You lost. Get over it.

It's been more than 150 years since Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia lost the Battle of Appomattox Court House and ended the Civil War, but it appears there are still Southerners who haven't figured that out. The state of South Carolina, for example, persists in flying the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia on the state capitol grounds. Why?

The whole obsession with the battle flag has always puzzled me. Even before I learned that Bedford Forrest and the Ku Klux Klan revived it as a symbol meant to strike fear in the hearts of former slaves during Reconstruction, I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to brag about being on the losing side of history when it came to an issue like chattel slavery. What kind of mental gymnastics does it take to convince yourself that your great great grandfather died fighting for some noble cause when that noble cause was to preserve human bondage?

Actually, I know the answer to that one: states' rights. Every time the subject of the war come up, someone waving a battle flag will start blathering on about states' rights while conveniently forgetting that the right the Confederates wanted to preserve was the right to keep slaves. The states that wrote declarations of secession all were explicit in naming the right to keep slaves as their motivation. So did the individual state constitutions. As I wrote in a post back in February, there was absolutely no doubt back in the 1860s as to what motivated the secessionists to secede.

Nonetheless, every time the subject of removing the flag comes up from public places where it's still proudly displayed, people persist in ignoring its actual history. Is it really that difficult to admit that past generations, people's parents or grandparents, were racist assholes but we're now living in more enlightened times? There's always a lot of blathering about a "glorious cause" and Southern pride. What the heck is there to be proud of in committing an act of treason because you want to keep people in chains? And then to insist on wrapping yourself in a flag that was the preferred symbol of the Ku Klux Klan? You might as well be walking around wearing a tee-shirt proclaiming "I'm racist as hell."

In short, it's long past time for South Carolina to jettison some of its more unsavory baggage. Whether they will, though, is doubtful. If anything, it's probable the nation-wide pressure on the state to remove the flag will just cause enough of the legislators to dig in their heels to prevent it from coming down. The war may have ended in April 1865, but some people still don't want to admit they lost.  

Some rare good news

New York State and the legalization of same sex marriage. Last night I happened to be watching the Rachel Maddow show as the New York state senate was voting, and have to admit I felt like cheering, too. Marriage equality just strikes me as being the sane, civilized thing to do.

I have never been able to understand the opposition to "gay" marriage. Everytime I'd hear someone fulminate about how gay marriage threatened the institution of marriage in general, I had the same question: How? How does what anyone does in his or her marriage affect anyone other than the people in that relationship? For that matter, how does what anyone does in his or her bedroom affect anyone else as long as the activities behind closed doors involve only consenting adults? If marriage is threatened, it seems to me like the threats are coming more from adulterers like Newt Gingrich than from any gay couple wanting to get hitched.

One of my acquaintances used to do a lot of ranting about the evils of gay marriage. His primary line was always that the very notion of marriage equality threatened his own marriage. He finally shut up (at least around me) when I asked him point blank, How? Is your marriage so shaky that the only thing Sharon is waiting for before dumping you is the right to marry a woman?

No doubt various religious fundamentalists are going to have a field day ranting about how this is yet another sign of an impending apocalypse. Let 'em rant. Legislation like this is a good reminder that the social conservatives are actually waning in number; there are always going to be bigots and idiots, but, at least in the area of gay rights, every day the bigots move a little bit closer to irrelevancy.

And, a slight digression: why is it that men seem so much more worried about homosexuals than women do?  One of life's little mysteries (at least for me) is why so many homophobic men seem convinced that if gays get any civil rights it's going to make the straight men the object of unwanted sexual attention. The guys who seem most homophobic, of course, are the ones that also generally seem convinced every woman on the planet is hot for their bods when reality would suggest that they couldn't manage to get laid in a whorehouse. I've never met a woman who gave a rat's patoot about whether or not other women were gay; why do some men obsess about it?  

Kiddy lit

I started off the 2010 reading list in a rather odd fashion -- a Harriet the Spy book.  Harriet the Spy is a character created by Louise Fitzhugh back in the 1960s.  The books target a 'tween demographic, junior high school girls, so I missed them.  I'm part of the Trixie Belden and Ginny Gordon generation.  By the time Harriet hit the bookshelves, my reading tastes had become a tad more adult, I'd discovered science fiction, given up on girl detectives, and was into more  interesting characters, e.g., Valentine Michael Smith. 

