red onion

Saturday, November 15, 2003

Cut and Run.

It is my prediction that the Bushies will cut and run. From Iraq that is. Honestly, my mother predicted this weeks ago. She dreamt that Iraq was a horrible swamp from which we could not extricate ourselves, and the American troops were left there to die. She and Wesley Clark were watching in horror when this happened, in her dream. I think it is looking more and more like the troops will be suddenly overrun, and helpless, left to die. Bush will drown in blood and lose the election, or, he will invent a new threat, and win the election, or declare Marshall law, or some such nonsense. I put nothing past these monsters.

# posted by scorpiorising : 5:39 AM |

I'm Scared.

A dream last night that my sister told me it will turn freezing cold tonight, 5 degrees below zero. I fear now that this is a forewarning that Blanco is to lose. Shit.

# posted by scorpiorising : 5:12 AM |

Friday, November 14, 2003

Apologies and response concerning the rebel flag, Dean, and the south.

From my friend,

elizabeth,
I came very close to calling you all ignoramuses and I apologize
for that. I think you three know more than most about American history
-- what I was saying is that you've taken the side of the ignoramuses
against Dean, arguing that he needs to watch his mouth when he says
something that might offend the ignoramuses who misinterpret the rebel
flag as nothing but a symbol of racism and are unaware of its richer and
deeper significance -- those are the ignoramuses. I'm not content to let
a symbol that I honor and revere be trashed and forgotten because idiots
in the '50s and a few remaining troublemakers misuse it. I'm
disappointed that folks who do know its greater significance have no
heart to defend it. I'm disappointed that Democrats have this tendency
to divide and undercut each other when unity is so obviously needed to
achieve a common purpose, to defend democracy and the Constitution, to
take the presidency back from thieves, liars and murderering
imperialists. Why is it so important to you to beat up on the Democratic
front-runner when you know he's not a racist and at worst he made an
ill-considered word choice? Don't you know you're giving ammunition to
the other side?

By the way, I was not talking about displaying a rebel flag in my
window. I was talking about putting it in my home to spark conversations
among my friends, to revive an appreciation for its greater significance.
I decided a better way to do that was to make a poster of "The Day They
Drove Old Dixie Down". There's too many ignoramuses out there who would
take offense if I put the flag in my window -- I'd endanger the other
occupants of this house by attracting the ignoramuses you defend.
I'm well aware of the large number of rebel flag-hating
ignoramuses -- I don't need to "google" on them to find out. Defenders
of the flag mostly do so out of respect for its positive traditional
meanings and only rarely for its newer, hateful meaning. Overt racism
has been effectively marginalized over the last 50 years. Other
prejudices -- including contempt for rebel flag flying bubbas -- has
replaced it.

J( *}

# posted by scorpiorising : 5:27 PM |

Tomorrow is the election for the governorship of Louisiana.

What a few weeks it has been since I jumped on the forum for Louisianademocrats@yahoo.com and predicted Kathleen Blanco had all but lost the election to Bobby Jindal. Several of us exchanged very worried messages. In the process, I was invited to a women's breakfast for Blanco which was held last Saturday, the day of the full moon eclipse.

I knew there would be no shortage of emotional energy due to the eclipse; what I didn't expect was the effort we all made, all 1000+ of us women, to lift each other's spirits, and in the process, Kathleen's. She said, "Ya'll have inspired me and convinced me we can do it". I believe her. She had been dropping in the polls. I'm sure she lost some hope, as we were all struggling to keep the faith.

Today the race is neck and neck, and I can tell you, that something good happened in that room last Saturday. I'm not saying it is the reason for Kathleen's surge in the polls, but it is amazing what women who support and care for each other can influence and accomplish.

The breakfast began with a spontaneous second line, with the fantastic Storyville Stompers. My friend and I jumped into the back of line, waving the large, white dinner napkins next to our plates. The trombone player swang that horn right above our heads. I told my friend we were dancing for justice.

