Robert E. Lee, his crumbling and starving Army of Northern Virginia near collapse, answered a letter from General Grant by saying he shared the Union commander's desire to avoid the further "useless effusion of blood" and inquiring what the terms of surrender might be.

Those terms did not include humiliation, Lee soon learned. On April 9, the Confederate commander was informed that his men could keep their lives, their horses, their dignity and their sidearms – including a handsome sword that Lee, in a new buttoned-up Confederate gray uniform, wore by his side when the two men met at the home of Wilmer McLean. Union Gen. Horace Porter, a Medal of Honor winner (and later Grant's personal secretary in the White House), thought the swordless Grant rather envied Lee's "long sword of exceedingly fine workmanship, the hilt studded with jewels."

But it is a historic fact that Grant never asked for it; moreover, in his own memoirs, published in 1885, Grant noted that the famous story – still repeated in some quarters to this day – of Lee proffering his sword to Grant only to have his Union counterpart respectfully hand it back is "the purest romance." In fact, Grant added, no mention of sidearms passed between the generals: Grant simply wrote it out in the terms of surrender, which Lee accepted.

Those terms could not, and did not mean facing up to what they had done – and why – and dealing with it honestly. It is often said that history is written by the victors, but this is not strictly true. The most chilling account of Agincourt that I've ever read didn't come from Henry V's side, or even Shakespeare. It came from by a Flemish knight named Jehan de Wavrin, who rode with the French and whose father and brother were killed in the battle.

So it is with Sons of the South and their famous "Lost Cause." Brandishing selective quotes from Abraham Lincoln, citing slogans about "states' rights," and emboldened by hagiographic histories of Lee and his lieutenants, the Sons (and daughters) of the South have convinced themselves, and many others, of something that never was.

"To most soldiers in the Confederate Army, the war was not about slavery," writes a gentleman from Beltsville, Md., named Lawrence Ink in a recent letter to the editor of The Washington Post. "It was about patriotism for one's state. Most Confederate soldiers did not own slaves and were not fighting to protect slavery. ... Nor did President Abraham Lincoln initially view the war as about slavery. His objective was to preserve the union. Those who claim the war was only about slavery need to read some history."

Well, I've read a good deal of American history, and written some as well, and my belief is that it's important to confront this view forcefully because the claim that this conflict was not about slavery is wrong, deeply wrong, no matter how sincerely those who adhere to it may feel – or how bravely the rebels acquitted themselves in battle. Grant himself felt that he could separate his feelings of the Southern soldiers, including Lee, from the perverted institution that induced them to take up arms against their own nation.

"I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly," he wrote, "and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse."

And what exactly was that cause?

The answer is not to be found in any of the Douglas Southall Freeman's three-volume histories of Lee and his men or in Martha Mitchell's nostalgic recreation of the Old South. It can be found other places, however, if one looks a little deeper. University of Kentucky historian William W. Freehling called the decades' long argument over slavery in the U.S. Congress in the 1830s and 1840s the "Pearl Harbor" of the Civil War. In a brilliant book called "Arguing About Slavery," scholar William Lee Miller notes that what made this chapter in American history so compelling is precisely that there were no bombs as at Pearl Harbor. There were words many hundreds of thousands of them that, in the end, couldn't forestall the shells fired on Fort Sumter.

It was not a coincidence that the Civil War broke out there, in South Carolina. That state had always been been home to a special breed of Southern politician, men like Rep. James Henry Hammond, who said this on the House floor in an 1836 speech sarcastically castigating those who would confer freedom, or even common humanity, on blacks:

"Are we prepared to see them mingling in our Legislatures? Is any portion of this country prepared to see them enter these halls and take their seats by our sides, in perfect equality with the white representatives of an Anglo Saxon race ... to see them placed at the heads of your Departments; or to see, perhaps, some 'Othello' or 'Toussaint' or 'Boyer' gifted with genius and inspired by ambition grasp the presidential wreath, and wield the destinies of this great Republic? From such a picture I turn with irrepressible disgust."

Well, it took 172 years, but an African-American with a name a lot more exotic than Othello or Toussaint did indeed become president of these United States. And it was particularly tin-eared, historically speaking, for a member of that self-same South Carolina delegation to hector Barack Obama at last year's State of the Union address. In truth, James Henry Hammond's racist diatribe was milder than those by other Southern "statesmen" who stirred hate and fear among their countrymen in the days leading up to the Civil War.