So why did I find myself becoming acquainted with Harriet the Spy at this late date?  Because I'd run out of stuff to read, and The Long Secret was about the only book in the Younger Daughter's house that (a) I hadn't read, and (b) she wouldn't object if I took it with me.  It had been mixed in with a box of books she'd bought at a yard sale, and she didn't care if she ever saw it again.  I don't know if she'd read any of the Harriet books back when she was in the target age group; I do know she's not a fan now.  She read it and pronounced it, to put it mildly, lame.  She couldn't figure out why anyone would be interested in reading about two rich kids spending the summer in Montauk, and for sure she didn't get why anyone would be interested in anything Harriet did. 

After reading the book, I tend to agree.  The book was a lot better than I expected -- more socially aware than any of the Trixie Beldens and Ginny Gordon adventures had ever been -- but nonetheless baffling in its appeal.  I know the Harriet the Spy books were quite popular for awhile in the '60s and '70s.  What I don't get is why.  Harriet's both annoying and clueless.  She spends an inordinate amount of time spying on other people, peeping in windows, asking unbelievably rude questions, and being generally obnoxious and (in a word) stupid.  She may be only 11, but she's already as self-centered and completely oblivious to anything that does not relate directly to herself as any adolescent.

Tammi's criticism about the lifestyles of the rich and idle was accurate, too.  Harriet's own family seems typically 1960s nuclear with no domestic help, but her friend Beth Ellen gets driven around by a chauffeur and lives in a household that includes both a maid and a cook.  And Harriet is a summer person in Montauk -- her family lives in New York City but owns waterfront property in a resort community.  I've never been to Montauk, but something tells me it's not the potato farming part of Long Island. 

On the plus side, The Long Secret does a nice job of emphasizing that it's possible for women to have careers, of questioning organized religion (as in you don't need to go to church to be a good person and that a person's individual beliefs are their own business and no one else's), and of supporting civil rights and social activism, and manages to do so without getting preachy or making the messages too obvious.  Harriet's friend Janie wants to be a scientist, gets super-excited when she finds an intact swan skeleton, and patiently explains menstruation to Harriet and Beth Ellen (Harriet's best friend during the summer, although they apparently never see each other during the school year) while expressing her exasperation over adults who get squeamish about explaining basic biological facts.  I don't recall Trixie Belden ever bemoaning the fact she'd gotten her period or talking about possible careers for women, so Harriet was a distinct step forward in 'tween fiction.  It's just a shame that Harriet herself is so unlikable.

Brown v Board of Education

I can't believe I managed to forget about the 55th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. It was Sunday, May 17.

Brown v. Board NHS was established in 1992 when President George H. W. Bush signed the enabling legislation, but did not open to the public until 2004. The site interprets, for the benefit and inspiration of present and future generations, the people, places, and events that contributed to the landmark United States Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation in public education. Furthermore, the site interprets the integral role of the Brown case in the Civil Rights Movement, preserves the former Monroe School and cultural landscape, and assists in the interpretation of related local, national, and international resources that further the understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Monroe School and its cultural landscape have been beautifully restored and the exhibits are first class. If you're ever in Topeka, don't miss it. Just be sure to bring lots of Kleenex -- the film "Race and the American Creed" is a heart breaker.

Stopped by the public library this morning

It opened at 11 a.m. I got there at 10:55. There was a line of people waiting to get in. By the time I emerged 15 minutes later, three books in hand, and headed across the street to the bus stop the front parking lot was totally full. Amazing. It wouldn't have surprised me to see the main DeKalb County library in Decatur looking really busy, but seeing the Brookhaven branch looking crowded was rather startling. In a good way, of course, but still startling.

As for what I picked up, it's the usual mix of mind candy (Ice Run by Steve Hamilton, Darker Jewels by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro) and something serious (Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights 1919-1950 Glenda Gilmore). The Younger Daughter recommended Hamilton -- he's apparently done a series of books set on the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula (i.e., the Sault Ste. Marie area). She claims he's got the setting nailed -- and she should know. She spent a fair amount of time down on that end counting trees for the U.S. Forest Service a few years ago. I do like Hamilton's description of Lake Superior: "water so cold and deep it was like a cruel joke to call it a lake at all. It was a sea, . . ."