AP and the MSM's Willful Ignorance of American History, More Anti-Southernism


A rather small section, one small paragraph, in a pretty straight forward story reveals the sheer absurdity and incomprehension that prevails in the Media today and serves to show the emptiness of what passes for thinking and logic about American history in what some feel are our cultural elites. It also shows the bias against things Southern in certain circles these days.

The story, "Confederate General's Painting Sold", is mostly a simple retelling of the facts around the $400,000 acquisition by Colonial Williamsburg of a painting painted by Robert E. Lee's wife to be in the 1830s.

Measuring 4 inches wide and 5 3/4 inches high, the gold-framed watercolor on paper shows a somber girl with delicate features in a red dress with an apronlike white front balancing a wooden wash tub on her head. Trees and a split-rail fence are in the background.

Mary Anna Randolf Custis, daughter of George Washington's only grandson, painted the portrait in 1830 on the grounds of what became Arlington National Cemetery, a year before she married Robert E. Lee, her distant cousin.

After Mary Custis became Mary Lee and while her husband Robert E. Lee was commandant of West Point, in the early 1850s she gave the small painting to a young student named James. E. B. Stuart. J.E.B.Stuart later went on to become one of the Confederacy's most dashing generals. He was killed in action in 1864, ten years after the gift of the small painting. J.E.B.Stuart was only 31 years of age at the time of his death.

Stuart took the small painting and glued it to the back of a drawing that he might have created himself of a cavalry officer with a saber on horseback slashing at a watermelon. And this is the point the AP (and the gallery) ridiculously focuses upon.

"Whether the attachment was a conscious act or whether Stuart was oblivious to its meaning, it fails to diminish the significance of pairing an innocent slave with the highly trained soldier a few years before the outbreak of war," the documentation says.

"Significance"? There IS no "significance to the 1854 pairing of a drawing of a soldier and that of a slave girl.

How COULD there be "significance"? There WAS no Confederacy in 1854. There were no soldiers being used to either free, OR keep in thrall, any slave girls in 1854. There could have been NO "conscious act" in it because the concepts and situations that could have made it "significant" were almost a decade away from even being created.

Ironic, it could be. Interesting it certainly is. But there is NOTHING to this idiotic claim that there is "significance" to it or that there was some statement being made by a young J.E.B.Stuart with the "conscious act" of gluing the two pictures together. It is a meaningless trivia tidbit that reveals nothing about anything. It was a chance act by a man who was yet to even begin to reach the fame his last years would see, during an era that had yet to create the situations that would propel him to that fame.

Even yet, if J.E.B.Stuart had glued the two pictures together during the war, what real "significance" could there be in it but that in the fanciful imagination of the media and the cultural elite today? There is no record of J.E.B. Stuart writing or saying a word about them to hint at such "significance". Further, Stuart was a childhood admirer of the dashing life of the cavalry, so it isn't surprising that he might own a drawing of a cavalryman. It would be akin to a teenager today owning a photo of a cool car or airplane, or a fireman or policeman. It should additionally be remembered that when the drawing of the cavalryman was made it was of an officer of the U.S. Army being depicted not a Confederate.

Worse, by using their fevered imagination, the AP and the gallery owners place the concept of using military force to enslave people into the motives of a man barely out of his teenage years who merely thought cavalrymen were cool.

But, then, that is what these people think of everyone who lived in the south during the era, now isn't it?

No, what we have here is foolishness passing for thoughtful historical commentary. A ginning up of emotion with imaginary motives grafted on to the innocent actions of someone long dead who is not here to defend himself. When Stuart likely put those two pictures together neither he nor anyone else had the slightest notion that a war would be fought over slavery or between the two sections of our country nearly ten years hence.

But this is the nonsense that we see in the media and in circles ostensibly populated by the elite of our society today.

"Significance", indeed.


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Ignorance?

I don't think they are ignorant. I think ths is a part of an ongoing effort to rewrite history. If you, as a recognized authority, lie enough times the uneducated will soon believe your lie is the truth,

The truth then gets lost and you win.

Ingnorant? I don't think so, they are much worse.

The Media seems to do a pre

The Media seems to do a pretty good job at editing history. I remember on June 6 last year, D-Day, that no network I watched even mentioned what happened on D-Day. I heard no mention of Normandy Beach, Germany, or even World War 2. But again, this is coming from people that have helped to erase Japan's World War 2 war crimes from history. And now apparently, they have no idea when the Civil War started. I wonder if they even know who was President at the time.

Remember; always obey High Lord God-King Al Gore. For His Word is law and must never be questioned.


GeorgeT - I just looked at th

GeorgeT - I just looked at the White House site for June 6, 2006 and President Bush did not mention D-Day.  You would think,  as a Commander-in-Cheif during a time of War, Bush would have said something about D-Day.  I guess an off year anniversary isn't noted as much.

Every once in a blue moon,

Every once in a blue moon, a media person has had the guts to come here & try to defend what he/she wrote. I went to your link hoping to email the author in question (though I agree with Warner) and there I discovered the author in question is named "Associated Press." Sigh. I guess it's "preach about the lack of individual responsiblity these days" day for me, and everyone will probably imagine all my posts for the rest of today in the voice of Abe Simpson (Homer's Dad). First with Presidents on spending, and now the news media on facts -- ya gotta admit, it's not a good day so far for individual responsibility in sarcasmo-land...
JMR

There's a speech I periodical

There's a speech I periodically run into. (Made in the Mississippi legislature, 2/1/1890. By the Black Republican legislator from Washington County.)

I haven't been able to confirm the speech, through the legislative records. But from what I know about history. Believe it is accurate.

