No, the Civil War is NOT Over. In fact, the South is slowly winning.

Sorry to break it to you, Gentle Reader, but somebody had to. For all the orthodox history saying that the Confederacy surrendered at Appomattox, they have in fact continued fighting for segregation, class stratification, and other key Confederate values.

The most obvious example was the large number of Jim Crow laws imposed upon black Americans after the South “surrendered”. Pretty much slavery without the costs of feeding, housing, and clothing the oppressed black workers and their families. Apartheid, American style.

Then came the Civil Rights Movement. We made some progress then, no doubt about it. But starting in the 1980’s, the NeoConfederates have slowly and systematically worked to restore their white-supremacist system, and in fact spread it to other, non-Confederate states.

Undoing affirmative action? Check.
Rolling back voting rights for Persons of Color? Check.
Lower wages paid to black workers than whites? Check.

All of this indicates a non-coincidental trend. It is a deliberate effort to re-fight the Civil War, albeit without obvious military force. And it is succeeding. Here’s one tiny example:

Once upon a time in the Oughts, your humble correspondent had a girlfriend from a foreign country, and she traveled to America to visit, meet the family, see the sights, and so on. She really wanted to see the South, and so we spent some time there. During that sojourn, we stopped at one of Georgia’s state universities to look at dinosaur bones, and wandered into a historical exhibit about the “War of Northern Aggression” (indeed, it was thus labeled) and how bad it was for the formerly-contented slaves. This in an accredited, state-chartered university.

That was a shocker. A government-funded institution teaching and spreading lies about the Civil War. She was shocked, and so was B & C.

Since that incident knocked the scales off the eyeballs, it has become ever more apparent that the Reagan Revolution included a strong racist, neo-Secessionist component. But instead of leaving the Union, the South has decided to take the over the whole damned country.

We are still at war with the forces of racist evil, friends. And we are losing.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Of COURSE People of Color Don’t Trust Cops. They Have no Reason to Trust Cops.

And lots of reasons not to. It isn’t a recent phenomenon that started with white officers killing black men in Ferguson, Staten Island or Cleveland: it goes back to the days of slavery, when the authorities enforced the laws by catching escaped slaves and forcibly returing them to the slave owners. It continued through the post-Civil-War era as police were used to enforce Jim Crow laws that kept people of color (POC) in another set of “chains”.

And did the Civil Rights laws of the 60’s fix things? Oh, Hell no. The cops were used to “keep order” among the minority population and protect the white folks from said minorities. Once again, the cops were and are the visible face of oppression, and the means used to oppress the non-white people of America.

Asians are likewise POC, and they deal with a lot of crap from cops as well: immigration, profiling, harassment, civil rights violations, etc. You think anybody in their communities have forgotten the World War Two internment camps? Here’s a hint, boyo: they haven’t. And who put them into the camps? Armed people in uniforms put them in those camps. Cops (and soldiers, in that case).

How about Latinos? POC they are as well, and they have likewise dealt with a history of abuse and marginalization. And yes, once again the cops were the instrument of that extra-constitutional mistreatment.

It didn’t start with Michael Brown, or even John Brown. It won’t end with a single grand jury indictment, or even several indictments. As the Prexy has said, the system can’t function if POC don’t trust that justice will be delivered in an impartial manner.

Speaking as a (formerly long-haired) hippie freak, this writer doesn’t place blind trust in the cops or those for whom they work. Comes from having been harassed, profiled, roughed up, shaken down, and driven to city boundaries with guns enforcing the officers’ orders to “Git, and never come back” on more than one occasion. Being “othered” while looking at the wrong end of a gun makes an indelible impression on a person.

But you know what made the Cranky life a lot easier? Baldness. Cops can no longer discern my political views by a glance. Indeed, a somewhat portly middle-aged white man is rarely targeted by the cops. But…

Black people can’t wash off their pigment. Nor can other people of color. They can never, ever be free of the institutionalized violence and abuse that is routinely heaped upon minorities. Their skin color makes them a target. They know it. Cops know it.

When everybody knows the system is rigged, nobody can believe in the system. We are living in a crumbling edifice, built upon a history of xenophobia and racist hatred. Unless we all get together and build a foundation that truly aligns with the notion that we are created equal, the whole American experiment will fall apart, ending in blood and ashes.

Trust is needed. Right now POC don’t trust the system. And lots of white people are deciding we don’t trust it either. Police of America, it’s time to decide who you work for, and to earn back the trust we need you to deserve.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The War on Voting

Yes, yes, yes, sorry, but there’s another one. We’ve had The War on Poverty, The War on Cancer, The War on Women, jeez, can’t we lay this meme down and waterboard it to death? Nope, folks, not yet. This war is bigger than most, and yet has been mostly ignored by the media. But it has drastic and far-reaching consequences for us all.

The right to vote has been a matter of contention since the founding of the nation – there have always been those who favored a more inclusive policy and those who wanted to make it more exclusive.  Today it is the Republicans who favor fewer voters and Democrats who favor more voters, and they apply those philosophies in their daily activities.

Vote purges: Republicans favor this, because it limits participation without getting in people’s faces. It usually spun as “making sure (felons, illegal aliens, or whoever is being demonized at the moment)” don’t vote illegally”. Democrats tend not to favor this, because it limits participation by those who move frequently, have fewer resources, etc. Plus, it wastes time and money that Dems would rather use for things Dems like.

Voter ID laws: Dems HATE these, at least partly because part of their core constituency (poor folk, minorities, the elderly) don’t always have a photo ID, or the means to get one. Repubs love Voter ID laws, for the exact same reason.

Redistricting: This one often gets missed, but is pretty huge. By drawing districts to favor one party over another, key groups of voters find their influence diminished, their polling places made less accessible, and sometimes subjected to so much confusion that they cannot cast a vote at all.

“Cost Savings” and “Efficiency”: These get pulled out in order to save money for state and local gummints. These also tend to create the greatest problems for elderly and poor voters, who need the “expensive” early/absentee/accessible voting options in order to be able to, well, cast a feckin’ ballot. Mostly done on purpose by Repubs, sometimes done mistakenly by Dems.

The key point: whether you lean Repub or Dem, the Dems are on your side in this one area at least: they want you to be able to vote if you want to.  This writer suggests you do so. As Pogo once said, “I want you all to get on out there and VOTE!” When asked for whom to vote, Pogo shrugged that off.  “As long as you vote, you can’t go wrong.” Words to live by, and reason enough to make sure no one takes away your right to do so.

Mr. B & C