There were several moving testimonials from black activists and politicians, all women, that Kathleen had helped in some way in the course of her long, excellent career. Renee Gil-Pratt, a New Orleans City Councilwoman, described how the Essence Festival wanted to abandon New Orleans as the venue for its yearly festival, because of a difference with the state of Louisiana over discrimination and hiring. Blanco stepped in, as Lt. Governor, and negotiated a compromise between the state and the festival. That is a victory worth 100 million dollars a year for New Orleans.

Senator Mary Landrieu was there with her brother, Mitch, who was just elected Lt. Governor. They got up on stage together, and Mitch described how Mary has won her last two elections by one vote per precinct. Mary shook her head solemnly. We all know the incredible effort we have to put forth to defeat the money of the republican party.

Mary led a cheer, Go Blanco Go, and we sent Kathleen out on cloud 9.

Kathleen is a hard-working, no-nonsense yet compassionate woman who exemplifies the Big Tent of the democratic party. She met with the gay and lesbian groups in the state while Jindal refused, saying he "didn't have the time". Like my friend said, he isn't honest enough to admit gays don't jive with his religious fanaticism. Even some nationally known bloggers found and circulated religious articles Jindal wrote in the early 90's, pertaining supposedly to Jindal's brush with demonic possession, and his belief in the Catholic Church as the only true church.

We've all been a bit hard on Blanco these last few weeks, as she dived from a 10 point lead to about a 10 point deficit in the polls about three weeks ago. I know there were many hard on her, because I was one of the ones who called her campaign headquarters in Lafayette to express my fears and dissappointment in her campaign so far. The worker I spoke to said they were receiving many worried calls from her supporters. I wasn't just a naysayer, however, as me and several from the La. demos@yahoo.com had very concrete and excellent suggestions as to how she could better exploit his weaknesses and her strengths. Someone at the headquarters was not supposed to give me a particular email address, which I used to send several emails filled with suggestions for ads and strategies in the remaining two weeks.

I have no idea wether our emails were regarded or not, but Blanco laid out some hard hitting ads on TV, mailouts and the radio which dealt direct hit on Jindal. There is no other way to run for office these days against republicans. You have to answer each attack, and uncover and expose their political weaknesses.

Blanco stayed away from the more controversial issues regarding Jindal's religious beliefs, but she did challenge him on the inclusivity issue. She really didn't have to bring up the articles he wrote, because with the help of us yellow dog democrats, the articles are circulating anyway. Blanco almost waited too late to attack him, at forst running ineffective ads claiming to be a victim of Jindal's attacks. This is not what the voters want to hear. They want to hear that someone is strong enough to take the republicans on toe to toe, without lying in the process. It is not playing dirty to expose what you believe are the political weaknesses of another.

We have to be stronger than they are, especially in spirit.

# posted by scorpiorising : 5:05 PM |

Thursday, November 13, 2003

Dean, the GOP and racism.

"M" had this to say about the subject:

I think the Republicans have been playing this kind of
wedge politics more and more lately, giving little
nods to the far right when no one else is around, and
then acting reasonable in public. Bush, Barbour,
Jindal, Trent Lott, etc. are all playing this
two-faced game. The Dean supporters think they've got
the answer to this kind of politics, but I think
they're playing right into GOP hands.

# posted by scorpiorising : 5:22 PM |

More on the Confederate flag and the South.

I think the emails speak for themselves, so here they are. I'll highlight his emails in black and mine will be italicized:

J,
>
> I saw an idiot with rebel flags all over his truck driving down
> Carrollton
> not long ago. He also had two big flags flying from atop two flag
> posts
> hooked on either side of the back of his truck. I happened to be
> working
> with a black woman at the time (our shop faces Carrollton), and she
> reacted
> aggressively by running through the door onto the sidewalk, hooting
> and
> hollering at this truck, shaking her fist in the air. She did it
> with a
> touch of humor though, a kind of dark humor, in which one would have
> thought
> she was actually cheering the guy on, until noticing the color of
> her skin.
> She did it with great irony and humor actually. She called them
> "idiots"
> afterwards, which they were. I think they had Mississippi or Alabama
> license
> plates.
>
elizabeth

