Posts Tagged 'books'
HISTORY, CIVICS, AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY PART 2
Published March 2, 2019 uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: 15th Confederate Cavalry, abuse of freedom of the press, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, ALL LIVES MATTER, all races all ethnicities & both sexes, American of African descent, American press dividing us, American press inciting riots, American South, anti-Southerners, arts, assault rifles, beauty, because we're Southern, Black police officers, Black-on-Black crime, Black-supremacist groups, Blakely Alabama, books, Britain, cars, celebrities, censorship by politicians, Company E of 15th Confederate Cavalry, Confederate Flag, Confederate memorial, Confederate States of America, Confederate troops, Confederate veterans, County Commissioner Doug Underhill, County Commissioner Lumon May, Cradle of Naval Aviation, cultural assault, cultural genocide, current events, democracy, Democratic Party, descendant of Confederate veterans, Dianne Krumel, Digital-Age protesters, Digital-Age technology, divisiveness perpetrated by the American press, dodging the issue of gun regulation, drama, Ebony and Ivory, Eliska Alabama, Escambia County Commission, Escambia County Florida, Facebook, Ferguson Missouri, Fiesta of Five Flags, First Confederate Flag, forced redefinition of marriage, France, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, government censorship, gracious Southerners, handgun, hashtag, health, historical flags displays, history, home, human rights, illegal vandalism-legal destruction, illustration, irresponsible behavior of the press, Islam, Korean War veteran, law enforcement, Lee Circle New Orleans, LET US VOTE ON IT, letter-to-the-editor, LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION, literature, Loving vs. Virginia, Lucas' Raid, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Mayor Ashton Hayward, mental health, Mobile Alabama, music, Native Americans, nature, New Orleans Louisiana, Newtown Connecticut, Nikki Haley, NRA, Ora Wills, outdoors, Palafox Street, peaceful resistance, Pensacola Florida, Pensacola News Journal, Pensacola's Five Flags Displays, people, plants, poetry, police officers, politicians, politicians using their constituents as pawns, politics, posthumous extermination of the Confederate States of America, Power to the People, puppetmasters who control the American press, racism not a feeling but an ideology, red herrings, regional conflict, relationships, religion, Republican Party, Republican ploy, Republicans, residents of Escambia County Florida, right to keep and bear arms, Roe vs. Wade, science, self-serving politicians, society, soft targets, South Carolina, Southern culture, Southern hospitality, Southerners, Southerners of all races and ethnic groups, Spain, spirituality, START HOLDING OUR PRESS ACCOUNTABLE, START QUESTIONING OUR PRESS, State of Florida, states' rights, transportation, travel, unique Southern culture, United States of America, vandalism, video, Vietnam War, Vietnam-Era protesters, WHAT IS RIGHT NOT WHO IS RIGHT, wound in the hearts of proud Southern Americans, writing, Zionist State
WOULDN’T HURT.
Published July 14, 2018 uncategorized 1 CommentTags: books, current events, health, history, home, literature, mental health, OBERGEFELL V. HODGES IS ANTI-AMERICAN, people, relationships, ROE V. WADE IS ANTI-AMERICAN, society, THE POSTHUMOUS EXTERMINATION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA IS ANTI-AMERICAN, THE POSTHUMOUS EXTERMINATION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA IS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ZIONISM IS ANTI-AMERICAN
“It is significant for the language struggle on the whole that its ways engulf the school, the seed bed of the coming generation. The child is the objective of the struggle and the very first appeal is addressed to it:
“‘German boy, do not forget that you are a German.’
“‘German maid, remember that you are to be a German mother.'”
It is significant for the American struggle on the whole that its ways engulf the school, the seedbed of the coming generation. The child is the objective of the struggle and the very first appeal is addressed to it:
‘American boy, do not forget that you are an American.’
‘American girl, remember that you are to be an American mother.’
A CATCHER IN THE RYE
Published June 1, 2018 uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: beauty, books, civics, current events, health, history, home, human rights, literature, people, personal responsibility, relationships, society, spirituality, The Catcher in the Rye
“‘You know that song ‘If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye’? I’d like—‘
“‘It’s ‘If a body meet a body coming through the rye’!’ old Phoebe said. ‘It’s a poem. By Robert Burns.’
“‘I know it’s a poem by Robert Burns.’
“She was right, though. It is ‘If a body meet a body coming through the rye.’ I didn’t know it then, though.
