Monday, April 27, 2009

State Holiday

Today is Confederate Memorial Day in Mississippi.

That's right, State offices, the Courts and Banks are closed as we recall those who died in the Confederate Army.

What year is this?

I have people who fought in the Confederacy which seemed to them, like a good idea even a noble idea.

That was then. This is now.

I do not believe in slavery, breaking up the Union or mint juleps (nasty! way too sweet!)

We cannot re-write history but it makes no sense to celebrate being on the losing end of a War for the right to own human beings.

We are the poorest State in the Union but we shut down the State for this holiday.

I'd like us to put this holiday aside.

St.Casserole

10 comments:

Joan Calvin said...

If only I'd known, you could have come up here and we could have had a picnic in Nathan Bedford Forrest Park. Horse included.

Oh my, I lived in the north too long to ever understand this place.

Unknown said...

Yes, I have people who fought, too. It seems far away, unthinkable and yet true.

1-4 Grace said...

Amen, sista!
From one who lives in a state which still boast of beinng the first to seecede from the union.
Mercy me! We have folks that still do "re-enactments of the war."
Ugh!!!

Jules said...

Mercy me! I thought Columbus Day was bad enough...

zorra said...

I have very mixed feelings: all the feelings and opinions you mention, but also a love for my own family history and the stories of my ancestors who fought to defend their homeland from an invading army. Surely there is a way to honor those who came before us while recognizing that they lived in a very different time.

Lydia said...

That explains it . . . my Mother was telling me my sister had a three day weekend, but couldn't tell me what holiday it was! I wonder if folks in the Free State of Jones County take the day off!

At some point me must let the past go and move forward.

Lydia

Mary Beth said...

My southern grandparents quit going to their church after it was integrated in Florida.

That hurts me.

Unknown said...

I was living in the capital of SC when the Confederate flag was removed from the top of the statehouse. There was much drama and pagentry as well as protests. I wondered what deciade and century I lived in.

revkjarla said...

oh my. my.
p.s. I have that little heart casserole dish that dear friends gave me when I went to seminary.

Deb said...

Amazing how the throw-backs don't go away. When we lived in SC, Robert E. Lee's birthday was a Monday bank-closing day. I always found it hilarious that the Feds put MLK Day on the same date. Poetic justice.

Keep speaking the truth...

Deb