Jefferson Davis, in a speech to the Confederate Congress in April 1861, extolled slavery as a benevolent invention that allowed a "superior race" to transform "brutal savages into docile, intelligent, and civilized agricultural laborers." Alexander H. Stephens, Jefferson Davis' vice president, proclaimed that Jefferson and the Founders' high-minded declarations of universal liberty were "in violation of the laws of nature." This was profoundly wrong, Stephens said.

"Our new government is founded on exactly the opposite idea," thundered the vice president of the Confederacy. "Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition."

This was the kind of thing said by a group of now-forgotten men called "secession commissioners." They were dispatched in 1860 from South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama to other state capitals in the South urging state legislatures to prepare for secession. These men outlined a bloody apocalyptic scenario of black rebellion and the attendant slaughter of whites – with frequent allusions to mass rape and throat-slitting. They invariably mentioned Haiti as the relevant example, and stated flatly that this is what Lincoln wished on the South.

"The [Haitian] Negro ... arose with all the fury of the beast, and scenes were then enacted over a comparatively few planters, that the white fiends [of the North] would delight to see re-enacted now with us," Andrew Pickens Calhoun – son of John C. Calhoun – said in Columbia, S.C.

"Our deliverance from this great danger, in my opinion, is to be found in the reserved right of the states to withdraw from injury and oppression." So said Gov. John J. Pettus of Mississippi in his own capital on Nov. 26, 1860. The "injury" he alluded to was the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. The "oppression" was Lincoln's avowed opposition to the expansion of slavery to any new states – a stance that was the organizing principle of the newly formed Republican Party.

In Pettus' speech that day, Lincoln's as-yet-unformed administration was referred to as "Black Republican rule." That phrase "Lincoln and the Black Republicans" was mentioned a thousand times by Southern politicians, and quoted faithfully in the Southern press. It is a reminder that the key issue in the 1860 campaign was slavery, that Southerners were openly discussing withdrawing from the Union before Election Day, and that secession was accomplished before Lincoln arrived in Washington. Indeed, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy before Lincoln took office himself. And all of this was brought about by the South's fears that slavery's days were numbered.

Secession, Pettus insisted, was the only way of escaping "Black Republican politics and free Negro morals," something he assured his fellow Mississippians that would turn Mississippi into "a cesspool of vice, crime and infamy."

Over in Charleston, the General Assembly authorized a convention in Columbia when word reached the capital of Lincoln's victory. Even before it took place, both U.S. senators resigned their seats in Congress and the Legislature appropriated money to equip an army of 10,000 men. John Archer Elmore, a native South Carolinian then practicing law in Montgomery, was dispatched as Alabama's secession commissioner. Lincoln's election, he told the delegates, was "an avowed declaration of war upon the institutions, the rights, and the interests of the South."

The sole institution he alluded to, of course, was slavery. Occasionally secession commissioners would mention "states' rights." But the only imperiled "right" they ever got around to mentioning was the custom of holding other human beings in bondage. There was nothing subtle about this, nothing genteel or evocative of "Gone with the Wind" in the contemporaneous appeals. Lincoln was routinely drawn in Southern newspapers with ape-like features, bent on the destruction of the South and even the white race itself.

"Our fathers made this a government for the white man, rejecting the Negro as an ignorant, inferior barbarian race incapable of self-government, and not therefore, entitled to be associated with the white man upon terms of civil, political or social equality," Mississippi secession commissioner William L. Harris told Georgia's Legislature. Lincoln, he said, was committed on a course "to overturn and strike down this great feature of our Union."

These accounts, and many others, are contained in a thin paperback volume of only 103 pages called "Apostles of Disunion." It was written by Charles B. Dew, a son of the South whose ancestors on both sides fought for the Confederacy. At age 14, Dew's father Jack – named for Stonewall Jackson – presented him with a .22-caliber rifle and the "Lee's Lieutenants" trilogy. Charles Dew grew up and became a professor of history at Williams College. His groundbreaking 2001 book was published by the University of Virginia Press, and in its opening chapter Professor Dew takes note of the 1998 flap over "Confederate History Month" then roiling Richmond under Gov. James Gilmore.

Using the words uttered by the South's secession commissioners and its elected leaders themselves, Dew debunks the myths he learned as a boy. Among those he quotes are William L. Harris, who had turned down an offer from President James Buchanan to serve on the Supreme Court. A native Georgian who was well known as an orator and debater, Harris ended his 1860 speech to Atlanta's secession convention with this florid oratorical flourish:

"Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish – the part of Mississippi is chosen. She will never submit to the principles and policies of this Black Republican administration. She had rather see the last of her race, men, women and children, immolated in one common funeral pyre than see them subjected to the degradation of civil, political and social equality with the Negro race."

