@RussH , thanks for getting back to this!
when schools tell the children they cannot call Christmas,
I don't doubt that's happens somewhere. It's never happened anywhere I've actually heard of it happening though. What is more typical is, if a school is going to celebrate a winter holiday at the end of the year, it's an inclusive event with a nod to ALL holidays celebrated that time of year. With Christmas being one of them. I do think it's probably gone too far. I mean, I'd hardly be offended if someone sent me a Hannaka card or a Quanza card, if people do that sort of thing. We probably need to focus more on the spirit behind this stuff, from ALL sides of the issue, instead of being so picky about "getting it right". Of course, the spirit behind something can be hard to sort out.
Because many southerners have expressed their devotion to the confederate flag, and the history it represents,
Speaking as an unrepentant "yankee" I think it's high time we quit fighting that particular war. Until I spent my 2 years in FL and endured 2 years of mean spirited "Yankee jokes" I had no idea how much bitterness still exists. I didn't even HAVE family members in this country at that time. It's just hard for me to understand. I guess my thought it, the Confederate flag is a symbol. It means different things to different people. People who cherish it have the right to do so. They have the right to display it, even if others find it offensive. Others have the right to be offended and to express that opinion. The STATE however, does NOT have to right to display it because the state exists for everyone and that flag represents, among other things, treason, even if well intended by the best of the best. You're right, that war was about a lot of things.
Russ, here's how I see it, from a different perspective. There was stuff that happened to me when I was a kid that was unfortunate. Things would have been different if different things had happened, but what happened happened, the important task ahead is dealing with the results. Slavery was and is wrong. This country would be a different place if it hadn't existed. I don't honestly know that it would be a BETTER place, because it brought us the ancestors of some truly remarkable people. I wonder if we'd have had Martin Luther King, or Julian Bond, or Shirley Chisholm, or Wilma Rudolph, or a lot of others if it hadn't been for slavery. That doesn't justify slavery, just means it's remarkable the great good that can rise up out of great evil.
But you're right, that war was fought over a lot of things. The end of slavery was one of it's better outcomes.
If you listen to the hate filled racist bigotry of Al Sharpton, it is perfectly fine for him to say what he does against white people, but could you imagine the blow back if a white person talked the same way about people of color:?
I have to kind of agree with that. The only thing I would say is that he doesn't represent everyone and I can see where the hate comes from. In a better world, we'd all be able to stand an infinite amount of abuse and be unaffected by it. Maybe that's better...... If no one ever says "Enough is enough!" where does the change come from? But, personally, I think hate speech from anyone causes more problems than it solves.
A wise mentor of mine used to say, "Sometimes you need to ask yourself 'what do you really want?' Do you want the shear joy of a really good fight? Or do you actually want to accomplish something? Because usually you can't do both with the same technique."
I believe we need to show respect for Muslims, but we also need to recognize that until we solve the problem of Radical Islamic terrorism, then there must be policies in place to protect innocent human life.
I'm not entirely sure that "we" can solve that problem. I think we've gone a long ways toward making it a bigger deal by running rough shod over people without paying attention to the background of how things got to where they were. I think we've done a bunch of partial "solving" of problems that allowed different problems to rise to the surface. But, IMO we CAN'T make the world "safe" it never has been and probably never will be. It would be a whole lot safer without people in it, but that's not on the table. There is a vetting process for refugees. For the most part, they are fleeing exactly the things we all would avoid. The vetting process must be working reasonably well, because we haven't had much in the way of violence from any of those refugees here. People, with communication what it is today, can get "radicalized" in a lot of ways. We have radical extremists of our own too. I don't know..... I guess I'd take a chance on getting hurt or killed in a "radical Islam" attack of some sort, if I knew some kid had had their life saved because the same program that allowed the radical in allowed the kid in. But, I don't think that's really what it's about.