150 years

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Why is the fight still going on?

At 4:30 a.m. Friday, April 12, 1861 the Confederate units, commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard, began shelling the fort. Union Capt. Abner Doubleday to open The War. The War supposedly ended a few years later.

Tomorrow will be the 150th anniversary of The War. The Civil War. The War Between the States. The War of Northern Aggression.

Why is it still going on? I don't mean volleys of lead flying across fields with grapeshot cutting down ranks of soldiers like I mow down wild hogs.

I mean why are so many people fixated on this war and not just for the history.

What's the point? What is there to gain? What can be done by constantly bringing up this painful chapter of American history?

To answer the last question first - Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. By keeping The War constantly before us, we are reminded of the mind boggling cost and the damage it caused. We are less likely to repeat this event if we remember the carnage it caused.

As for the other questions - Southerners actually do have a bit of a legal reason to fight on. Parts of the 1965 Civil Rights Act apply ONLY to the 13 Southern states, as if racism, bigotry and stupidity are exclusive provinces of the South. Either apply ALL the CRA to all states or repeal those sections which apply to the 13 Southern States. Fair is fair. Set that aside now (details being another column).

A better question is why are Southerners like me so entranced with The War?

Short answer - we lost. "Nobody," as Sam Kinson bawled in his remake of Wild Thing, "like to lose." To be accurate and honest. I did not lose. I came about in the late 1960s. Ergo, it is impossible for me to have "lost" The War. Rather, the side I support in that historical contest lost. So I say "We" in the same manner people refer to sports teams, groups and organizations they like and support but are not actually intrinsic to.

For a longer answer, return to the founding of this nation:


"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." Declaration of Independence.

Yes. I am aware that DOI also makes reference to all men being created equal and this flies in the face of slavery. Slavery was wrong m'kay? You were never a slave and never owned a slave. The War was NOT fought over slavery and comments to that effect will be deleted. Nuf said.

But, slavery does figure into The War today and only partly for the reason you suspect. Keep reading.

The DOI sets forth that a people united have the right to change their government.

The South attempted to change governments. The north refused to allow this. Yes, I also know there were people on each side of the Mason Dixon line who expressed support for the side opposite the border.

Southerners, like me, resent this. We (again using the inclusive form of the word) object. We tried to do what was set forth in the DOI and were literally shot down. Apparently, the DOI only applies if you have enough military might to back it up.

Sadly, that remains a fact of American domestic and foreign policy. If you are big enough and tough enough you can do whatever you want.

Freedom of Choice. Not just in doughnuts.

This is where slavery comes in. No one alive today was a slave prior to The War. Yet people resent the institution of slavery as it was practiced for the same reason Southerners resent losing The War.

Our ancestors were denied freedom of choice.

We still chafe under the bonds that created.

The after effects of slavery have created racism on both sides.

Slavery and The War a sense of entitlement as well. We Southerners who still fight The War feel entitled to reparations and a restoration of the dignity and rights ripped from or ancestors at the point of a musket. Descendants of slaves feel the same way.

Our ancestors fought, and fought hard, for something they believed in - freedom.  Today we don't have that freedom.

These reasons for continuing to fight The War apply largely to those capable of the cerebration necessary to develop such arguments.

"Speak English, Baker," you say.

Ok. My listed reasons are for those who study, learn and understand The War, its causes and reasons. We long for what might have been. We want the freedom our ancestors fought for and were denied.

A lot of Southerners don't want to invest that kind of mental energy. So why do they continue to fight The War?

It's what they were taught. The South, as it might have been, is glorified down here.

Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 

Until all that changes, we'll continue to fight The War. Me included.

Freedom - it's for everybody.

Forget Hell!