Texas Considering Confederate License Plates To Honor Treason And Slavery—TPA Round-Up
At the end of this post is the weekly round-up of the Texas Progressive Alliance. The TPA is a confederation of the best political bloggers in Texas. TPA members are citizen-bloggers who are working hard for a better Texas.
Every Texan has the ability has the ability to attend a public meeting, attend or organize a protest, write or call an elected official, talk to friends and family, start a blog, donate money, write a letter to the editor, volunteer for candidates and causes, and even run for public office. The work of freedom is up to each of us.
With the round-up this week is news that the State of Texas is seriously considering a license plate honoring the Confederate army and the brutal and treasonous causes the Confederate army fought for in the Civil War.
Above you see an image of the license plate.
Some will claim that honoring the traitors who fought against American armies so that black men and women might remain slaves is a matter of culture or regional identity.
(Below–Southern culture and regional identity from the years before the Civil War.)
I’m certain that when borderline disloyal politicians like Texas Governor Rick Perry drip the hateful words of secession and nullification that all they have in mind is the protection of a noble heritage.
None of it has anything do to with a black President or increasing numbers of minorities in the U.S. or the desire of big corporations to be free of federal safety and environmental regulation.
Where was all this Tea Party talk when George W. Bush was running up the debt and raising the debt ceiling 19 times?
The State of Texas can offer these license plates to Texas motorists. Politicians in Texas and elsewhere can talk about secession and nullification of federal laws. I welcome all free speech in our great federal union.
For those of us who think that the outcome of the Civil War should stand, we need to remain aware that the enemy defeated in 1865 never goes away in this country.
The round-up—-
We have our first poll of Texas for next year’s presidential contest and Off the Kuff says that so far 2012 still looks like 2008.
Last week WCNews at Eye On Williamson posted on the Texas Republicans’ latest health care scheme: House GOP follows Oklahoma and Georgia into misguided health care compact.
Bay Area Houston has a theory about Rick Perry’s veto of the texting-while-driving ban. Continue reading
Houston Area Juneteenth Events For 2011—Facts About Juneteenth
Juneteenth is Sunday, June 19 for 2011.
Junetenth marks the day in 1865 that slaves in Galveston, Texas were told that the Civil War had been won and that they were free. It marked the first time that the Emancipation Proclamation was read in Galveston.
There are Juneteenth events in Houston area in the days ahead.
The Miller Outdoor Theater at Hermann Park will have a Juneteenth concert on Sunday, June 19 from 7-9:30 PM. This is a free event with (free) tickets required for the covered seating. Click the link for details.
Here is a list of events taking place in Houston and Missouri City between now and June 19th.
There is a Juneteenth Parade on Saturday, June 18th at 10 AM that will start just outside Minute Maid Park. Here is the parade route and some more information.
There will be a Houston Juneteenth Parade at 10 AM on Saturday, June 25. This parade will begin at Independence Heights Park at 603 E. 35th Street. There will also be a battle of the bands at this event.
If there is an event that I am missing, please leave a comment. I’ll update this post with any additional information.
The bottom line of Juneteenth has to be that people know their history and that folks grasp the fact that the freedom of all people is connected.
Juneteenth is about the freedom of all Americans.
Below is a post I made a few days ago about the history of Junteenth and related subjects. Continue reading
What Is America?—How Should America Be Defined?
What is America? How should America be defined?
America is the idea and the fact of a strong federal government over the lesser powers of the states as written in our United States Constitution. The Constitution was in many ways a response to failure of the Articles of Confederation and the incompetence and corruption of state legislatures.
America is Emancipation and the victory of freedom over states rights treason in our Civil War.
America is the expanded economic freedoms and opportunity of the New Deal.
America is the hopeful progress of the Great Society and the Civil Rights Movement.
These are the things that define America.
It is a story of progress, of ever-expanding freedom, and of an always widening definition of what it means to be an American.
If America ever becomes something else than the progress we see detailed above, then it will no longer be America.
Ulysses Grant And The North’s Victory In The Civil War Must Remain On The $50 Bill
Some folks want to replace Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill with Ronald Reagan.
This is wrong.