That was the true face of the "Lost Cause." It's a hard one to credit. Yes, most men in the Confederate army did not own slaves. Many believed they were fighting for their honor, and out of love of their native states. Some, like Robert E. Lee, did so reluctantly. But that doesn't change either the nature of the rebel government under whose banner they marched, or the depraved institution that the Confederate government had been formed to perpetuate.

Thanks to the efforts of numerous groups including the Georgia Citizens' Coalition on Hunger, the Americus and Sumter Branches of the NAACP, and the Southern Center for Human Rights, private probation has been kicked out of Sumter County, Georgia. For background on private probation, check out this 2008 Mother Jones article. Details on the victory are below care of The AmericUSumter Observer.

Through many prayers, tireless efforts from Georgia Citizens' Coalition on Hunger, represented by Director, Minister Sandra Roberson, NUBIA Grand Hierophant Mr. Eugene Edge, and the Americus and Sumter County Branch of the NAACP, represented by President Matt Wright and his staff, private probation as we know it will no longer exist in Americus and Sumter County, Georgia. The pleasant winds of change that were championed by Judge Rucker Smith and the Sumter County Commissioners, produced a landmark decision to do away with private probation in Americus and Sumter County.

We spoke with one of the commissioners and were told that after the NAACP, and the other organizations met with the Americus City Council with complaints from citizens, some on probation and the unified front of organizations against private probation, the decision was made to remove the last private probation office. Final details have not been completely worked out, but we do expect private probation to be long-gone from our County and City no later than April 01, 2010.

NAACP President Matt Wright stated that "he was overwhelmed by the sudden move toward justice. I expected this to eventually come to pass, but not this soon." Wright also expressed thanks to organizers Anginette Dodson, Minister Linda Wright, Assistant Police Chief Nelson Brown, Colonel Eric Bryant, other volunteers and the probationers who were not afraid to stand-up for their rights afforded to them by the U.S. Constitution. President Wright also noted that there could be a possible problem with the Judge who presides over City Court and that he and organizational partners are getting ready to set up a meeting with the Judge to pursue the issues. Wright said that Minister Robertson said she and her organization were very pleased, and that Sumter County was the only area that she knew of in the state of Georgia that has successfully won the probation fight against private probation companies.

Grand Hierophant, Edge said that, "the effort was a continued struggle for us at the office and those who were probationers in the county. I am reminded of a saying from a great African proverb, "A life of ease will sometimes allow us to forget struggle; therefore we must always be reminded of what it took to establish justice for the probationers." Wright closed by saying, "there is nothing better than swift justice." The first private probation company in Americus, Middle Georgia Probation, was run out with the help of the Law Office of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, GA. Kori Chen, one of the organizers, assisted our local NAACP and the other organizations in removing Middle Georgia Probation. We are so very appreciative of their dedicated service to so many communities in Georgia, says President Wright.

This is direct from the Progressive Student Alliance. Notice the time is 10am and not 11am. Come on out and save public education.

As many of you know, there will be a demonstration against higher education cuts THIS MONDAY, March 15th at 10:00 A.M. at the Georgia Capitol. The Board of Regents and state legislators have noted that the cuts, at their worst, could include up to a 30% hike in tuition, $1,000 in extra student fees, increased furloughs, and up to 4,000 layoffs of campus workers. Campuses large and small across Georgia have mobilized local demonstrations over the past few weeks in reaction to this news and hundreds of these students will be coming together at the State Capitol tomorrow.

We hope you will join us for this historic event to show our strength at the Capitol and demand a just solution to this budget gap that does NOT include tuition hikes, more furloughs, more layoffs, and further cuts to the University System of Georgia. We must also avoid a "divide and conquer" approach that pits students against workers or areas of the public sector against one another (for example, cutting K-12 to fund higher education). We have arranged a number of wonderful and exciting speakers including fellow students, faculty, and state legislators, and after the demonstration we will hold a meeting to discuss the future of this movement, led by Georgia Students for Public Higher Education, and how YOU can get involved on your campus!

For those who would like to march from GSU campus, meet at Hurt Park (on Edgewood) at 9:30 AM.

