[silver_pilate]

The question of whether or not it was ILLEAGAL to succeed is what the war was all about. The soon to be Confederate states believed strongly in the sovereignty of the individual states. However, under the Constitution of the United States of America, the trend had shifted away from the idea of confederacy, where more or less independent states joined into a beneficial union while remaining autonomous, into an idea of a union which was divided into states.

The southern states where angry at some of the new laws which were being passed by the populous north which they perceived as threatening their livelyhood. The election of Lincoln escalated their feeling of helplessness to the point where they felt succession was the only course to sustain their way of life. The war began over whether there was an inherent right for a state to succeed from the union under its sovereign rights. Slavery was an issue, but it was not what the war was fought over. It was over the right of individual states and the extent of power they held within themselves.

What really pisses me off is how history has been corrupted with liberal ideals and notions to where it is no longer taught as it happened. What did we learn in school....the civil war was fought over slavery. Horse-hockey. There are even those who try and claim that the Holocaust never happened. If you read a history book used in our public schools, and you know anything at all about history, you will see obvious eronious and horrendously mistaken accounts of history. I guess history is just that....written accounts subjective to the slant of the author.

Another current issue is that of the confederate flag as a symbol. People say that it represents slavery. Yeah, whatever. It's funny how the VAST majority of those feeling that way are black. THEY are the one's who can't let go. How many of you other southern folks look upon it and automatically think, "SLAVERY....YEE HAW....Let's put those folk back in the fields workin' on a hoe." I know I don't and that most others from the south don't either. I look upon it as a symbol of the ideal of confederacy. A piece of history which should be remembered, not burried under new age feel-goodism and swept under the rug. It's a battle flag...one of hundreds used during the war...upon which people can look and recall the sacrifice made by thousands and thousands of confederate soldiers and union soldiers, each fighting for what they believed. It's HISTORY!! It HAPPENED!! Almost 700,000 AMERICANS fought and died in the Civil War. Sure, it's ugly. But just because some people don't like it doesn't mean it should be forgotten! As soon as history is forgotten, it repeats itself. It should be remembered and learned from, and the lives of those who died should be honored with that memory.

The significance of the civil war is this: the fact that Americans have, throughout history, felt strongly enough about what they believed to fight or even die for it. I wonder now where that feeling has gone in the majority of the population. Liberalists have pushed the envelope to the point where now everything is acceptable....there is no set boundary of right or wrong. Heck, if someone's doing it, they must have some inherent right to do so. Ok...I'll give them that. If someone wants to participate is something that is wrong....it's their choice. However, don't try and tell me that I have to accomodate that person because of what they are or what they do or accept them for what they are. I guess if I don't accept everyone...or I should say, accept what everyone does, then that makes me (by liberalist standards) a biggot or a narrow minded, prejudice person. So be it. I guess I'm labeled. That is my inherent right. So, using liberalist logic, I guess me being a narrow minded prejudice biggot is something that I cannot help, and therefor, special accomodations should be made by everyone else to accept that.

You see where the vicious circle goes?

Now, I'm not a prejudice person. I don't hate people who believe differently than myself. I might not agree with them, but that's my right. Don't tell me that I have to agree. If someone does something that I don't agree with, I don't hate that person. I hate what they've done. I'll accept the person, but I will not accept the actions that go against what I believe.

Anyway, I managed to move from a civil war discussion into an ethical/political one...but I guess that's really what the war was all about....political and ethical rights.

On the original topic...I agree that these sue happy people are just idiots trying to make something out of nothing. We've always put people on pedestals who fought for a cause: Rosa Parks...Martin Luther King....Susan B. Anthony, and rightly so in these instances. However, this new generation of would-be heroics, in their vain attempt to become something which they so obiously are not, grab blindly at any and every cause with the hopes that they, too, will be immortalized. They have succeded in my mind. They will be immortalized as the less-than-bright morons that they are.

--nathan