MLK Day

Absolutely. I wasn't saying Lee's birthday should be celebrated over King's or even at all. I was just saying someone can't hang out the phrase "because of Lee" when talking about the war. They can fairly say "because of the politicians" or "because of the ruling rich" but not the majority of the soldiers in the field who were simply defending their homes.

 

Lee should get credit for speaking out against waging a guerrilla campaign after the close of large-scale hostilities.

Still, the only reason he surrendered his army in April 1865 is because he had to. If he'd gotten out of the federal encirclement after the fall of Richmond, his plans were to link up with other Confederate forces down in the Carolinas.

 

There are Southern states (including mine) who celebrate Lee's birthday in addition to MLK, but none do it in place of it. And most people view Jeff Davis as being as competent as your average 4-8 SEC coach.

 

Not to mention that anyone who's studied the subject knows that one of the effects of out-of-control global warming will be an extended period of cooling. I believe you can blame this bizarre Northeastern winter on the kind of spring and summer we had . . . but, you know, do your homework. You know the chief Know-Nothing Party spokespeople haven't, but, then, they already know everything, and can't be bothered to learn.

 

On our way back from a family trip in Florida in November, we stayed overnight in Birmingham, then went to the Civil Rights Institute. It's pretty intense, especially when you realize the old black docent leading you into the museum probably knows what the business ends of a police dog and high-pressured hose feel like. (Kelly Ingram Park across the street is full of sculptures depicting the events there.) It got a little much for my 8-year-old and 5-year-old, but for my 13-year-old and 11-year-old, it was more like they couldn't wrap their brains around why, say, people would bomb a church over a fight to let everyone drink out of the same fountain. Re King, the museum has a replica of his jail cell, with a full reproduction of his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."

 

Here is an article from the Indianapolis News in 1958 about a visit by King. Perhaps a little more interesting is the ad in the lower left for a church that got to be a bit infamous about 20 years later.

 

Not following. Is that Jackson's? (I was looking at the Free Methodist Church ad at the very bottom).

 

Whoa, never mind. Google works wonders.

Kool-Aid anyone?

 

I used to live in the Northeast. I remember some snowy winters. And I left there almost 20 years ago.
That's the problem I, and a lot of others who don't completely buy into global warming, have with the theory -- it's all encompassing. If it's too hot, it's global warming. If it's too cold, it's global warming. If it rains or snows too much, it's global warming. If it doesn't rain enough, it's global warming.
The average temperature in Phoenix was 80 degrees instead of 79 last year? Global warming!
Wait, it was 82 the year before that? Global cooling caused by global warming! Ice cores from Antarctica tell us it was 75 degrees in that part of the world 100,000 years ago! Don't you dare question it! It's science!

Meanwhile, the guy who popularized the concept is getting super-rich off of it with a carbon offset shell game that does nothing to actually deal with the issue, all the while preaching to us -- and flying around to world in a private jet to do so -- that we're not doing enough because we don't ride a bike 20 miles to work in the dead of winter.

Global warming is the 21st century bogeyman. And he's a whiny, annoying son of a bitch.

 

I'm friendly with a bunch of hard-righties. The smartest one of the bunch is the one who doesn't kneejerk to the far right's prototypical GW position . . . because he can see the results with his own eyes, and recognizes them for what they are.

The guys who think that the earth's riches were placed there solely for us to rape and pillage, prior to our ascension . . . it's just so, so convenient that that's exactly what the hard-righties want to do.
Get it all now, and F you, jack.

Tragically shortsighted.

 

Wasn't aware of that, but upon reading that article it seems not getting his citizenship restored was a technicality at best, and vindictive and petty at worst.
As others have stated, however, Lee rolling with the Confederacy wasn't the only reason thousands of Americans died. If you believe that, then you should also argue that the inept leadership of George McClellan caused at least as many deaths as Lee.

Again, I'm not arguing Lee's birthday should be celebrated as a holiday. Not on any level. Beyond the obvious component of racism, he just wasn't important enough on a historical scale for that sort of honor.

 

Pakistan and Australia would like a word.