Sic Semper GOP

[kandrathe]

You may have heard of our governor, who forgot to mention that little matter of slavery when he announced Conferate History Month recently. Oopsie.

I have heard of Robert C. Byrd.

Speaking as a Yankee (or perhaps in Byrd's language, a white n----- <-- I can't bring myself to even use that word), I actually think the Civil War was an inevitable clash between the industrial and agrarian regions of the early US. I would consider it a given that slavery would provide a natural rift large enough to divide the continent. It was already held in high contempt by a large part of the population, was largely ignored, and put off, or worse, codified by the early American confederation legal documents. Secession was the only possible way the southern states could retain their monetary and political power, as the nation expanded westward being populated by rapid immigration. This created an anti-slavery majority in the United States further diluting each states legislative power, namely the southern slave states. However, had the southern states originally formed a separate union, the clash of escaped slaves, anti-slave activities (raids to free slaves), and possible embargoes of southern products would probably have also instigated a war between the northern and southern states. Ultimately, the "shame" of southern secession was that earlier politicians continually put off making the hard decision of ending slavery 100 years earlier. The entire nations shame is that we allowed it to take a civil war, a destruction of state sovereignty and a huge death toll to end what was an obvious moral wrong to a large majority of the nation, even the south. What is an even greater shame for the entire nation, is how racism, bigotry and injustice are allowed to fester even up to this day. We are slowly crushing it, and achieving reconciliation, but it has taken far too long already and is practiced by people of many political persuasions and many skin tones. It shows how impotent force is to change people's minds, whether it be done with guns or laws.