“‘I thought it was ‘If a body catch a body,’ I said. ‘Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.’
“Old Phoebe didn’t say anything for a long time. Then, when she said something, all she said was, ‘Daddy’s going to kill you.’
“‘I don’t give a damn if he does,’ I said. . . .”
J. D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye
1945
A REAL AND LASTING HEALING
Published November 1, 2017 uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: books, current events, history, home, human rights, people, politics, relationships, society, THE POSTHUMOUS EXTERMINATION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA IS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, truth, TRUTH SEEKS WHAT IS RIGHT NOT WHO IS RIGHT
“We are living in an age of mandatory ignorance, rigid restrictions of thought and speech, and obligatory social and political lies. If there is to be a real and lasting healing among races and regions in America, it must be based on a common recognition and understanding of truth.”
From The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths
By Leonard M. Scruggs
2011
WE HAD BETTER GET BUSY
Published October 19, 2017 uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: American South, because we're Southern, books, courage, current events, history, human rights, people, society, Southern Americans, Southerners, Southerners of all races and ethnic groups, THE POSTHUMOUS EXTERMINATION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA IS DESTRUCTIVE TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, truth, TRUTH SEEKS WHAT IS RIGHT NOT WHO IS RIGHT
“The South is still being subjected to an outrageous tyranny. When the victors occupy the territory of the defeated for a long period, they are able to reshape history so well as to glorify enormous evil and shame righteous courage. It is a form of tyranny more evil than the initial conquest. Ignorance and cowardice enshrine as good what in truth was enormous evil. Truth and courageous dissent from lies and distortions are not celebrated in societies where might has come to mean right. Truth is displaced by self-justifying propaganda. Nobility is crushed by outrageous slander.
“There are more books written about the ‘Civil War’ than any other topic except Christianity. Yet most of the real causes of the war have been buried under twenty feet of propaganda. Self-justifying propaganda is now the prevailing staple of ‘Civil War’ history in public and unfortunately even in most Christian schools. It presents as a noble struggle against slavery what was really an unconstitutional military aggression to prevent Southern Independence. This prevailing cover of propaganda serves both to bury uncomfortable history and as a tool for modern political agendas.
“Slavery was an issue that caused many serious tensions, but the full scope and nature of these tensions are largely unknown and badly misunderstood today. The war was about the right of the Southern people to self-determination and government by the consent of the governed versus being held involuntarily to a Union which experience was proving not to be in their best political and economic interests.
“Has our society been in a moral tail-spin for too long to value truth? Are Americans still morally capable of dealing honestly with the causes and conduct of the ‘Civil War’? Once you have built your worldview on a lie, it is very difficult to see the truth, much less to embrace the truth. But truth, however uncomfortable and unpopular or however deeply buried and trampled, is still truth. It has a tendency to resurrection, though truth is hard to face after decades of believing lies. Truth is hard to bear when you have for many years justified yourself and an idolized State with lies. The standard school texts and teaching on the ‘Civil War’ in both public and Christian schools perpetrate enormous dishonesty as history.
“We now have a generation of Americans including most Southerners who are shamelessly ignorant of their own history. What history they do know is laced with political deception. How many high school teachers in the South in both public and Christian schools know anything but propaganda on the causes and conduct of the ‘Civil War’? How many know the full truth about the Reconstruction era? What are the penalties for them, if they step outside the chains of political correctness in their study and teaching?
“Yet there are reasons for optimism. With the internet and many advances in computer technology in publishing, the Eastern liberal establishment is no longer as dominant in the publishing industry as it once was. The truth about the war is seeping out into the public in newly published works and the republication of many older works. I am optimistic that despite near fanatical opposition to the true history of that war, courage will eventually rescue truth.”
“Truth and courage are sorely needed in today’s morally disintegrating society. It is especially important in recovering these virtues to know our true history. Much of what is published and taught in public schools and colleges today is either a sanitized whitewash or perverted political propaganda. But I have confidence that even in today’s politically correct climate, truth will not be blotted out. We cannot, as R. L. Dabney said, ‘bury true history whose years are those of the God of Truth.’ William Cullen Bryant put it a little differently, ‘Truth crushed to the ground shall rise again; the eternal years of God are hers.’ We should also remember the words of Samuel Johnson: ‘Where courage is not, no other virtue can survive except by accident.’ No republic can long survive whose people and leaders are not both devoted to truth and resolute in their courage to maintain it. Ultimately all courage, including political courage and courage in battle, is moral courage. Moral courage, more often than not, is tested principally by time, often a long period of time. I believe we can recover both truth and courage, but we had better get busy, for we are well on the way to destruction.”
