The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
Bill McGurn ·
May 24, 2011 at 6:13am
From North Carolina, it seems that some people haven't let the Civil War go:
A van driven by Mark Anthony Vincent slammed head-on into the Confederate Soldiers Monument at the traffic circle at Scales and Morehead streets in downtown Reidsville about 4:30 a.m. Vincent, 40, of Greensboro, told police he fell asleep at the wheel.
The van hit the 100-year-old monument’s pillar, sending the stone soldier tumbling. The statue’s body broke into about 15 pieces, Mayor James Festerman said. And the head wound up embedded in the van.
“I’m glad he knocked the sucker down,” said James Monte, a black man and lifelong resident of Reidsville. “They ought to knock all that stuff down.”
The statue is owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
- Comment (10)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Aug '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
The city of Franklin, TN (a wonderful town, btw) has a statue of a Confederate soldier on its downtown square. (Franklin was the site of a pretty major Civil War battle.)
The comedian, George "Goober" Lindsey, once referred to the statue as a giant "second place trophy."
Even though Tennessee was one of the last southern states to secede, and was quick to rejoin the Union, there remain small pockets of folks that cling to a falsely-romantic notion of the Old South.
That said, I've lived in this area 20+ years, and I think that attitude is waning.
Jun '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
You can't raise a Cain back up when he's in defeat.
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
What's with the racial identification of one guy in the story but not the other? Odd lack of consistency from the local media ...
Jul '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
What's Maya Lin doing nowadays? She should be able to make everybody unhappy.
Nov '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
More evidence of brainwashing by the ruling elite, that the War was 100% about slavery. This makes issues like reparartions, affirmative action, USDA and other programs, go down more easily. While no dening slavery played a large part in the War, economic and cultural domination by one region over another played a larger part. Sound familar? It was an issue Thomas Jefferson raised in his presidency as a warning that the South and West needed to be vigilant in protecting themselves from the centralization aims and ambitions of the Northeast. Sound familiar? We are witnessing the similar power issues today. look at blue v. red states. Look at the NLRB against the right to work states predominatly in the South? Look at the demographic dynamic, the mass movement of blacks back to the South. My forebears fought for the South and owned no slaves. They fought for their land and their right for self detemination.
Whether Ricohet members want to believe or not, they have more in common with those Southern soldiers than they think, at least if I am to believe what is written on these pages. Bill, you should know better. Best to all!
May '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
Over half a million Americans died in the Civil War. Both sides deserve monuments.
When people object to the Rebel flag, I try to explain to them that the South still exists as a cultural entity, just as the North does (I call it the Northeast), and that the flag is the only commonly recognizable symbol of that homeland pride. The same people who curse that flag have no problem with the song "Sweet Home Alabama", which has similar emblematic value.
As Thomas says, it's a shame the Left has been successful in permanently associating the South with slavery. Fewer than 5% of Southerners in the 1860s owned slaves. Protecting the slave trade might have been a major reason the South's leaders ceded from the Union, but hundreds of thousands of Southerners certainly didn't put their lives on the line to protect the wealth and power of a few aristocrats. They fought for their home.
On a related note, if you haven't already listened to Thomas Sowell talk about misconceptions regarding racism in America, you should.
Oct '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
I had a teacher once who like to refer to the conflict as the "War of Northern Aggression." I know he was somewhat joking, but have never been quite sure by how much. Slavery was certainly a cause, and had a huge emotional impact for reasons I don't understand to this day. But it was really pretty much a war of economics.
One of the reasons the Europeans powers went empire-building was tied to their economic system. They needed cheap raw materials in order to make goods and new markets in order to vendor their products. They went around the world in order to obtain those.
In the United States, development in the South was hampered due to one of the same reasons as Africa: a lack of navigable rivers. As the north became more industrialized, the south become more agricultural. When the south sought cheaper manufacturing goods to be imported, the north slapped on tariffs to make that unfeasible. Interestingly, things are becoming very much reversed now as car manufacturing and other industries have moved south.
But the divide is still there - the NLRB move against Boeing in South Carolina pretty much proves it.
Apr '11
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
I grew up in Michigan and remember a Civil War era cannon in the "commons" in our village park. With the placard on one side calling for remembrance for the tremendous losses by both sides, and on the other side, the listing of the names of the locals who served. Fortunately, it was located in such a place that it would have required an errant light aircraft to take it out.
It has always seemed to me that, considering the state of the current politics, it is quite remarkable that the south has so many Democrats. I would expect more Libertarians, perhaps.
Q: Would the NLRB have made the same stink if the Boeing plant were to be built in, say, Ohio or New York or Mass.? [I never could spell that state! ]
Dec '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
Slavery was one of a myriad of issues that precipitated the War Between the States.
The Emancipation Proclamation was, while absolutely the right thing to do, also the most strategically sound thing to do, as it created chaos deep behind enemy lines as the news spread. It also created both hope and an instant willingness to join the fight in the former slave population. First and foremost, that was good strategy.
I find it both curious and infuriating that other people's culture's baggage and history must be accepted without comment and even celebrated, while our own must be expunged from memory. Or when it is spoken of, it must be lied about and/or denigrated in such a manner that we convey how truly not like those people we are.
Why must Southerners be the only people in America disallowed a fondness for their cultural heritage?
It's OK to celebrate New York's history, but people who live in Alabama must forever be ashamed of theirs?
So long as you treat black folks like you treat all the other folks, I say fly your Confederate flag and appreciate your Antebellum culture all you like.
Slavery is long in the past, never to return. The only people still hung up on it are those looking to score political points.
Edited on May 24, 2011 at 2:22pmNov '10
Re: The Night They Broke Old Dixie Down
It has always seemed to me that, considering the state of the current politics, it is quite remarkable that the south has so many Democrats. I would expect more Libertarians, perhaps.
Geoff, there was a little time period known as "Reconstruction". My people lost all they had and basically were worse off than at anytime since they landed at Jamestown as indentured servants. To the victors went the spoils, and that was the Republican Party led by the North.Hence, Southerners became Democrats, the opposition party. But that is misleading, as most Southerners were conservative, and identify as Republican today.
I do believe things would have been better had Lincoln not been killed. I think he was a healer at heart and would have recognized the need to give the South its dignity.