We look forward to seeing you on March 15th for whatever portion of the demonstration you can make it to! Please come out and make history with us on March 15th at the Georgia Capitol! Local, state-wide, and even national media will be watching--show them we have big numbers and bring everyone you know out!

Georgia Students for Public Higher Education

(the GSU Progressive Student Alliance is a proud member of GSPHE)

Georgia Students for Public Higher Education sent out this update on the rally on March 15. Come out to the Capitol on Monday, 11am.

As many of you know, there will be a demonstration THIS MONDAY, March 15th at 10:00 A.M. at the Georgia Capitol. We hope you will join us for this historic event as students from across the state come together to show our strength at the Capitol and demand a just solution to this budget gap that does NOT include tuition hikes, more furloughs, more layoffs, and further cuts to the University System of Georgia. We have arranged a number of wonderful and exciting speakers including fellow students, faculty, and state legislators, and after the demonstration we will hold a meeting to discuss the future of this movement, Georgia Students for Public Higher Education, and how YOU can get involved on your campus!

For those who would like to participate, some of the SGA presidents from various universities will also be meeting at Hurt Park at 8:30 A.M. before marching over to the Capitol where GSPHE will host the demonstration.

We look forward to seeing you on March 15th for whatever portion of the demonstration you can make it to! Please come out and make history with us on March 15th at the Georgia Capitol!

Georgia Students for Public Higher Education

This is a call to action from Georgia Students for Public Higher Education. There will be a March 15 rally at the Capitol demanding that public education in Georgia be saved.

The economic crisis has hit public education, and it's taking no prisoners. A proposed "compromise plan" for the University System of Georgia includes over an over 30% tuition hike, a $1,000 fee hike (on top of the $100-200 fee hikes already instituted), hundreds of layoffs for campus workers, even more furlough days for faculty, department "consolidations" and closures, a shortened semester schedule, campus closures and drastically reduced admissions rates. The concept of public higher education itself is facing extinction. Many of us have already lost jobs, faced wage cuts, and many have even lost their homes. Working people everywhere have felt the pain of the crisis and it just doesn't seem to have an end. Other public services are also facing extinction. From public transit to housing and healthcare, everything is at stake. Public K-12 education is also under severe attack, with already crowded classrooms that continue to balloon in size, teachers forced to work under incredibly adverse conditions, and students being subjected to mind-numbing standardization in the place of education.

We in Georgia Students for Public Higher Education come to you proposing a real solution--not one that asks you to sell out other students, other programs, campus workers, or faculty. We demand justice. A real recovery from this crisis means stopping the cuts right NOW to get our state moving forward. We didn't cause this crisis and we should not have to pay for it. If that means passing a "sin tax" on cigarettes or taxing the super-rich (who have been assuring investors of rising profitability for months now), so be it. Education could be an engine of job growth and a haven for those eager to gain new footing in difficult times. If these cuts go through, that hope will be lost.

We can only get there by standing together--students, campus workers, faculty, and community members. A state-wide movement is being built to connect all of us in an historic effort to save public higher education. On March 15 at the Georgia state capitol, we'll have an opportunity to show our strength and we urge everyone to join us. If you can't be there, join the "Virtual Day at the Capitol" (check facebook for information on how to do this). You can also join or organize demonstrations on your campuses in support of this movement on March 15--consider organizing a campus walkout, a rally outside your president's office, a letter-writing party for your representatives, or whatever else you feel is appropriate for your campus.

Until March 15, stay plugged in by joining the facebook group "Georgia Students for Higher Public Education" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=215693188744) for updates. If you'd like to organize with us join our Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/georgiastudents/) to discuss action plans.

See you at the capitol!

MONDAY, MARCH 15 2010.
11 to 3 PM (time subject to change)

If you aren't on facebook, check the GSU Progressive Student Alliance blog for updates.

Brought to you by "USG Students for Quality Education" and "Georgia Students for Public Higher Education."

Yesterday about 40 students from around the state held a press conference in front of the Georgia legislative assembly demanding hands off the education budget. The press conferences was put together in a couple of days and included students from University of West Georgia, Dalton State University, Augusta State University, Georgia State University, and other campuses.

Last week the University System of Georgia Chancellor and some state legislators floated the idea of a 77% tuition increase. This week, however, they are talking about a 35% increase as well as an extra $1000 in fees. In effect, this is a tax on Georgians seeking an education. While students were involved in fighting fee hikes before talk of such draconian measures (check out the GSU PSA January 2 demo), this threat to education has led to an increase in activity. On March 4, in solidarity with California students fighting similar cuts, students across Georgia will have various actions. Augusta State is organizing a walk out while other campuses are holding outreach events.