Elizabeth,

I think I know how Howard Dean felt trying to explain his remark.
Like him, you all know I'm not a racist. Like him, I have an
appreciation for the traditional meanings of the rebel flag, for honor,
courage, love of homeland, the Constitution, resistance to tyranny, and
the suffering of kith and kin. M thinks it's important how many
days of explaining passed between Dean's remark and his surrendering
apology. T and elizabeth think it's important that a few rare idiots
still sometimes like to provoke a response by waving the rebel flag.
Everybody wants to be right.
I'm tempted to follow Dean's example and just apologize to you
all to shut you up. I'm not trying to be President so I don't have that
pressure on me, but I am committed to electing someone other than Bush.
If it would help us all get focused again on the task at hand and stop
this stupid bickering and squabbling among ourselves, I will apologize to
you: Yes, it's sad that Dean spoke without considering the hostile and
divisive reaction he would get by making reference to the Confederate
flag. I'm terribly sorry.
This whole episode makes me want to find a rebel flag and display
it in my home. But maybe I'll just make a nice poster out of "The Night
They Drove Old Dixie Down" and put that up instead.

J( *}

J,

> It's interesting to me that you would prefer that we shut up on this
> issue, as you so indelicately propose. You proposed that it is very
rare
> that it happens, that some idiot waves the rebel flag, etc. However,
this
> has been, very recently, a very divisive issue in some state
governments in
> the south, involving the opinions and views of millions of people.
Several
> southern states either continue to fly the flag, or very close
approximations
> of it, to the dismay of many of the states' black citizens. If you
don't
> believe me, google on it, as I did. It is not rare that this flag is
waived
> in the face of black people. Actually, it is quite common.
>
> elizabeth

elizabeth,

When southern states fly their flags with the rebel flag within,
they do so in honor of their heritage and the positive symbolism I've
spelled out for you, which imbued the flag for over 90 years before
racists misused it during the civil rights struggle. They do not fly the
flag to antagonize their black citizens, and black citizens with an
understanding and appreciation of American history know that. Many
Americans, maybe most Americans, do not know and understand their own
history, and that's unfortunate. Are those of us who do know history
supposed to let the ignoramuses prevail? I prefer to at least try to
educate those who misunderstand and despise the meaning of the rebel
flag. Dean chose to placate the ignoramuses so he could get on with
winning the presidency. Meanwhile, your foolish crusade on the side of
ignorance would weaken the Democratic candidate most likely to take the
presidency back from the military/industrial complex; but thankfully,
your negative opinions have been neutralized by Dean's quick and politic
apologies and today he received two major labor endorsements.
You're free to go on complaining. I don't think I'll have
anything more to say on this topic.

J

J,

You don't have to reply to this, but please permit me the dignity of responding
to your last message on the subject. Apparently, the dialogue has
deteriorated to the point that those who don't agree with your historical interpretation of the flag are ignoramuses. I suppose you lump the three of us
in that category as well. Apparently, you didn't bother to do the little bit of
research that I suggested, and google on the confederate flag in southern
states, because it might dispel your confidence on the subject. I have
no confidence on this subject. It is a complicated issue, full of historical
significanse, pride, fear, longing, anger (obviously) and hate. I have empathy for those who treasure the flag, and I know that not all of these people are racists. I do know however, that some who are racists use the flag to promote their views. Barbour was recently elected governor of Mississippi, and is a supporter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group that prominently features the confederate flag on its web site. From the Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/10/
29/barbour_campaign_shows_gops_racist_side/:

"In the rush to trample Musgrove, the GOP is crushing its own toes. Barbour has blatantly appealed to the most racist elements in Mississippi by defiantly
refusing to ask the Council of Conservative Citizens to remove his photograph
from its website home page. The photo shows Barbour at a CCC-sponsored barbecue with five other men, including CCC field director Bill Lord.