From The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths
By Leonard M. Scruggs
2011
A LETTER TO EVERY EDITOR
Published July 16, 2017 uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: arts, books, current events, history, home, illustration, literature, people, relationships, society, writing
What’s strange about the blind system by which submissions are approved or rejected is that it often does exactly the opposite of what it’s intended to do.
In the last edition of the Emerald Coast Review I had the smallest amount of my submitted work published–since before I joined the West Florida Literary Federation in 2007–because I hadn’t been attending the monthly open mics in the two years before its publication. I hadn’t been keeping in touch with the regular attendees of the open mics–and I especially hadn’t been reading my work.
Attendees of the open mics remember what’s read at the open mics–and who reads it. So when they’re appointed to read submissions to the Emerald Coast Review, they know who wrote the submissions–they remember who read them at open mics.
Also, every writer–as you know–has a unique style. So even if what one submits hasn’t been shared at an open mic, those who are familiar with his or her style still recognize it.
Then there’s prejudice by readers toward any submission. Because we’re all prejudiced–and we always will be.
Your readers–who approve or disapprove every submission for the Emerald Coast Review–are extremely prejudiced. Because they’re human beings–and all human beings are extremely prejudiced, and always have been.
This validly criticized politically-correct culture–which is a direct consequence of unrestrained Digital-Age technology–is arguably the best display of human prejudice in human history.
In the third part of a video presentation I gave on Pensacola’s Five-Flags Displays, I compare the censorship by religious conservatives in the past to the censorship by secular liberals in the present.
I cite the censorship of the two funniest novels I’ve ever read–The Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn.
As I explain, The Catcher in the Rye was censored by religious conservatives, in the past, because it is laced with profanity–particularly the word, goddam.
And Huckleberry Finn is censored by secular liberals, in the present, because it is laced with the word, nigger.
But I also explain how–just as the religious conservatives who censored The Catcher in the Rye had never read The Catcher in the Rye–the secular liberals who censor Huckleberry Finn have never read Huckleberry Finn.
And censorship is born of prejudice.
Religious conservatives censored The Catcher in the Rye because they were extremely prejudiced of The Catcher in the Rye.
And secular liberals censor Huckleberry Finn because they are extremely prejudiced of Huckleberry Finn.
The majority of your readers were extremely prejudiced of my submission because it had the word, Goddamned, in its title. And the majority of Southern Americans–of any age–have a strong aversion toward that word.
In fact, there was a study done, years ago, on what television content most offended viewers in different regions of the United States.
West Coast viewers were most offended by gratuitous violence.
Midwestern viewers were most offended by gratuitous sex.
And Southern viewers were most offended by profane language.
Then of course I strongly criticize this Digital Age in my submission.
I choose not to have a cellphone–but none of your readers likely make that choice.
I choose not to have a Facebook or Twitter account–but none of your readers likely make that choice.
So how do you think they felt, reading my submission?
Here was some high-and-mighty, old bastard who had the audacity to criticize their Digital-Age lifestyle–and unashamedly declare it, in the very title of his submission, to be damned by God!
Of course your readers rejected my submission–I would have expected that.
That’s why I would expect you to override their decision.
You’re the editor-in-chief of the Emerald Coast Review. You have your prejudices, of course–but you’re almost certainly more intelligently discerning than your readers are. And you’re obviously far more experienced with evaluating writing, based on its literary merit–as well as its historical, anecdotal, psychological, sociological, and philosophical merit–than your readers are.
Then there’s the anonymity of your readers. They have an idea who we are–but we have no idea who they are, until the Emerald Coast Review is published.
So there’s no skin off their noses–they don’t have to answer to us, as to why they’ve rejected our submissions.
This is like a jury trial in which the accused never even sees or hears the anonymous jury until the judge has already sentenced the accused.
So as the judge in the trial of my submission, Parts 1 and 2 of DEALING WITH THE GODDAMNED DIGITAL AGE, I respectfully ask you to overrule the decision made by the anonymous jury.
I respectfully ask you to include it in this upcoming edition of the Emerald Coast Review.
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