[B-Hale23437]

I’m reading Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. Are white Southerners really still hung up on the Civil War? Do some Southerners still perceive the South as being occupied by the Federal government?
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Name : B-Hale23437, City : Hartford, State : CT, Country : United States, 

[Bill Alexander]

Let me suggest that some southerners buy into the mythology of the Civil War (which finds its clearest form in a romance novel and the movie made from it (Gone With the Wind). I live in the southern Appalachians (‘hillbilly’ or ‘cracker’ is the slur, if you want to call me names) and folks here forget that their ancestors tended to support the Union cause. The education system perperuated the myths into the ’70’s, and a lot of folks define themselves in terms of the myths. And a lot of southerners have been on the recieving end of prejudice from their fellow americans, assuming them to be ignorant, violent racists when it might not be the case.

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Name : Bill Alexander, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 46, City : Blue Ridge, State : GA, Country : United States, Occupation : bookseller, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Ginny]

Southerners remember the Civil War and bear the Confederate Flag because we are proud of our heritage. It is not a heritage free from sin (whose is?), but it cannot be defined solely in terms of slavery. To do that would be like defining German heritage in terms of Nazism or Christianity in terms of the Crusades. The South clings to our regional heritage because, by and large, we are such an ethnically homogenous population. The Northeast has Puerto Rican, Polish, etc. groups that cling to their heritage because the North’s history is the history of the immigrants. As for Reconstruction, I doubt that anyone who is truly informed of the Republican Congress’ Reconstruction policies towards the South (white and black alike) were just or deserved. Like so much else in that bleak period of our nation’s history, Reconstruction was a horrible byproduct of an atrocious war.

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Name : Ginny, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, City : Louisville, State : KY, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[L.M.]

As a southerner from northern liberal parents (we moved here when I was two), I can say that it took me many years to finally understand the south’s side of the Civil War story. It is my understanding that the Constitution permits states to secede from the Union. The reason for the secession is what is causing all the problems. The south felt that slavery was OK and the north saw it as abominable. I agree that slavery is atrocious. I think that there are very few, if any, people (southern or not) who would agree that racism is to be tolerated. To most southerners, however, the issue is/was one of state’s rights and the right under the constitution to secede. I have a hard time reconciling myself to the fact that the government decided that this part of the constitution does not exist. Even today, I believe that if Florida wanted to secede from the United States and become it’s own country, it should be able to do so if that’s what the voters want to do. If California were to decide to secede from the Union because most of the other states are ‘red’ states and they do not agree with the Federal laws that are being passed, or if they decided that they did not want to enforce the immigration laws and restrictions and wanted to open their borders, would we go to war to stop them or would we just say they’re a bunch of loonies and good riddance? That is the real question. When and under what circumstances is it OK for a state to secede? Only if the rest of us think it’s a good idea?

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Name : L.M., Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 38, City : Jacksonville, State : FL, Country : United States, Occupation : Retail Administrative, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Jethro]

I as well as many of my friends here in the South do believe that the South is being occupied by the government. I hang my Confederate flag high to show my pride for the Confederacy that I believe still exists here in the South. I refuse to go north of the Mason Dixon line. If I had it my way, the Confederacy and the Union would still be separate.

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Name : Jethro, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Methodist, Age : 25, City : Montgomery, State : AL, Country : United States, Occupation : Farmer, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Lower class, 

[Ron-N]

I am from Western Maryland, which was a border slave state before the Civil War, and I can remember segregation in schools, theaters and public facilities. I have also lived for several years in both Macon and Atlanta, Ga. It is my exeperience that most educated Southern people are proud of their Civil War heritage and honor their ancestors’ valor and fierce courage under adversity, just as all of us today honor our fading World War II veterans. However, these same Southerners are also deeply ashamed of slavery and the institutionalized racism that followed the war. Does anyone out there seriously think that legalized segregation could have ended relatively peacefully without the efforts of tens of thousands of white Southerners such as Harry S Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter, who knew in their hearts that slavery and segregation were deep moral wrongs? In my opinion, the so-called Southern attitude today is largely influenced by the ongoing rapid urbanization of the United States and the resulting conflict between city and rural cultures. Southerners both black and white are nostalgic for a romanticized rural and small town past that probably never existed in the first place. Who hasn’t sat for hours in backed-up rush-hour traffic and not felt the same way? Why are Thomas Kinkaid paintings and prints so popular? Americans in general and Southerners in particular are simply trying to recapture a slower-paced, less-complex rural past that is rapidly disappearing from America. While all of us must recognize the harsh lessons of history, we can honor and learn from the victories, defeats successes and failures of all our ancestors to build a better future for the peoples of the world.

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Name : Ron-N, Gender : M, City : Canyon Country, State : CA, Country : United States, 

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