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"What Is Wrong With Tennessee?" You Ask.
This morning a link on the front page here at TPM led me to this post which asked, "What Is Wrong With Tennessee?" On my way home from work I took this picture which should answer the Question. It is the statue of Nathan Bedford Forest located in Downtown Memphis. Yes, this is the city with a statue of the founder of the KKK in its very heart, across the street from our state medical school. And this is the liberal corner of the state.
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Comments (14)
I tried to cross post this to the comments on The Huff Post post but it was rejected for bad words. Can you spot the foul language because it escapes me.
June 30, 2008 10:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe "KKK" was enough?
June 30, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know what you're talking about. Texas still has a semi-official holiday entitled "Confederate Heroes Day."
June 30, 2008 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just accross the state line in MS it is calle Confederate Vetrans Day.
June 30, 2008 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
In Alabama, state employees get 13 paid holidays. One is Confederate Memorial Day and another is Robert E. Lee's birthday, which is, ironically, celebrated on the same day as Martin Luther King's birthday. But, just so's you know, Lee's birthday was a holiday before they adopted the King birthday as one, too.
June 30, 2008 11:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was wrong in the comment above your comment reminded me it is Confederate Memorial Day not Confederate Vetrans Day that is celebrated in MS.
June 30, 2008 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is time for my sporadic reminder that the "Stars and Bars" is, and ought to be considered, by all thinking people, the homegrown American equivalent of the Nazi swastika.
Confederates took up arms against their countrymen for, among other things, the preservation of their ownership of other human beings.
At least the Germans learned from their mistakes. The Confederate fetishizers glorify theirs.
July 1, 2008 12:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am against anyone flying the Stars and Bars, but I can't agree with this. The CSA did not exterminate anyone. Yes, slaves were abused, but they were not about systematic murder. There is a difference.
July 1, 2008 1:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fort Pillow?
July 1, 2008 1:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wikipedia ink, above.
July 1, 2008 1:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do not forget Andersonville either. A prisoner of war camp where 12,920 men did in 18 months out of a population of @ 80,000 pow's. My father had this book of James Brady photographs. It includes pictures of some of the surviving prisoners who looked as bas as any of the photographs you have seen of the walking skeletons from concentration camps.
July 1, 2008 8:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, Forrest resigned from the group after it was hijacked by racists. The original intent was to protect citizens from the abuses of occupying Yanks.
July 1, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
The KKK still claims him. And they are why the statue was erected and his remains moved to the park from the cemetery.
And to resist the elected officials of the reconstruction government which they refused to recognize or co-operate with because it was elected with the votes of freedmen. They resented those carpetbagers and n****rs running the government.July 1, 2008 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Larry, whatever problems TN has -- it seems to be lost on the rest of the nation, because they are moving here in droves.
You can say what you want about us, but we'll always have Elvis, and that trumps everything.
July 2, 2008 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
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