[Vision2020] Robert E. Lee not so bad?

[Tom Hansen]

As usual, you are 100% correct, Melynda.

 

I may want to share a few beers with a presidential candidate, but that most
certainly does NOT suggest that I would vote for him.

 

"Nice" is helping somebody with a task when they are over-burdened.

 

"Nice" is saying "thank you" and please".

 

"Nice" is not running over a pedestrian as they use a crosswalk.

 

"Nice" is an attitude toward others in day-to-day life that I expect form
citizens and demand from my elected officials.

 

If your standard for voting is "nice", you need to set your crossbar a bit
higher, somewhere in the vicinity of the moral high ground.  This may be
asking too much from an official who thinks that the only responsibility
that women should have at staff meetings is waiting on tables.

 

This we will remember come November 2006.

 

Until then . . .

 

Take care of yourselves and each other.

 

Tom Hansen

Just Another Intolerista Quasi-Secularista Liberal Elitista Loose in the
Palouse

 

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From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Melynda Huskey
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 2:43 PM
To: Vision 2020
Subject: [Vision2020] Robert E. Lee not so bad?

 

Pat writes: 

 

"Suffice it to say that not everyone who was at the meeting is in agreement
with the uproar about the use of Lee. Ms White only heard from one person
who knew just who to call to get a lot of public
outcry just down the party line they wanted. But, I am hearing on this site
now and other places that not everyone at the meeting felt the same way. So,
once again Ms's White and Pall and some one Venon 2020 create a atmosphere
of distrust and hate without all the information."

 

Well, I've seen the handout which accompanied the presentation, and which
includes all of the Powerpoint slides, and I have to say it's pretty
inflammatory, from my point of view.  The Confederate flag decorates several
pages, there's a particularly offensive reference to Lee's views on slavery,
the language throughout is markedly sexist, and there's absolutely no
mention of the book from which at least some of the material was taken
verbatim.  

 

If Pat is right, and the majority of the Board of the Chamber found this
presentation inoffensive, I'm profoundly disturbed.  They are clearly out of
step not only with me, but with most of our community.  I can't believe that
most business owners in our town want to be represented by a body which
affirms neo-Confederate ideology--but maybe I'm wrong.  If so, I want to
know about it.  

 

This choice is more than an error in judgement:  the choice of a pro-slavery
Confederate general as a model of leadership for the Moscow business
community is a slap in the face to anyone who took issue with *Southern
Slavery as It Was.*  I'm shocked that local businesspeople, including
representatives of the University, and of our city and county government,
sat through a presentation praising a Confederate general and his
justification of slaveholding without a single demur.  I'm appalled that the
Chamber Board has been silent in the subsequent brouhaha, except to say that
Paul is a nice man.  

 

Dan isn't worried about slave auctions in Friendship Square, and I'm not
either.  But few totalitarian movements begin by seizing power in an
instant--they prepare the ground first by making baby steps toward
oppression.  Just like an abusive relationship, it starts with a little
shove or a pinch, and a sweet apology--"I'm sorry, sweetheart, you know I'm
not really like that."  Over time, the violence escalates.

 

Three years ago, I was pretty concerned about the homophobic language Paul
Kimmell used to explain why he was opposed to domestic partner benefits for
county employees.  Later, I was disturbed by the sexism and religious
intolerance of our public conversation about the nudity ordinance.
Obviously that was just the thin end of the wedge if we're now needing to
disagree publicly over whether or not the Confederacy yields important moral
lessons for local business owners and Idaho high school students with
entrepreneurial interests.

 

We need to take stock here.  Our community deserves better--as a variety of
people have observed.  But I think we may be starting at the wrong end.  Is
it "nice" to use your power or influence to benefit your own co-religionists
at the expense of others in the community?  Is it "nice" to make a
presentation likely to hurt or embarass members of the organization you
represent?  Is it "nice" to accuse others of hating you and your faith
community or of having no morals when they ask for accountability in your
performance of public office?

 

Nice just isn't the yardstick we need.

 

Melynda Huskey

 

 

 

 


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