A rally is planned for Monday, March 15 at 11am at the Capitol. The rally is being called by University System of Georgia Students for a Quality Education and Georgia Students for Public Education. The rally will include speakers and visits to legislators.

Below is a repost from the Georgia State University Progressive Student Alliance blog. It's short notice, but come out if you can.


MARCH 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM PSA
http://gsuprogressive.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/march-2-announcements/

GSU Progressive Student Alliance members and supporters,

If there's been any question that education is under attack, it should be answered by now with an unfortunate and resounding YES. State lawmakers have actually pondered not just cuts to staff, faculty, and departments on individual campuses, but tuition increases of up to 77% to cover the budget cap. This is because, as they say, "everything is on the table"...and by that, of course, they mean everything but upper administrator salaries, raising funding through tax increases for the super-rich, and closing corporate tax loopholes. To them, "everything" means picking the pockets of students and parents, already bearing the burden of an economic crisis they did not create. Some of our especially enlightened lawmakers have offered expert analysis: "We're becoming a socialist society when we say that you shouldn't raise tuition at all," Sen. Balfour (R-Snellville) said, adding that his son attends college in Georgia and that tuition "is embarrassingly cheap."

Actually Sen. Balfour and friends, I'll just stick with my "socialist" demand that education should remain public, accessible, and affordable. Those who created the crisis and continue to profit from an educated Georgia can make the sacrifices for once, because we've already tightened our belts more than enough in the last several years. As we chanted on 1/12 and 2/9 at GSU, "Education is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!" We can assure you there will be no shortage of opportunities to do this in the coming months and we'll do our best to include updates from across the state.

-Ryan for the PSA

(Folks should also be aware that March 4 this week has been declared the "National Day of Student Action," as students and campus workers have been faced with cuts across the country. Though all of these actions aren't on the same day, we realize we are all in this fight together!)

1. MARCH 3, 12 PM, PUBLIC EDUCATION SUPPORTERS PRESS CONFERENCE AT GEORGIA CAPITOL: The Higher Education Subcommittee of the Georgia House of Representatives is scheduled to meet Wednesday, March 3, from 8:00 a.m. until noon at the Georgia Capitol. Please join Dalton State College Social Work Club and Georgia Students for Public Higher Education in letting the members of the committee know your thoughts about the proposed $285 million in cuts to University System of Georgia funding by joining us at the State Capitol on Wednesday, March 3, 2010. Please wear black symbolizing the death of Georgia's future. (THE EVENT IS NOT A MARCH: We are encouraging you to consider attending the meeting. Individuals interested in attending the entire 8 AM - 12 PM session, please meet at the front steps of the State Capitol at 7:30 AM. Those interested in attending the last hour of the session, please meet at the front steps at 10:30 AM. Press has been invited to be present at noon.)
2. MARCH 3, 3 PM, GSU PRES. BECKER ADDRESSES STUDENTS, GSU STUDENT CENTER BALLROOM: It's likely that details of painful cuts ahead will be announced at this meeting. We will be here collecting signatures for a giant card to Pres. Becker, asking him to stand with students in demanding creative and just legislative action that doesn't involve wrecking public higher education. (The card says "We <3>
3. MARCH 3, 5 PM, MEETING TO PLAN DEMONSTRATION, GSU LIBRARY NORTH ROOM 419: After the subcommittee meeting, please meet with members of state-wide groups to plan an upcoming demonstration against education cuts. **EVERYONE WELCOME!**
4. MARCH 4, 10 AM - 2 PM, CARD SIGNING AND TABLING IN GSU LIBRARY COURTYARD: Sign our giant card to Pres. Becker and deliver it with us! Talk to us about what you think we need to do to save public higher education!
5. MARCH 6, 11 AM - 1 PM, PUBLIC SECTOR EMERGENCY MEETING: ATU Local 732, the MARTA transit workers union, has called a public meeting to bring together everyone in the public sector to brainstorm and speak out in defense of public education, transit, healthcare, and other services. The meeting will take place in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Auditorium (501 Pulliam Street, on the other side of the downtown connector from the stadium).

SAVE THE DATE:

1. MARCH 15, RALLY at the Georgia Capitol for Public Education
2. MARCH 18, Teach-in Against US Imperialism, First Iconium Baptist Church