Reflections on Being Called a Swine

Towards the end of the comment section of Tuesday's edition of A Red Mind In A Blue State , I am called a swine, and told to look at a book designed to de-swine me Benjamin Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States.

I don't feel it appropriate to write a 500-word response in a comments section, so I only wrote a little there. My full comments are:

On The Religious Leanings of the Founding Fathers

Nice of you to direct me to a book written during the Civil War, because it allows me to share with you my basic bedtime story --

The single fact of American history is that the Union won the Civil War in 1865 -- slavery was abolished (13th Amendment) -- equal protection (14th Amendment) and voting rights (15th Amendment) were added to our Constitution.

And those people who lost the war, and who were forced to eat non-sweetened Jim Crow, forced to come back into the Union with the new amendments, they have been trying to reverse that result ever since.

They try to minimize the effect of those amendments. They try to say that the Amendments did not mean freedom, did not mean equality (and diminish States Rights), and did not give anyone the full right to vote.

(And nowadays, for sure, things are looking up for people who think like that. That voting rights decision from Indiana, just this week -- Good job)

So on one level, it has been an outrageous rewrite of American History, for the whole time from 1861 onwards, to even care too much about what the Founding Fathers wanted.

Because everything they wanted was mixed in with the compromises that they had to make on slavery.

Because everything they wanted was washed away, as Lincoln said in his Second Inaugural, in the 250 years of blood from the lash, and the 250 years worth of blood drawn from the sword.

***

And out of all that blood, came the only good news out of the whole 4 year ordeal

Lincoln's New Birth of Freedom.

Which meant that the old constitution was void. It still had some purpose - but mostly as background for the new Constitution, the one with the new amendments attached to the end.

And then non-believers killed Lincoln on Good Friday.

***

When people say that the country has been in decline since the 60s, and everything that happened since then is a mistake, or that such and such a thing proves that the 60s spirit is still alive, or that such and such a thing proves that the 60s are over, and good riddance, I always have to ask

Which 60s are you talking about?


At What Point Did America Go To Hell In A Handbasket?

Slavery was abolished in the 60s, and the 14th Amendment gave all citizens equal rights. Among other things, a labor movement, a woman’s suffrage movement, and a civil rights movement, and an attempt to inch the concept of equal rights closer to reality.

At which of those points can the country be said to go downhill?

Was it when slavery was abolished?

When we decided we had killed enough Indians?

When we released the Japanese from the concentration camps?

When we decided that maybe 15-year old girls were too young to be mothers? That maybe they ought to have a few years to get an education and figure out one or two ways to make their own money?

When the lynchings went underground, and the wife and kiddies were no longer invited to spend Sunday afternoons cheering along?

Some people say it was the invention of ragtime.

Others say it was the invention of jazz.

And all of these low points that caused -- as you put it --the country's long decline towards equality -- where the riffraff think they're good as you and me -- all these things occurred before the invention of television.

Sure I'd Like To Stick A Fork in It. But ...

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” – U.S Constitution 14th Amendment

“Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." – Abraham Lincoln – Second Inaugural Address, 1865


“The best way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discrimination on the basis of race.” – Chief Justice Roberts, Parents Involved –v- City of Seattle, somewhat less than 250 years later.

****

We have been listening to these debates about the Bush/ Kennedy immigration proposals for years now.

To my knowledge, it has never been pointed out that the Constitution contains its own amnesty program – the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment does not make any mention of where your parents come from. If you are born here, you are a citizen here.

If a serious immigration bill is ever discussed, people are going to have to explain to me why they feel that it is so important to deport the parents of United States citizens.

***

The 14th Amendment exists to amend the original Constitution, which in its "Intent of the Framers" version did not use the everyday definition of “person.” There were “persons subject to Migration or Importation”, there were 3/5 persons, and there were “persons held to service or labor.” None of these persons were citizens, and none of their children were citizens, whether they were born in the United States or not.

If a serious immigration bill is ever discussed, someone, preferably a direct descendant of a “person held to service or labor,” is going to have to explain to me why they support a bill that seems to reintroduce a concept that we spent 4 long and bloody years fighting a Civil War over, and the subsequent 140 plus years fighting over the results.

Incidentally, I have no opinion on the immigration bill as a whole. I hardly know what is in it, except for the guest worker program.

However, a guest worker program, a road back to slavery, is so hateful to me, that I cannot see past it, and I cannot understand how anyone else can see past it either.

I am so happy that this Immigration Bill is dead –for now.

It is worth noting, as the Chief Justice’s statement, just yesterday, indicates, that people are tired of talking about race in this country, and would like to see a day where we move past it.

That day is far away. Slavery is the original sin of this country. Some people benefited greatly from the suffering of others. They long for those moonlight and magnolia days.

Some people believe that they should not be burdened by the sins of those who died years and years before any of their own ancestors ever set foot in this country. Here is where Pat Buchanan and I agree. Certain people should have immigrated somewhere else. Everyone wants to be an American? Well, the effects of racism and discrimination is one of the fundamental things about what it means to be an American. If you want another, lesser sort of experience, there are a whole lot of other countries to go to.

We need to go to extra lengths to be sure that we do not find ourselves on, or anywhere near, the road to slavery.