(Above—$50 bill from 1929.)
General Grant fought for the freedom of the American people. On the other hand, Ronald Reagan worked for evil states rights positions of racial and social injustice.
Philadelphia is where the three Civil Right workers–-Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman-–were killed in 1964.
Mr. Reagan began his campaign in Philadelphia to signal to white Republican Southerners and other racists that the era of Civil Rights was over as far as the White House and the Presidency were concerned.
Mr. Reagan won a temporary victory for injustice with his election in 1980.
Yet good people know that justice is eternal and that wrongdoing cannot prosper forever.
Just 20 years after Mr. Reagan left office, our nation elected a black man named Barack Hussein Obama as our President.
The sacrifices and the outcome Civil War settled the fact that the federal government had dominion over the states, and that the rights of all Americans are the chief concern of our federal government.
Beliefs outside this hard-won conclusion are un-American.
(Below—Civil war dead at Gettysburg as photographed by Matthew Brady.)
Governor Rick Perry—A Friend Of Acorn And Of America When He Finds It Useful To Be So
Texas Governor Rick Perry is a study in hypocrisy.
Below are two pictures that show Governor Perry as a hypocrite.
First is a picture of Governor Perry with members of Acorn. I took this picture from a recent Burnt Orange Report post. This picture was taken in 2005 as the Governor signed a housing bill.
Now Governor Perry is criticizing his 2010 Republican primary opponent for Governor of Texas, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, for skipping out on a Senate vote that would have denied funding to Acorn.
It seems that not so long ago that Governor Perry was more than happy to be seen in the company of Acorn and it’s representatives.
The second example of what a fraud Governor Perry is, is this picture below where Governor Perry leans in front of the flag of the United States. (He’s leaning–right? Like he’s going to ask you your phone number or ask you your sign.) Governor Perry said recently that treason would be an acceptable option if some folks in Texas were sufficiently upset with policies coming from our elected officials in Washington.
Governor Perry should stay away from our flag if can’t be loyal to our federal union. The course of treason has been attempted before in our national history.
And don’t forget—Many Texas Republicans are open to a course of treason.
It is reaching the point where many Southern Republicans and Republicans across the nation are of questionable loyalty to our nation.
Texas Governor Rick Perry Talks Treason
Texas Governor Rick Perry has said Texas has the option of leaving the Union if it does not like what the federal government is doing.
He said this despite the blood shed in our Civil War to preserve the Union and to free the slaves.
( 4/20/09 Update–Now a second Republican is talking treason.)
( 4/24/09 Update —Half of Texas Republicans share this disloyal view.)
(Below–After Gettysburg.)
Here is what Governor Perry said—
“Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that,” Perry said. “My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.”
According to the Handbook of Texas Online, Governor Perry is wrong that Texas can leave the Union. What it can do is divide into five states. Also, an 1869 Supreme Court case denied Texas the right to secede.
Governor Perry joins Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as open to secession.
At the same time, this Voice of America story discusses Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s report that right-wing terror groups in the United States may be on the rise.
With leading Republicans talking the hateful language of disunion, right-wing fringe groups need only look to the news of the day to find ideas and support for their actions.
Creation Story Of Reconstruction Era Blacks
Below is a creation story as told by black preachers in Reconstruction era America. It comes from the book The Age of Lincoln by Orville Vernon Burton.
From the book—
“Throughout the southern states whites heard a different version of the creation story. In His own image, African American preachers declared, God created Adam and Eve black. They turned white, and the hair straightened, from sin and guilt, from encountering God after eating the forbidden fruit.”
As you can guess, stories like this did not go over well with southern whites. Black preachers, black folks, and whites sympathetic to black progress in the years after the Civil War were routinely harassed, attacked and killed in the post Civil War South.
Reconstruction was a time of great potential and tragic failure. It’s a time in our history that merits study by all Americans. While 2008 is a better day than 1875, you can still see today many echos of a brutal past.
PBS has good information on Reconstruction.
Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 is a leading history of this time.
It remains hard to imagine that all that blood was shed in the Civil War and black folks still had to endure 100 more years of Jim Crow.
Nothing is so lousy that it can not come true. The work of freedom is never done.