I have done a great deal of reading in the past couple of years on The Civil War, slavery, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow laws that followed it, Black Codes, and the mythology of The Lost Cause. An obvious and irrefutable conclusion to be drawn is that America is a racist
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Politics and its Discontents: History And Pride
For the past couple of years I have been reading about the antebellum South, the Civil War, and the so-called Reconstruction era that followed. My reading has uncovered a number of things that I was either unaware of or knew only in a vague, general sense. History is a great
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Collapse Of The West: Chapter One: The Global Tectonic Shift
By J. Todd Ring Preface: I wrote this essay in January of 2020, then the covid crisis hit, and it was shelved for over a year. The macro-scale patterns have not changed fundamentally since then, although the slow-motion collapse of the US, and the West more broadly, has accelerated. I
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Driving The Point Home
If you don’t get this, please see my previous post. Recommend this Post
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Should we teach history in the schools?
I confess to being a history buff. I am a member of Canada’s History Society who avidly reads each issue of the society’s journal, Canada’s History (formerly The Beaver) and I’ve been actively involved in heritage in my community. So the current debate about teaching history in the public schools
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Ripped From The Headlines?
There are days while I scroll through Twitter that I come upon a headline that seems to be ripped from a satirical source, such as The Onion or The Beaverton. Today was one such day. RON DESANTIS’S NEW CIVICS INITIATIVE INVOLVES TEACHING KIDS SLAVERY IN AMERICA WASN’T THAT BAD Sadly,
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: How Should We Judge Historical Figures
Should historical figures be judged by the best things they have done or the worst. Should they be judged by the standards of today or of their time. Should some things like slavery or genocide be considered evil no matter when they may have occurred. These are legitimate questions to
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The truth about history
What is historical truth? To get at the truth of history, we must know it and we must understand it, and these are two very different things. We can know history by simply accessing a balanced set of facts, but to understand history, we must understand the people who made
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta—the Old South in the Cold North
Reading the book All God’s Children, I encountered a section about the relationship of the American South to the Union just prior to the Civil War. As I read on, I realized it was remarkably similar to the relationship of Alberta to our federation today. Prior to the Civil War,
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Prostitution, Slavery, and Men who Don’t Want to Change a Thing.
Not really impressed with the whole ‘this is empowering’ crowd. http://sespursongles.tumblr.com/post/179082857723/some-highlights-from-this-video-where-lydia-cacho
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Independence Day: An excellent moment for Canadians to recommit ourselves to being different from the United States
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day in the Great Republic immediately to our south. Normally, as befits our national character, we Canadians celebrate this occasion with restrained fondness for our American cousins, coming as it does just three days after la fête du Canada. On the 242nd observance
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If F. W. de Klerk’s apartheid comparison to the fossil fuel economy is OK, why is David Suzuki’s slavery analogy an outrage?
A speech in Calgary last week by the last white president of South Africa in which F. W. de Klerk suggested the challenges faced by Alberta in the waning days of the petroleum industry may not be dissimilar from those facing his country in the last days of apartheid seems
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Fundamentally Evil, but Hugely Profitable
As the cheery title of the post suggests we can see the one universal maxim that all of humanity can get behind in action – “greed is good”. “Trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery are big business generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year, the UN labour agency said
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Inconceivable! His Dinner with Chomsky
Wallace Shawn sat down for a chat with Noam Chomsky, and here’s what they talked about – slightly abridged and loosely quoted (for clarification purposes) with links. It’s a great recharge for activists! Shawn – Many people are shocked to see the president is now a cruel, brutal, greedy type
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Quote of the Day – On Slavery – Stephen Jay Gould
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops” — Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History.Filed under: History Tagged: Gould, History, Racism, Slavery, The DWR Quote […]
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Finally, the U.S. Steps Closer to Racial Healing With a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The U.S. has a history of racial violence against blacks and indigenous peoples. Now is the time to follow the example shown by Canada and South Africa, and begin a national process of truth and reconciliation.
The post Finally, the U.S. Steps Closer …
Dead Wild Roses: Refuse to Click – Your Preserving Humanity Public Service Announcement of the Day
Against human trafficking? Against slavery? Necessarily, you must also be against pornography. Filed under: Education Tagged: Human Trafficking, Pornography, Slavery
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Masters, Poor Whites, Poor Blacks – The Class Based Racial Divide
History – A tonic to aid in understanding the higgly-piggly we have today. Filed under: History Tagged: Histroy, Race, Racism, Slavery
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Diamond’s Collapse
A while back, Mound suggested I read Collapse by Jared Diamond, and I finally got to it. It’s a fascinating read particularly for anyone interested in ancient civilizations. Diamond explores what caused the destruction of various civilizations over the past couple millennia. What interested me, of course, is his final
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