[email protected] said: > The people who actually fought the war put it behind them as fast as possible. I think they would >be appalled at some of the bitterness of later generations....We have the right to disagree but >considering we are absolutely free to speak our minds in this country we should show our respect >for that right by doing so in a civil and respectful manner. Welll...yes, I think you are right here. This is what I mean when I say we all need to get over ourselves *not* that the war and it's aftermath isn't still important. It is. And, as in all family fights, there are still unresolved issues. You are correct that those who survived the War, would probably be deeply grieved to see us, *their own* beloved, cherished, and greatly hoped-for (if not personally known) children, *for* whom they sacrificed *so much*, and also *for* whom, they did *exactly* put it all behind them for the sake of a Peaceful future for *us*, - re-fighting the war. It's the unresolved issues of States Rights versus and Imperial Centralised government, the ideal of a Constitutional democratic republic where *individual* men and women had *control* over their own destinies and lives, and a non-mechanised, non-corporation driven way of life for - all of *these* things, were loved so much more than the enslaved black folks were hated, in those cases where they were really truly hated. The issue today is that there are factions who resent the fact that even though the South lost the War, we *won* the *Peace.* For some petty and spiritually miserly reason, that is resented. And that is *their* *personal* problem and *personality disorder*- we ought not to allow them to make it ours. That would be dysfunctional. And I think the most painful thing that we all realise, and our ancestors must surely have also realised is, that they all got used, black and white, as pawns in a much larger game, and all of thier lives were held cheap, by forces far beyond their control. All everybody wanted was to be left alone and to have control over their own lives. And that was all snatched away. For *everybody.* And the truth is that slavery was a dying institution anyway - the only ones who wanted to keep it - really - were the poor white cracker farmers on the very bottom of the totem pole, because they were only a half-step above the slaves in status. The only status they had -really - was that they weren't slaves. America has always been a class-society, ideals notwithstanding. I really think that if the South had been permitted to just hand over all slaves to the North and then to be *left alone* - the war would have ended immediately. Kathleen