I see two threads already in response to the recent senseless attack in Virginia tending to paint the political left as the sole instigating faction in what is, in reality, an escalating trend towards aggression and acts of violence in this country in every quarter.
Have people forgotten Gabby Giffords? Or the shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.? Or the attack on the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community, both located in Overland Park, Kansas? The Dylan Roof bloodbath? On a lower level, how about the physical assaults against individuals and reporters at Trump rallies during the last election campaign? These are no different than the shooting in Virginia or the attacks on speakers and speakers' rights by radical students at various colleges and Universities around the country in recent months. Both sides are guilty of having extremists within their ranks, and pushing the boundaries to the point of no return, and the majorities of non-extremists need to isolate those individuals and let them know they do not speak for the group, which is no more than we ask of the Muslim community when individuals or groups stage attacks, unjustly, in the name of all.
I have in fact seen at least two posters on this board intimating in recent months that some kind of organized, violent "cleansing" of liberals is coming soon, and deservedly, with God's stamp of approval, so they seem to think. I won't name names but let's not pretend this downward trend in our country is a one way street.
I think if we do not turn we are heading towards civil war. I know plenty of people on both sides of the political question and I have heard plenty of uncivil talk. Much of it would be considered incitement if it was delivered publicly in the context of a riot. Therefore I think it is important to study our first Civil War to avoid a second and a good place to start if you're interested is James M. McPherson's 'Battle Cry Of Freedom' Amazon product ASIN 019516895X and Adam Goodheart '1861: The Civil War Awakening' Amazon product ASIN 1400032199
One section from the McPherson book I'll never forget was when he is discussing the attitude towards the coming war in the South and quotes a phrase made common by the Fire-Eaters (a group of radical pro-slavery Southerners in the Antebellum South who urged the separation of Southern states into a new nation). According to the Fire-Eaters, in any war that might break out between the manly South and the effeminate North, "a lady's thimble will hold all the blood that will be shed." 800,000 dead on both sides later, in America's costliest war in history, those minions of Satan were proved wrong.
Today, just as then, there are a lot of Fire-Eaters on both sides but I personally hear most of the actual calls to violence coming from the right, around the coffee pot at the Co-Op or at the local fast food place. Most of the liberals I know simply deride the intelligence of anyone who is a Republican in the mode of late night talk shows. I do also see many comments on discussion boards and even at the New York Times by gun-owning liberals, progressives, and leftists who warn the other side not to start the fish-in-a barrel shoot just yet.
So today, as in 1861, I would urge all those who feel their side is so masculine and dominant and God-sanctioned that the other side would fall away in fear before it, to read and heed the words of none other than Sam Houston, governor and founding father of the great state of Texas, who refused to go along with secession and war against his own nation, was forced to resign as a result, but eruditely warned his fellow Southerners that,
“Some of you laugh to scorn the idea of bloodshed as the result of secession, but let me tell you what is coming….Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet….You may after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win Southern independence…but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of state rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction…they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South. ”
“To secede from the Union and set up another government would cause war. If you go to war with the United States, you will never conquer her, as she has the money and the men. If she does not whip you by guns, powder, and steel, she will starve you to death. It will take the flower of the country-the young men.”
“I declare that civil war is inevitable and is near at hand. When it comes the descendants of the heros of Lexington and Bunker Hill will be found equal in patriotism, courage and heroic endurance with the descendants of the heroes of Cowpens and Yorktown. For this reason I predict the civil war which is now at hand will be stubborn and of long duration.”
“In the name of the constitution of Texas, which has been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her.”
Do you love your nation, your family, your God enough to make that same pledge today?
Have people forgotten Gabby Giffords? Or the shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.? Or the attack on the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community, both located in Overland Park, Kansas? The Dylan Roof bloodbath? On a lower level, how about the physical assaults against individuals and reporters at Trump rallies during the last election campaign? These are no different than the shooting in Virginia or the attacks on speakers and speakers' rights by radical students at various colleges and Universities around the country in recent months. Both sides are guilty of having extremists within their ranks, and pushing the boundaries to the point of no return, and the majorities of non-extremists need to isolate those individuals and let them know they do not speak for the group, which is no more than we ask of the Muslim community when individuals or groups stage attacks, unjustly, in the name of all.
I have in fact seen at least two posters on this board intimating in recent months that some kind of organized, violent "cleansing" of liberals is coming soon, and deservedly, with God's stamp of approval, so they seem to think. I won't name names but let's not pretend this downward trend in our country is a one way street.
I think if we do not turn we are heading towards civil war. I know plenty of people on both sides of the political question and I have heard plenty of uncivil talk. Much of it would be considered incitement if it was delivered publicly in the context of a riot. Therefore I think it is important to study our first Civil War to avoid a second and a good place to start if you're interested is James M. McPherson's 'Battle Cry Of Freedom' Amazon product ASIN 019516895X and Adam Goodheart '1861: The Civil War Awakening' Amazon product ASIN 1400032199
One section from the McPherson book I'll never forget was when he is discussing the attitude towards the coming war in the South and quotes a phrase made common by the Fire-Eaters (a group of radical pro-slavery Southerners in the Antebellum South who urged the separation of Southern states into a new nation). According to the Fire-Eaters, in any war that might break out between the manly South and the effeminate North, "a lady's thimble will hold all the blood that will be shed." 800,000 dead on both sides later, in America's costliest war in history, those minions of Satan were proved wrong.
Today, just as then, there are a lot of Fire-Eaters on both sides but I personally hear most of the actual calls to violence coming from the right, around the coffee pot at the Co-Op or at the local fast food place. Most of the liberals I know simply deride the intelligence of anyone who is a Republican in the mode of late night talk shows. I do also see many comments on discussion boards and even at the New York Times by gun-owning liberals, progressives, and leftists who warn the other side not to start the fish-in-a barrel shoot just yet.
So today, as in 1861, I would urge all those who feel their side is so masculine and dominant and God-sanctioned that the other side would fall away in fear before it, to read and heed the words of none other than Sam Houston, governor and founding father of the great state of Texas, who refused to go along with secession and war against his own nation, was forced to resign as a result, but eruditely warned his fellow Southerners that,
“Some of you laugh to scorn the idea of bloodshed as the result of secession, but let me tell you what is coming….Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet….You may after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win Southern independence…but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of state rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction…they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South. ”
“To secede from the Union and set up another government would cause war. If you go to war with the United States, you will never conquer her, as she has the money and the men. If she does not whip you by guns, powder, and steel, she will starve you to death. It will take the flower of the country-the young men.”
“I declare that civil war is inevitable and is near at hand. When it comes the descendants of the heros of Lexington and Bunker Hill will be found equal in patriotism, courage and heroic endurance with the descendants of the heroes of Cowpens and Yorktown. For this reason I predict the civil war which is now at hand will be stubborn and of long duration.”
“In the name of the constitution of Texas, which has been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her.”
Do you love your nation, your family, your God enough to make that same pledge today?
