So, how did you celebrate Confederate Memorial Day yesterday? What, you didn’t celebrate? Don’t feel bad, because I didn’t either. Why? Well, mainly because I’m not a redneck, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobe jackass who wants to pretend the Civil War ended differently.
In the state I was born and live in, Georgia, yesterday was a state holiday! Same in Alabama and Mississippi. But if you ask anyone in this part of the country why they still celebrate this so-called holiday, they’ll claim it’s all about honoring their Southern heritage. And to that I respond, Bullshit!
What the “memorial” is all about was revealed in its true form in Mississippi, where the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) decided to celebrate their heritage on Sunday evening after dark had fallen by setting a cross alight. Nah, nothing the least bit racist about that.
The Klan even advertised their event, letting folks know the reason for their gathering:
“April 27 2015 is Confederate Memorial day in Mississippi. The UDWK will honor Confederate Memorial day on Sunday April 26, 2015. We will raise the battle Flag and say the Confederate pledge, this is only open to UDWK members. Being most of the original 1865 Klan were soldiers who wore gray, it is our duty to honor there sacrifice and service against the Yankee New World Order machine.”
Yankee New World Order machine? Excuse me, but I believe the North won the war and since then we have been known as the United States of America. Is it really necessary to attempt the refighting of a war that was lost 150 years ago? This is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate anyone who believes differently than the cowards who wear those ridiculous hoods. Or as Deep South Daily writer Ashton Pittman stated:
“The fetishization of the slave South is just as much about today as it is about 1865. We are still fighting against social progress, against equal rights, and against the federal government.”“The fetishization of the slave South is just as much about today as it is about 1865. We are still fighting against social progress, against equal rights, and against the federal government.”
The states that still celebrate this bogus holiday/memorial should be deeply ashamed of themselves. But something tells me they aren’t, not in the least. No doubt quite a few of the legislators in those Southern states would have felt right at home when the Klan burned that cross Sunday night.
But this is 2015, and it’s way past time for the South to stop fighting against progress.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.