Confederate War Horse Memorials Dishonored

In the dead of an August night this past summer, Baltimore officials unceremoniously removed from Wyman Park, near Johns Hopkins University, a magnificent equestrian statue of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, and Robert E. Lee. The monument was a gift from a local citizen and its 1948 installation had been delayed for twenty years due to the Great Depression and World War II. Maryland was a border state during the Civil War; Maryland was a slave state that did not secede from the Union. 

However ... there is an untold story here. That story is when the statue was ripped from its mountings, two magnificent war horses, Traveller and Little Sorrel, were also dumped as dishonored rubbish. Equestrian statues standing in American parks were meant to honor all war horses that served faithfully--and suffered mightily--during the American Civil War. Indeed, civilized people should remember these noble animals, especially as ignorant voices of today clamor to destroy them because they carry a warrior rider of the losing side. Once destroyed, these war horse monuments will be forever banished from our view, as never again will Americans ever erect equestrian statues.

A Stealth History Lesson in Baltimore

Traveller and Little Sorrel – The War-Horses of Generals Lee and Jackson

The South and the Legacy of Reconstruction

Here is more indication that America's South is still suffering from the effects of Reconstruction of almost a century and a half ago.

America's Poorest States: Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina

Other nations who have fought wars against the United States have been treated far more kindly than have the former Confederate States of America. Germany and Europe were rebuilt into today's economic powerhouses by the United State's Marshall Plan. Japan saw its after war military occupation overseen by America's General McArthur which placed that nation on a path to success in just a few decades. Reconstruction in America's South was nothing like the Marshall Plan nor Occupation of Japan. It was basically designed to punish, not help and its legacy continues.

Mississippi ... is an economic black hole, and it shows in the way people suffer there. And, as is true with black holes, it is nearly impossible for the residents of Mississippi to escape their difficult financial situations. There is a dearth of federal programs that target specific states and cities based on local economic need.

Read more: America’s Poorest States - 24/7 Wall St.

America's Second Civil War

Are we Americans in the midst of a Second Civil War, or did the first war never conclude?

It seems I have lived my entire life in the midst of the battles of the War Between the States. In 1950, on the playground of my grammar school in Baltimore we had to choose sides. "Are you a Reb, or a (spit, groan) Yankee?" I now live in Northern Virginia where one cannot drive ten miles without passing through a once bloody battlefield. "Are you a Reb or a Yankee" has become "Are you a right-wing conservative Nazi, or a loving, compassionate (spit, groan) Commie Lib?"

Last Friday the state of Arizona passed a law requiring local police to report undocumented workers (illegal aliens) to the Federal government. Although much of the Arizona law was crafted word for word from Federal law governing immigration, it is being condemned by other states as unconstitutional and racist. The people of Arizona support the law saying it is needed to curb crime in the border state, which is a key corridor for the smuggling of illegal drugs and humans from Mexico.

"A Carefully Crafted Immigration Law in Arizona" by Byron York

Minnesota is one state in opposition to Arizona's act and is contemplating shunning the desert state. The mayor of the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota has already banned publicly funded travel to Arizona. The state law set a "dangerous example to the rest of the country by creating a culture that made racial profiling acceptable," he said. A number of cities in the bankrupt state of California are threatening boycotts against Arizona for vowing to enforce the law. California's San Francisco has practically cut off diplomatic relations with Arizona, as Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on all official city travel to anywhere in Arizona. Los Angeles is planning a boycott, its Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony wrote that Arizonans are "reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation."

While other states are planning severe punishment for Arizona, Georgia and Texas and other State Legislatures across America are planning to propose similar state immigration enforcement laws. A Texas lawmaker plans to introduce a tough immigration measure similar to the new law in Arizona. Rep. Debbie Riddle of Tomball said she will push for the law in the January legislative session, according to Wednesday's editions of the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle. "The first priority for any elected official is to make sure that the safety and security of Texans is well-established. If our federal government did their job, then Arizona wouldn't have to take this action, and neither would Texas" said Rep. Riddle. Republican Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James has vowed that if elected, he will require English to be the only language of Alabama's driver's license exam. "This is Alabama; we speak English. If you want to live here, learn it" he says.

Then there are the looming shadows of the secretive militias all across the land who do believe that federal border laws should be enforced: The Militias.

According to the famous poem on the Statue of Liberty, America once opened her doors.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Now the cry is "MAY DAY, MAY DAY." as Latinos plan massive May Day rallies in more than Seventy American cities. "The marches and demonstrations are going to be far more massive than they otherwise would have been," said Los Angeles rally organizer Juan Jose Gutierrez. Meanwhile, the federal government of the United States, formerly known as "The Union" is coming down against Arizona and other states following Arizona's hubris in lawmaking. Is Arizona the second South Carolina? Time will tell.

The Not Forgotten "Lost Cause"

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is about the Danville train, the main supply line into Richmond during the War Between the States. During the Siege of Petersburg Stoneman's Yankees "tore up the track again." The siege lasted from June 1864 until April 1865, when both Petersburg and Richmond fell. The Confederates were starving: "We were hungry; Just barely alive." The South lost but forever afterwards, Southerners vowed to rise again. Perhaps that is what is a-happening now at this point in our history with the rise of Tea Parties, emphasis on honoring the Constitution and people's concerns with loss of liberties and the demise of capitalism.