[Vision2020] Fwd: White House Petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument

[Donovan Arnold]

I know a lot of people in the South didn't agree with slavery, but were under the belief that the Federal Government had expanded its power and authority well beyond its constitutional authority. Even though the US is in the United Nations and we know our cars are polluting the Earth, killing off the wildlife and causing global flooding which kills millions worldwide, would we easily accept UN authority to take all our fossil fuel machines which is the back bone of our economy and way of life, or would we fight back? Tough call from where we are sitting as I am sure it would be from where they were sitting too.
 
Donovan J. Arnold

From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To: Rosemary Huskey <donaldrose at cpcinternet.com> 
Cc: 'Moscow Vision 2020' <vision2020 at moscow.com> 
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fwd: White House Petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument



It's easy from today's perspective to draw a line in the sand and say these guys were wrong or evil or whatever.  We live in a society where almost no one in the country alive today has been involved in the slave trade as such.  To start up a slave trade today would involve acts that very few of us could even contemplate, let alone carry out.  It was a different situation back then.  Slavery was an institution that was ingrained in the culture and had been for 240+ years at that point.  The first slave ship arrived in Jamestown in 1619.  At one point it had been the cornerstone of their economy, since it meant cheap labour, although that was fading by 1860. 

It was the issue that divided the nation, true, and it was the reason that the first Southern states had seceded.  However, it was the right to secede that was really being fought over, as far as I can tell.  States were more like individual nations back then than they are now.  They were fighting for the right to break off from the rest of the union and to forge their own path.

People today seem to assume that the average Confederate soldier was fighting for the right to beat black people because they hated them.  They weren't.  Slavery may have been the issue that sparked the conflict, but I doubt that's what the actual Confederate soldiers thought about when they asked themselves what they were dying for.

I'm with Chasuk on this one.  Honour them for their bravery.  What harm does it do?

As a fun exercise, imagine if a few states today came to the conclusion that owning pets was inhumane.  They should be set free and allowed to live their own life, for better or worse, and not be kept for the pleasure of their owners.  Perhaps someday some future people will look down on us in shock and dismay because we let this practice continue.  Or think about domesticated cattle or simply about our overcrowded prisons and the widespread problem of prison rape.  They will ask how we as a people could condone such behaviour.   I would agree with them, for the most part.  But the real question is, how do you get there from here?

Paul

On 01/11/2013 03:09 PM, Rosemary Huskey wrote:

Sorry guys, I have to disagree.  Honor is associated (in my mind) with the righteous of the cause.   Dying to preserve slavery, or establish their own separate slave-based nation,  doesn’t rise to that standard for me.  In fact, I can think of a lot of military actions where singular acts of courage occur. For example, saving someone life at the risk of one’s own, (probably lots of Taliban fighters do that). I am really not interested in lobbying for a Taliban monument in Washington D.C. .because they are courageous, are you?   After all, Confederates soldiers didn’t believe they were citizens of the United States.  Doesn’t that make them enemy combatants?
>Rose Huskey
> 
>From:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Gary Crabtree
>Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 11:19 AM
>To: Chasuk; Tom Hansen
>Cc: Friends of the Clearwater; Moscow Vision 2020; Jeanne McHale; Fritz Knorr; Friends of the Palouse Ranger District; Wild Idaho Rising Tide; Helen Yost
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fwd: White House Petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument
> 
>Seconded with enthusiasm.
> 
>g
> 
>From:Chasuk 
>Sent:Friday, January 11, 2013 10:12 AM
>To:Tom Hansen 
>Cc:Friends of the Clearwater ; Moscow Vision 2020 ; Jeanne McHale ; Fritz Knorr ; Friends of the Palouse Ranger District ; Wild Idaho Rising Tide ; Helen Yost 
>Subject:Re: [Vision2020] Fwd: White House Petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument
> 
>I disagree with the intent of this petition. Confederate soldiers died with as much honor -- and as much heroism, if such a thing exists -- as their Yankee counterparts. 
> 
>On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 2:00 AM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
>Visionaires (et al) -
> 
>I encourage you to visit and sign the petition linked below.
> 
>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .
> 
>"Moscow Cares"
>http://www.moscowcares.com/
>  
>Tom Hansen
>Moscow, Idaho
> 
> 
>
>Begin forwarded message:
>Date: January 11, 2013, 8:47:30 AM PST
>>To: <thansen at moscow.com>
>>Subject: White House Petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument
>Tom,
>>   At this URL is a petition asking Obama not to send a wreath to the
>>Arlington Confederate Monument.
>>
>>http://wh.gov/PLBU
>>
>>If you could sign it and let people know about it I would greatly appreciate
>>it. 
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Ed Sebesta
>>
>>http://arlingtonconfederatemonument.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>
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