War is like a football game, only the Super Bowl doesn't end the season. In each, you know your opponent, maybe even went to school with him. You know whether he delays pushing forward, is hot-tempered and impetuous, is flashy but can't be counted on in the crunch. You have your planned tactics which will change in an instant after the clash begins. You have leaders and fodder followers who may or may not know you stand a chance. You have sure victories and unexpected routs.
Whether it's a rebel yell or a "Hoo-wah"or "DE-fense," war and football are a guy thing. Guys love the huddle, the strategy, the noise, the terrain and the endless analysis. If, like me, you look off into the trees for just a sec, you've lost the thread of the game and you might not recapture it.
I'm a devout coward and pacifist. Our in-your-face film this morning on Pickett's Charge further bludgeoned that into me. We've watched the 600,000 deaths mount up, lives be shattered, fortunes lost. We're about to hear how scorch-and-burn seized the day, and the rapacious won. I know I'm supposed to be happy the slaves were freed, and Mr. Lincoln explained the other night why he couldn't allow the South to secede and I see the point of that 150 years later.
The parallels of discord, then and now, keep laying down parallel tracks as we go. The blustery stupidity of Texas governor Perry on secession, the Tea Party and states' rights, the financial inequity that will allow economic interests, "with Cromwellian efficiency," (I think that's from CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC) to mow down a vaunted and hopeless nobility, the racism that calls itself Republican politics, the simmering anger of a confused populace.
I haven't looked at a newspaper much since we've been gone, but don't feel I'm far from the headlines. Maybe that's why I wander off into plantation life and what they cooked around the campfires.
As always, I love your writing and I am really enjoying our vacation!
ReplyDeleteThose same parallels you mention hamper my stride at every turn. I find them in Dickens and I find them in the 18th century with Will & Ariel Durant. I find them with Emma Goldman and I find them with the Wobblies and the Grangers.
There is a statement in the brochure for your (our) Civil War tour that caught my attention:
"For the first time since 1861–65, the United States is at war in our homeland." Has it actually been declared?
What does Colonel Historian say on the issue? A touchy topic, to say the least.
John, I'm so glad you noticed the "we are at war" verbiage in the brochure. That certainly gave me a start when I read it. How did you like the statement that, once the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, the Civil War became about slavery??? Hmmm... can't wait to hear from Rose about that one!
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