I guess.

Joe’s self destruction seems important because of the potential chain reactions in the Senate, in the party, in the media.

Aberrations!

“Abu Ghraib, that’s just an aberration, baby! You know it!”

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Today’s pledge: “we unilaterally pledge to each other someone else’s lives, the worker’s taxes, and no honor, sacred or otherwise.”

But if he fail in faithfulness, which by his oath he is bound
unto, that he must answer for.

John Winthrop’s shade must be demanding that George Bush answer for failing in faithfulness and we must answer for failing to recognize his inabilities by electing him in the first place. Happy Fourth.

http://www.school-house-rock.com/wav/prea.wav

This is the preamble to the Constitution as performed by Schoolhouse Rock.

“In the South, many States had laws on the books giving slaves not only adequate food and lodging but “passports”, transportation, and gin for a week at Christmas to visit their torn apart families at other locations; slaves were bought and sold as property, and at least had “value” as property.”

Roman Catholic Church had “laws” like this too, about the treatment of slaves. Of course the Pope supported the Confederacy, slave-owning RC’s paid a lot of money to the Vatican.

Not all laws are enforced. Quotations such as you mention only reinforce the benevolence of slavery. I think that is largely false. One exception would have been Frederick Douglass’ “slave-owning family,” who obviously cared about him. Once, however, you outlaw people from going to school, and you can have sex with their women and they have to bear the offspring of that, it’s a little tought to get sentimental about an institution whose sole purpose was to provide inexpensive labor. Upton Sinclair’s the Jungle is articulate about the plight of surplus labor in the North. We imported the Africans. European immigrants had more choice in their decision to come here.

If you want to emphasize “States Rights” in the contiuum and creative tension with Federal authority, you can use Wisconsin as one example of many others that I think are far superor to Jefferson Davis who is simply a white supremacist. WI repealed the Federal Fugitive Slave Act prior to the Civil War.

IMHO using the Civil War has an example of States Rights only does a disservice to “States Rights.” Historically you are accurate though. Lee’s old War Horse, James Longstreet, was an abolitionist. Most Union soldiers were not abolitionists. BTW, did not know that about Betsy Ross, I always thought she did, but will defer to you on that one.

Also I would invite you to consider that anyone with any African American blood must have their blood pressure driven up considerably by reading your comments. I know that is not your intention, but I hope you will consider it, because the cause of States Rights is important. With so many examples that are not dripping with white supremacy, I hope you use those to educate your students. If not, please take care to separate the “white supremacy” from the “States Rights.”