The CCC grew out of the racist white citizens councils that fought integration
during the civil rights movement. In yet another example of its hatred, the CCC home page features an article titled "The Racial Compact." The article proposes a South African-style apartheid in most of the United States reserved for the
"Nordish-American population." African-Americans, who are referred to as "Congoid," would be shoved into what is now Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and north Texas. Latinos would be consigned to south Texas and New Mexico."

You site the 50's as the decade in which the flag began to be seen as a racist symbol, yet you offer no analysis as to why that decade. I have done no
reading on the subject, but I will venture a theory: the 50's marked a change in consciousness for blacks, in that they began to find their voice, and formulate
their objections to the segregated south, which exploded into the civil rights protests of the 60's. As they began to formulate their objections, some of their focus landed on the confederate flag, which flew unopposed at the time, over several southern states, as a symbol of their oppression.

I'm not asking you necessarily to agree with their interpretation, but instead to recognize that they, like yourself, are entitled to have their interpretation
of a very important symbol. Somewhere the two sides will have to meet in the middle, because we are one nation under one flag. That is why my suggestion for Dean, to use the concept of inclusivity within the origin of our country, as a metaphor to reach out to confederate flag waivers.

It saddened me to hear you "threaten" to display the flag in your window.
I can tell you that it would not harm myself, "T" or "M" in any way if you did this. I'm glad that you decided not to do it, however, as it would have drawn unnecessary attention to a symbol that is fraught with tension for this country.
You said you want to educate people on the true meaning of the flag, so that
they will see the dignity and nobility inherent in the symbol. That is fine, but remember, your truth is just that: your truth. You are attempting to put forth your beliefs about the flag as historically accurate, as opposed to the beliefs others
may hold. Be careful that you don't become Don Quixote chasing windmills,
and the illusions of your own beliefs.

elizabeth

elizabeth,
I came very close to calling you all ignoramuses and I apologize
for that. I think you three know more than most about American history
-- what I was saying is that you've taken the side of the ignoramuses
against Dean, arguing that he needs to watch his mouth when he says
something that might offend the ignoramuses who misinterpret the rebel
flag as nothing but a symbol of racism and are unaware of its richer and
deeper significance -- those are the ignoramuses. I'm not content to let
a symbol that I honor and revere be trashed and forgotten because idiots
in the '50s and a few remaining troublemakers misuse it. I'm
disappointed that folks who do know its greater significance have no
heart to defend it. I'm disappointed that Democrats have this tendency
to divide and undercut each other when unity is so obviously needed to
achieve a common purpose, to defend democracy and the Constitution, to
take the presidency back from thieves, liars and murderering
imperialists. Why is it so important to you to beat up on the Democratic
front-runner when you know he's not a racist and at worst he made an
ill-considered word choice? Don't you know you're giving ammunition to
the other side?

By the way, I was not talking about displaying a rebel flag in my
window. I was talking about putting it in my home to spark conversations
among my friends, to revive an appreciation for its greater significance.
I decided a better way to do that was to make a poster of "The Day They
Drove Old Dixie Down". There's too many ignoramuses out there who would
take offense if I put the flag in my window -- I'd endanger the other
occupants of this house by attracting the ignoramuses you defend.
I'm well aware of the large number of rebel flag-hating
ignoramuses -- I don't need to "google" on them to find out. Defenders
of the flag mostly do so out of respect for its positive traditional
meanings and only rarely for its newer, hateful meaning. Overt racism
has been effectively marginalized over the last 50 years. Other
prejudices -- including contempt for rebel flag flying bubbas -- has
replaced it.

J( *}

# posted by scorpiorising : 5:11 PM |

The Confederate Flag and Racism in the south.

My conversation with my friend over the Confederate Flag deteriorated, then improved again, although, at least for now, we'll simply have to agree to disagree.

I want to make a point here though, and one that I make in an email to friends that I will include here, is that the GOP is unabashedly supporting racists candidates for major offices, namely, Barbour in Mississippi. The GOP pulled out all the stops for Barbour, including visits from Cheney and Bush. In a column by Derrick Jackson I found in the Boston Globe, he reports the dark underbelly of the GOP elephant in their support of Barbour.

