Virginia Governor recognizes April as Confederate History Month, page 2

Originally posted by BadgerJoe
I find it puzzling that everyone that says they have generations of family in the south, that not one of them ever says their families held slaves and they deny being racist.

What's more puzzling is how the Slavery Reparations crusaders plan on distributing money to the descendants of slaves in America, if and when such ridiculous legislation is ever passed. I mean, I'm white but I have a black ancestor who was a slave in Alabama — do I get reparations? Does Al Sharpton get reparations, even though he's a descendant of a white slave-owner?

Oooh, the Reparations issue is a sticky one, aint it?

My family (my father's side) has been in America since before the American Revolution. They were mercenaries, frontiersmen, Indian-fighters, trappers. They came down the Appalachians to the South, went over to assist in colonizing and liberating Texas from Mexico, and they subsequently fought both sides of the Civil War. They killed their share of red men, black men, brown men and white men over the course of the centuries.

I will add that they married their share of red, black, brown and white women, as well. So, I would find it difficult to be racist, given my genealogy. I'm not a self-hater.

Originally posted by BadgerJoe
And to those that say it was about States Rights, take a look at the various Confederate states constitutions or declarations of succession and see how many times slavery is mentioned.

The point is, it was up to the STATES to decide their own fates, NOT the Central Government. In the strictest sense, the Confederacy was adhering more to the Constitution than was the Federal Government.

— Doc Velocity

[edit on 4/7/2010 by Doc Velocity]

Va. gov. concedes omission in history month decree

RICHMOND, Va. – Under pressure from critics, Gov. Bob McDonnell on Wednesday called it a "major omission" not noting slavery in declaring April Confederate History Month in Virginia. As part of his mea culpa, McDonnell inserted into the proclamation a paragraph condemning slavery and blaming it as the cause of the Civil War. "The abomination of slavery divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights, and led to the Civil War. Slavery was an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property, and it has left a stain on the soul of this state and nation," he said in a 400-word statement. The Republican governor's revisions came after a day of scalding denunciations as the story became grist for cable news shows and caught fire on political blogs and in social media. On Tuesday, McDonnell said in a telephone news conference that he wasn't focused on slavery in drafting the decree but on Civil War history. "The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed," McDonnell's statement said. The lack of any mention of human bondage originally and his fumbling reply in the news conference when a reporter asked him why left critics and even former supporters outraged.