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What's wrong with this message?
Amos_Umwhat
Posts: 8,429 ✭✭✭✭✭
Looking at the recent news items regarding the vandalism of Confederate monuments across the South. "They send the wrong message" is the mantra.
I have to wonder if the people behind this know the message?
So, here it is, from the man himself:
What's wrong with it?
I have to wonder if the people behind this know the message?
So, here it is, from the man himself:
What's wrong with it?
WARNING: The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme. Proceed at your own risk.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
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"Use the semicolon between two main clauses not linked by a coordinating conjunction.
The coordinating conjunctions are and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet."
Seems right.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Awhile back, @jd50ae was driven from the forum for defending these monuments. Straight white male, so, fair game, right? For those of us whose family came from the south, these monuments are simply a part of our history.
What I object to is that the history has been redefined according to modern mores, in a most prejudicial way. Not that I disagree with the outcome of the Civil War, etc., right is right, but people are reacting to a story that didn't necessarily exist at that time. I can't help but wonder how some of us will be perceived by the politically correct 150 years from now:
"Can you believe that they were so primitive that they objected to universal health care? And threw people in jail for using cannabis in their own homes? Barbarians!"
After @jd50ae was driven from the forum I began to pay attention to how the South is represented, especially the symbols which have been hijacked. For instance, if I drive in any direction from my house for more than a mile I will see the Stars & Bars displayed in someones yard, usually flying right below the Stars & Stripes. I NEVER see a flag with a swastika flying alongside, and I can guarantee you that the people flying those confederate flags would be outraged at the suggestion that the two are compatible.
But, those of you from elsewhere may have been conditioned to think of the two as part of the same thing. For instance, I saw a terrible movie a few months ago, The Hateful Eight, by Quentin Tarrantino. Had he caricaturized and misrepresented the reality of any group other than southern whites the way he did, he'd have been run out of Hollywood.
My wife and I enjoy the TV show Major Crimes. While arresting some white supremacist idiot in his basement, there's the Stars & Bars right next to the Third Reich's symbols.
Meanwhile, here in the South, racial relations are better than they've ever been. That's a fact.
Now, having said all that, concerning the flag, maybe it's time to let it go. What were once reminders of brave young men who, in their minds, answered their country's call, have been co-opted by genuine hate groups.
When Sam Clemens, aka Mark Twain, joined the Confederate army he assured his black friend and childhood playmate that he would protect him from the Yankee's who were coming to steal him and make him work in the Northern factories. The confederate army was made up of young men who were protecting their homes, and a way of life that they had been told by their parents, preachers, teachers, everyone they knew, was "the way it is and should be". That's real! That's how people felt, not Quentin's hateful twisted vision, that is spreading today.
They were wrong, of course, Twain later observed that he could hardly believe how wrong he'd been at the time.
But, what's happening today? This is just more hate. People have found a safe target, and the new haters are no better than the old haters.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
What is said?
The message is simple. Acknowledgement, Acceptance, Hope.
Why are they killing that message?
To instill hate in a new generation.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
And Penelope is hot.