He adds: “Many of my colleagues in academia are urging President Obama to pull the plug on this tradition. I doubt that he will, for the simple reason that the men buried around the Confederate memorial sacrificed, suffered and died just as the black and white soldiers of the Union did. Most of the descendants of those Confederates, whatever their political stripe today, would be loath to deny their ancestors a simple gesture of recognition.”

He Notes: “….the Confederacy and the Third Reich are not, in the end, comparable. The Nazi genocide of Europe’s Jews (implemented largely by the SS) was a crime unique to the Third Reich, while the crime of slavery was interwoven not only into the Confederacy but into the fabric of the American nation, into the Constitution, our economic system and wars of territorial expansion across the continent. To single out the ordinary soldiers of the Confederacy as beyond the moral pale does not help us come to grips with slavery’s more profound role in American history.”

And Pleads: “President Obama, why not send two wreaths? One to the Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery and another to the African American Civil War Memorial in the District, which commemorates the 200,000 black soldiers who fought for liberation from slavery in the Union armed forces. Here is an opportunity to remind us what real reconciliation, in this day and age, would mean. Send two wreaths with one common message: that the descendants of slaves and the descendants of slaveholders should recognize each other’s humanity, and do the hard work of reckoning with the racial divide that is slavery’s cruelest and most enduring legacy.”

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I totally disagree! President Obama should pull the plug on this “tradition,” a tradition of honoring KILLERS. Murderers whose influence is still visible on PICK-UP trucks all across the heartland of America.

Mr. Savage, reconciliation means dropping everything that signifies or reminds of a sordid past, and not trying to justify past actions by stupid and baseless rationalizations and insinuations like this bum is trying to do here and here.

Until I see a far-left LIBERAL homosexual flying a confederate flag with a noose tied to back of his pickup, in Jamaica, Queens, New York — no amount of persuasion will convince me that the confederacy and its descendants (Right-Wing Republicans) are nothing other than a bunch of rabid racists.

In Texas, Rick Perry’s “hanging State,” a “former” confederate state — Racist graffiti, hangman nooses and Confederate flags are routinely displayed to intimidate blacks. In mid-America, there are areas where blacks still cannot live in, for fear of being lynched. The Texas-Louisiana border area is home to some of the most small-minded, ignorant, racist idiots you’d ever want to meet — and they ALL fly confederate flags …on their pick-up trucks, frequently accompanied by nooses!

The recent Republican Tea-Baggers, the new white-power movement, flew confederate flags, while spewing racist epithets at president Obama — even those who will ultimately benefit from Obama’s policies.

I can only arrive at one conclusion — they can’t fathom the fact that a “qualified” black man is in the whitehouse. Smells like racism to me!

Janeane Garofalo hit the nail on the head, and took a lot of heat from the right, when she called the tea-baggers exactly what they are: A bunch of racist rednecks — who have no clue what they are “fighting for,” except one thing — the SOCIALIST BLACK MAN in the WhiteHouse!

Celebrating DEAD CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS is akin to sanctioning and encouraging the brutal militaristic racism that America has tried so hard to stomp — but still cannot get rid off completely. It is an act that legitimizes right-wing terrorism in America, for example, the sick, xenophobic “campaign terrorism” of McCain and Palin, and the bone-breaking “hyena” fear-mongering of the world’s number one terrorist, Dick Cheney.

As Mr. Savage admits, the confederacy was a conglomeration of eleven states, bent on preserving the institution of black slavery, therefore, showing any respect to what their soldiers fought for — is tantamount to sanctioning their vile acts!

Let them celebrate their lynching history in their backyards and out of site.

If Obama sends a wreath to the Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery, then he will be insulting the “fifty percent” of him that is black — which opens another can of worms altogether: Why is the president designated BLACK and not WHITE? Professor Ochieng discusses the one-drop rule.

Confederate(Republican) Hate Themes: | ACORN Vote Fraud | William Ayers | Muslim Obama

UPDATE: Monday, Obama decided to continue a controversial presidential tradition of honoring Southern Civil War soldiers by sending a wreath to Arlington’s Confederate Memorial, according to the White House. [ READ MORE ]

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