News From Around the South 9/21 to 9/28 - VIRGINIA: Last Capital of Confederacy Struggles With Legacy DANVILLE, Va. — The United Daughters of the Confederacy still meet across the hall from the bedroom where Jefferson Davis spent the last nights of the Civil War. On a marble-topped table, Davis composed his final proclamation as rebel president, urging Southerners to keep up the fight. […]
Stay Calm and Slow to Anger - Most of us understand the concept of working toward a goal based on the system in place. For example, when I was in college, I’d review the syllabus for each class, see how the professor calculated final grades (did it include performance on homework and quizzes or just tests, and how was each of those […]
The New Reconstruction - After George Floyd was killed, Donald Trump sensed an opportunity. Americans, anguished and angry over Floyd’s death, had erupted in protest—some set fires, broke the windows of department stores, and stormed a police precinct. Commentators reached for historical analogies, circling in on 1968 and the twilight of the civil-rights era, when riots and rebellion engulfed one […]
Language and Thought - Seventeenth-century poet and intellect John Milton predicted, “When language in common use in any country becomes irregular and depraved, it is followed by their ruin and degradation.” Gore Vidal, his 20th-century intellectual successor, elaborated saying: “As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate.” Sloppy language permits […]
News From Around the South 9/14 to 9/21 - TENNESSEE: University of the South Issues Statement Rejecting Previous Veneration of Confederacy, Slave Owners SEWANEE, Tenn. — The Board of Regents for the University of the South in Sewanee has posted a letter that university officials hope will mark a break from its past — a past that at times celebrated and venerated the traditions of […]