Mr. Speaker! I have arisen here in my place to offer a few words on the bill. I have come from a sick bed. Perhaps it was not prudent for me to come. But sir, I could not rest quietly in my room without contributing a few remarks of my own. I was sorry to hear the speech of the young gentlemen from Marshall County. I am sorry that any son of a soldier should go on record as opposed to the erection of a monument in honor of the brave dead. And, Sir, I am convinced that had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines, and in the Seven Day's fighting around Richmond, the battlefield covered with the mangled forms of those who fought for their country and for their country's honor, he would not have made the speech.
When the news came that the South had been invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made no requests for monuments. But they died, and their virtues should be remembered. Sir, I went with them. I, too, wore the gray, the same color my master wore. We stayed four long years, and if that war had gone on till now I would have been there yet. I want to honor those brave men who died for their convictions. When my mother died I was a boy. Who, Sir, then acted the part of a mother to the orphaned slave boy, but my 'old missus'! Were she living now, or could speak to me from those high realms where are gathered the sainted dead, she would tell me to vote for this bill. And, Sir, I shall vote for it. I want it known to all the world that my vote is given in favor of the bill to erect a monument in honor of the Confederate dead."

My understanding that the resolution was passed. With every black member of the legislature voting for it.

As this story indicates. History is being rewritten. And it's not much more than a desecration of graves.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”   H.L. Mencken

danbo,Check this website fo

danbo,

Check this website for the background for you quote. The gentleman's name was John F. Harris and his speech was first printed by the Daily Clarion Ledger of Jackson, MS. Apparently the bill being discussed was Senate Bill #25, which was a bill to erect a Confederate Monument on the Capitol Square in Jackson,
Mississippi.

http://www.scvcamp46...

They can make fun of the Sout

They can make fun of the South all they want, but reality is telling a different story:  Toyota is now breaking ground for a new vehicle assembly plant in Mississippi.

Walter Reuther, kiss my a**.

Rochester, Minnesota: A Fem_Leftist City!

AlgerHiss - Too bad Charlie W

AlgerHiss - Too bad Charlie Wilson of General Motors didn't listen to Walter Reuther 60 years ago when he suggested a regional pool for benefits to spead the risk across many auto industry suppliers - Insead we now have legacy laden insolvent auto manufactures who cannot compete with foreign manufactures (who's pension/health benefits are subsidized by the government)

Or too bad they did not LEAN

Or too bad they did not LEAN OUT their process by getting rid of the overpaid, over benefitted, overfed unionists.....

The first time I was exposed

The first time I was exposed to "southern racism" was when I was stationed to NAS Jacksonville, FL in 1980.  Growing up a highly-diversified Pittsburgh, all I knew of things in The South, like the KKK, was what I had seen on TV.  One saturday morning, I drove my car to Orange Park Mall, and as I sat in traffic on Blanding Blvd, I saw real live Klansmen!  They were lined up on the northbound side of the road near an intersection, and they were wearing the white robes and pointy hats just like on TV.  On the other side of the road was a throng of young blacks, and I sat there in a panic having unknowingly driven smack into the middle of a race riot!  I hunkered down in my Plymouth and hoped I wasn't going to get killed.

As traffic slowly moved forward, I started to notice that there was no race riot in progress.  When the Blanding lights turned red, and traffic stopped, the Klansmen were going from car to car collecting money from the northbound drivers, and the black kids were going car to car collecting money for the UNCF from the southbound drivers.  When I finally got to make my turn to the mall, I saw one police car, and two cops sitting in a shady spot off the side of the road where a big water jug and cups had been setup, taking a break from directing traffic.  And also at that jug were several klansmen AND black kids taking a break, getting some water, and chatting away!  No guns, knives, burning crosses, nada... just two special interest groups out looking for money.

Being raised in the "s

Being raised in the "south" (I use the quotes because I'm actually on the border and not deep inside it), I can truthfully say that I've seen more instances of peaceful mixing of different 'peoples' in the south than a lot of other places. Why? I don't know. Maybe an armed society really is a polite one (I've always said the safest place for any minority is the south since they can arm themselves). Maybe it's that old fashioned hospitality we can't completely rid ourselves of. Or maybe it's a sign that the best way to rid ourselves of bias is to not think about it. I mean, you can find gangs/nogoodniks down here that are more racially mixed/diverse than probably a lot of northern universities. And you know, I think that says volumes when even the criminals hang out together without regards to race.

It's funny, though, the one

It's funny, though, the one place where the government seems to openly-accept racism as an immutable fact of life is in their prison systems, where one would think they'd have the most control over individuals. But I agree with you about ironies of the north & south WRT race relations. I may sometimes feel like I go through plenty of BS in my job, but at least around here we're spared THAT particular kind of BS.
JMR

Back in the Fifties, the co

Back in the Fifties, the comedian Lenny Bruce said: "If you want to see real prejudice, speak in a Southern accent." He was speaking about New York City. What he said is still true today, more than fifty years later.

There's also plenty of (usu

There's also plenty of (usually blindly-accepted, because it's politically-correct in some quarters) prejudice against males with long hair.
JMR

GET A HAIRCUT, YOU HIPPIE KID

GET A HAIRCUT, YOU HIPPIE KID!!

Snicker...

Disclosure... I had a ponytail myself for quite a while only getting rid of it but 3 years ago!

I wonder how many times pok

I wonder how many times poker-multimillionaire Chris "Jesus" Ferguson has heard those very words? ;)
JMR

Sarc. Imagine being a souther

Sarc. Imagine being a southern white male, having a southern accent, having long hair (pony tail), and driving a pick up.

You'd be classified as a walking hate crime. 

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”   H.L. Mencken

After reading the complete

After reading the complete article I don't think this statement: And this is the point the AP (and the gallery) ridiculously focuses upon is accurate. That whole article and they only say one little paragraph about it. However, the inaccuracies are a joke and very lazy journalism.