Happy Birthday .... Jefferson Davis??

[dolfan]

You other southeasterners on J2 .... are your state government offices also closed today (as Alabama's are) to celebrate this day????

[Gerald Creasy]

You other southeasterners on J2 .... are your state government offices also closed today (as Alabama's are) to celebrate this day????

I know there is a big celebration down in Christian County, Kentucky next Weekend at the Jefferson Davis Birthplace with re-enactors special Speakers and even Jeff Davis family members coming together for his 200th birthday.

You can see how Kentucky commemorated his birthplace:
http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/histparks/jd/

Last time I was there on his birthday weekend there was a big celebration. There were even African Americans in attendance.

[dolfan]

It just strikes me as a bit much to shut down state offices and pay them all not to work for this fellow's birthday every year.

[Gerald Creasy]

It just strikes me as a bit much to shut down state offices and pay them all not to work for this fellow's birthday every year.

I thought that was the whole thing about government employees...paying them not to work.

I would challenge you to Read "Jefferson Davis" by Willaim C Davis (no relation) to discover his history of his Heroics in the Mexican War, his position as Secretary of War, senator and his role in founding the Smithsonian and the little figure that sits on top the US capitol building to this day.

Until Elvis, his funeral was the largest gathering for the funeral of a public figure in the South, so it is not suprising that some still get the day off.

[scooter]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article551722.ece?75

WORLD'S LARGEST!

[dolfan]

My great-great grandfather fought for the Confederacy as part of the Georgia 22nd Infantry and was shot in the Battle of Seven Pines, and survived, then moved later to Alabama. Anyone who reads the speeches of southern politicians during that time knows that they were not just a bunch of slaveowning wretches. These were people who, although they owned slaves (and there were as many northern slaveowners), were passionate about the limited role of the federal government and its imposition on the sovereignty of the individual states. The people in the Union Army and the ones in the Confederate Army were often brothers, cousins, friends, people with long histories as comrades. Only as secession, and then war, became inevitable, did the most hateful of the rhetoric spew en masse. I don't hate my southern history for having fought the war. It may be that one day, along different lines, that another revolt must happen to preserve our liberties and limit the government's imposition of itself. But, I do acknowledge this: We lost. We rejoined the Union. For that reason, I only acknowledge one flag, the American flag, and I simply (personally) reject the display of the Confederate flag except for in limited, small places where it is historically fit (i.e., on headstones of Civil War soldiers who fought for the South). It never, ever serves any real benefit to do it. There are many other ways of honoring the valor of the men who fought in that war.

PLUS, IMO, when our nation is at war with foreign powers as we are now, it is the wrong message to dredge up domestic rivalries of past centuries and attempt to distinguish any part of our national heritage from any other part around that particular war. We are one nation, under God. I wish the folks who, no matter how historical their intent, would display the Confederate flag in public places, would consider the feelings of people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are from, say, Illinois, and are putting their lives on the line for us southerners today. I'm sure those guys would object to it, and I just personally wish these SCV guys would let this go.

[DaJudge]

Georgia has state holidays on Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee's birthday (of course, the State celebrates Lee's birthday on Christmas Eve, so as to give state employees 2 days off at Christmas).