Barbour has ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a southern group with blatantly racist segregation beliefs, and prominent displays of the rebel flag on their website.

My friend's beliefs about the flag, are very different from those of racists. In fact, my friend neatly slices the flag from any ties to our history of oppression of the black race in this country. I feel this is somewhat unrealistic. My friend, however, is not a racist. There is a small group of humanitarians, my friend mentions Robbie Robertson, who see the qualities of independence and self-reliance reflected in the flag. I can't argue with their interpretation of that symbol necessarily, except in the case of refusal to recognize that others feel an equal legitimacy in their views of the flag as a representation of evil and harm, or one of white supremacy.

The flag in and of itself, as an inanimate object, is not evil. It is the meaning that we ascribe to symbols that we create, that determine wether the flag, or any symbol, will be used for good or for ill. Unfortunately, too many would prefer to use it for ill, and too many believe that the flag is the representation of evil. Under the circumstances, I feel it would be far better to distance oneself from use of the flag at all, except in very private instances, if one must.

# posted by scorpiorising : 2:41 PM |

Monday, November 10, 2003

Dean and the confederate flag.

My friend posted these comments to me regarding Dean's comments on confederate flag wavers:

I wasn't offended at all by his reference to the Rebel flag,
>which to me and to millions of Southerners symbolizes regional pride,
>fierce individuality, and a refusal to knuckle under to tyrranical
>authority, not racism or slavery. I understood his remark to mean that
>his candidacy has to appeal to the Southern white mainstream if he's
>going to win, and I think that's very true.
> Dean's Democratic rivals unfairly twisted his remark into
>something else, unfortunately damaging the Party, but not too bad. To
>me, their remarks were more condescending toward Southerners than Dean's
>were. Pickup trucks aren't cheap.

And my response:

Regarding Dean's comments concerning the confederate flag, I sat next to a Dean supporter at a breakfast for Kathleen Blanco recently. This Dean supporter, a white woman, said that African Americans who work with her won't speak to her now regarding Dean, because of his remark. I'm afraid he still has some fences to mend with the average black voter who is aware of his comments, and it is hard not to be aware of them what with everyone jumping into the fray.

You may disagree with anyone taking offense at his remark, but it was ill-considered and I'm afraid he'll have to learn the hard way on this one. You very accurately expressed how some white people feel about the flag, when you said:

"I wasn't offended at all by his reference to the Rebel flag, which to me and to millions of Southerners symbolizes regional pride, fierce individuality, and a refusal to knuckle under to tyrranical authority, not racism or slavery. I understood his remark to mean that his candidacy has to appeal to the Southern white mainstream if he's going to win, and I think that's very true.

Dean's Democratic rivals unfairly twisted his remark into something else, unfortunately damaging the Party, but not too bad. To me, their remarks were more condescending toward Southerners than Dean's were. Pickup trucks aren't cheap."

I am somwhat surprised to hear you say how much you also identify with the flag, when to millions of blacks, it is a symbol of the slavery they fought to be free of. You and I have had discussions about our beliefs that the Civil War need not have been fought. I agree with you on that point. However, to put such importance and pride in a symbol that provokes fear and horror in our African American population, is callous and insensitive, to say the least.

If Dean had prefaced his remark, in a way that would have respected the "regional pride and fierce individuality", as you put it, while gently chiding those same people, and reminding them that the Democratic party has and always will be a huge tent for everyone, including disaffected republicans.

Yes, he went out on a limb, in reaching out to confederate flag wavers, but he sawed the limb off with his own words, when he didn't turn the coin to view the other side of it, and the oppression and slavery that the confederate flag symbolizes to blacks.

