Dixie Dreams

The Breakup of the Club

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It’s hypothetical time!

What if you joined an organization you helped create from the ground up. Suppose a large number of others joined that organization, too, but some were reluctant to lock themselves into membership because nobody knew what the future held. If there is anything unchanging at all it is the fact that change occurs. So… in order to form the club, the church, the group, the founding members decided that any one, or more, member(s) could leave the group anytime he/they felt like it.

Now… suppose the club bumps it’s way down the road of life for , oh… say, 80 years or so. It has some highs and some lows. But after about 60 years some of the members of that club took a superior stance toward other members and began forcing their wants and wishes, and ways of doing things on those members who disagreed with them. Further suppose that the “put upon” members said look, if you don’t stop this and allow us to have our due, under the “by laws” of this club we are gong to quit the club.

To continue… further suppose nothing changes and finally those members who felt they were being denied their rights under the bylaws said “goodbye”… we’re finished with this club… and since the bylaws grant us the right to leave anytime we want to… we are going to leave and create our own club.

And they did.

Now… suppose further that the remaining members of the original club are mad as hell at those members who left and decided that no matter what the by-laws of the club said, they would bring those members who had taken their leave of the club, back into the club… by force. Suppose that a fight ensued and eventually the aggrieved members who had left the club were dragged, kicking and screaming, back into the club after many had been killed in the fight and inestimable damage had been done their property, and told they would never be allowed to leave again!

Can you see how the reluctant members of that club would resent the hell out of being forced, against their will, to be a part of a club they want no part of? Can you?

Can you understand the fact that the ill feeling will last for centuries?

Now, I posed this as a hypothetical but… it is not. In fact, what I described above has already happened. The original club is, of course, the United States of America. The aggrieved members who voted to legally leave the club were the Confederate States of America, many of whom would never have joined the original USA had it not been clearly decided that they, or any other state, could leave the USA anytime they wanted. They had been ruled under the Articles of Confederation, prior to the First Constitution, and under the Articles no state could leave the confederation unless ALL states left. So, the states forming the United States made darn sure that was not a part of the “new” Constitution so they would have the option to leave… if they chose.

I’m from one of the old families of the South. My folks arrived here in 1789, through the port of Charles Town Harbor, and settled in the 96th precinct of South Carolina. My roots are deep in the red clay and sandy soil of the South. That red clay stains my soul. I say this to tell you that I understand why some Southerners today STILL resent being a part of the USA. They hate the fact that their ancestors were dragged back into the USA, at bayonet point, and they hate the fact that the South is still treated, today, as it was prior to 1860, as “the red headed step child” of the USA. It does not surprise me that there are active secession movements in 20 some odd states.

Look, you cannot forced human beings to be a part of something, anything, they do not choose to be a part of without creating hate and loathing for the tyrannical way you enforce your will upon them. It is the nature of the human beast.

But, it appears that many Americans believe the Southern states should accept their role as subjects of the northern states. I have news for you… that is not going to happen. It may appear so, on the surface, but the flame burns as hot as ever in the breast of the Southerner.

We go through this anal inspection every four years by the MSM, which does nothing to disguise their ignorance of anything, and everything, Southern… especially our history, our heritage, and our reverence for honor.

I skimmed through some of the blogs earlier today before I wrote this and I was struck by the demonstration of exactly the same kind of arrogance from those who denigrate the South today as was at play in the 1850’s and 1860’s. It is an arrogance born of ignorance. For if the writer had any actual knowledge of what he or she was writing about, as it pertains to Southern heritage, they would never had written what they did.

I have but one question: if you despise us so much, why not allow us to leave? In 1860, the Union would not allow the Southern states to leave because they needed the south’s money, the south’s wealth. The GNP of the southern states in 1860 was three times that of the northern states.

And finally, if you despise the southern states so much… please remember we are a part of the USA ONLY because the Union invaded us, conquered us, and forced us, at bayonet point, and gunpoint, back into the union! We are here against our will. We had left, legally, and formed our own country. We had a President, a bicameral congress, a constitution, an army, a navy, a Marine corp, and a population larger than that of the 13 original colonies when they won their independence from Great Britain. Plus, we were wealthy and would have been a world super power in a few decades. Without the southern states the northern states would have splintered, faltered, and finally broken apart.

OK, before I am accused of preaching secession here, let me assure you I am not! What I AM trying to do is bring a little light to bear on a subject, of which, so much of America is ignorant.

And YES, I am a little peeved. Every four years, the politicians come to town. Every four years we go trough the “Take the Confederate Battle Flag down” spiel. Every four years!

We are approaching the 150th anniversary of the War for Southern Independence. You may know it as the American Civil War. There will be celebrations throughout the South. Many are already in the planning stages even as I write. Southerners will celebrate what out ancestors valiantly tried to do, win their Independence from a tyrannical government, which was bleeding them dry through taxes and tariffs and using that money to build and improve the infrastructure of the Northern states. We will celebrate the fact that our Confederate ancestors tried, doggedly, to preserve the original constitution by which the US had agreed to be governed but had largely abandoned by 1860.

Oh no, we have not forgotten, nor will we. So, when you see our Confederate flags flying, understand that it is not JUST heritage we are celebrating. It is that, true, but it is also a public statement that a thirst for freedom still lives here. It is a public testimony to the burning desire for the fulfillment of the Southern dream of a nation ruled by a government answerable to God and her people. It is a dream unfulfilled. It is a void in our souls.

So if tempers flare when politicians rebuke our flag, our culture, our heritage, our religion, and our lifestyle… and expect us to vote for them… you bet we feel justified in withholding our vote! Sometimes we feel justified in running the opposition’s vote totals up in the primaries so as to set them up for failure in the general election. It’s viewed as a sort of benign guerilla warfare. And we savor it!

Our anger at the MsM for seeming to deliberately set us up for ridicule is white hot. All the Southern people ever wanted was… to be let alone. We have yet to achieve that goal. We carry the yoke of a conquered people and we chafe under its rough weight. It is a yoke of which we shall never be rid.

Longstreet

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