Honestly, I don't need the Confederate flag to symbolize anything for me. I turn to our Declaration of Independence for my sustenance, and reminder, when I am discouraged, that we have endowed ourselves, from the beginning, with the concept of equality, and the right to a just government:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Dean would have done well to remind these southern Confederate flag wavers that the true source of our irrepressible strength, as a nation, was, and always will be, our inclusiveness, regardless of the symbols that we individually subscribe to.

elizabeth

My friend's response to this:

It's sad to me that so many southerners have forgotten the sadly
noble original meanings of the rebel flag. They've let the fearful
racists of the '50s and '60s and the yankees (who want to pretend their
brutal invasion and subjugation of the South was really a righteous act
of racial liberation) redefine it.
The Civil War was an unjust war over power and money. (I admit I
think all war is unjust.) The North included four slave states where
blacks were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued
two years into the war as a tactic for winning it. Race riots ensued in
NYC. The violence and destruction and hatred and hypocrisy of that war
and its political aftermath is what created the terrible race relations
that followed. What the rebel flag meant to southerners of the time was
their love of their homeland and its independence.
People who think the rebel flag represents slavery are ignorant
of American history. Dean is not ignorant of American history -- should
he self-censor his every utterance to be sure not to accidentally offend
the ignorant? His apologies have satisfied most reasonable people that
he didn't mean to promote racism.

And my response:

It's truly amazing to me that you fail to recognize that the confederate flag, to African Americans, is a symbol of slavery. You are very quick to acknowledge your own, personal meanings of the flag. I accept your personal meaning, though I disagree with it.

Your refusal to acknowledge the meaning of the flag for blacks is nothing short of historical and political naivete. I hope that Dean is not as naive, although something tells me he has a touch of that as well, as he made the remark in the first place.

Wether or not the Civil War was fought over slavery, the flag is a symbol to blacks of their own slavery in the deep south.

You said:

"The violence and destruction and hatred and hypocrisy of that war
and its political aftermath is what created the terrible race relations
that followed. What the rebel flag meant to southerners of the time was
their love of their homeland and its independence."

What the flag also meant, I am sure, to blacks, at that time, was the continuation of slavery, wether or not the North originally intended to emancipate slaves. If the south had won, slavery would have continued. That is what I am sure, blacks believe. Wether or not you agree with that belief, to refuse to recongnize their subjective meaning that they associate with the rebel flag, and by the way, all symbols are infused with the subjectivity of our beliefs, is, quite simply, a rather interesting state of denial on your part.

Again, I agree with you, that all war is unjust. Will you also agree that slavery is unjust? Wether or not the civil war, the institution of slavery was bound to fail.

You said: "It's sad to me that so many southerners have forgotten the sadly
noble original meanings of the rebel flag."

Because I believe the civil war was an unjust war, doesn't mean that I see nobility in the way of life of the south at that time. The southern economy was predicated on slavery. Without it, it would have never risen to the heights that it did. The oppression of any human being has nothing to do with nobility. I am sure many hard-core capitalists right now see the out-sourcing of American jobs to cheap labor abroad, and sweat factories in those countries, as a noble venture of spreading the good word of capitalism. We all know the obvious hypocricy there.

Let us be careful with what symbols we choose to defend, and remember that symbols have multiple meanings, because they are, after all, the reflections of our subjective beliefs. As far as I am concerned, because of the way blacks feel about the confederate flag, the flags ought to be retired to the cedar chests with moth balls. But they won't, and they aren't now, as some states insist on continuing to fight to have the flag flown over state capitals, despite the objections of its black citizens.

Dean waded into this rattle snake nest when he mentioned the flag. He simply didn't think it through before he spoke. You gave no credit to my suggestion that if he had acknowledged the beliefs of white southerners, who still regard the flag with pride, and, at the same time, reminding them that the source of our strength as a nation is our inclusivity, and that the democrats best represent this inclusivility because of our big tent metaphor, this entire controversy may have turned out differently. Maybe he didn't couch the issue in those terms, because he might have lost a few votes. Big deal.

He would have gained the respect of many more in the process. By the way, I well know that Dean is not a racist. However, he shot himself in the foot by emphasizing the importance of the white southern vote. What about the black southern vote? He certainly doesn't have that vote sewn up yet. He's got to think before he speaks, otherwise he is going to get tired of the taste of shoe leather.

elizabeth

# posted by scorpiorising : 7:30 AM |