NateMail: The Awakening

A friend writes..

Nate,
At my request a few months ago you recommended several books about the South, one of them being 'The South Was Right.' I have just started the book and early on the author talks about how Southern history was essentially taken (rewritten) from Southerners and it is time to reclaim that heritage. I couldn't agree more and the only thing I would add is that the whole country should reclaim that history.

I have a question for you that I hope you will answer: how did you personally 'reclaim' that history? By that I mean were you raised being taught accurate history or did you have to discover it for yourself outside of public education?

A fine question... and a fine topic. First of all I hope you enjoy The South Was Right. Its an effective enough book that its got to be right up there with More Guns, Less Crime on the liberals' Most Hated list. No doubt it infuriates them even more that it was written by the chair of a major university history department.

But on to the question...

I was born in a little town on the Ohio River in Kentucky. We were taught in school that Kentucky was neutral in the war... and that the good guys won. I remember seeing those civil war chess sets... and I always wanted to use the blue pieces... because they were the good guys. My father was, and remains a big time war buff... but his research focused entirely on the battles and strategy there-in. The politics of it never interested him.

It wasn't until I moved to Nashville... in high school.. when I read That Devil Forrest that my eyes opened.

The book should be required reading for anyone who thinks the war was about slavery. It should be required reading for anyone who thinks the Ku Klux Klan of today has anything in common with Forrests Klan beyond the name.

From there... my journey began... but it was slow at first. I knew something was very very wrong... and no longer associated myself with the blue guys.

Another big moment came in the late 90's when JAC took a trip to a little town in Kentucky. See... I was taught... as I'm sure you were... that Kentucky was neutral during the war. This is completely incorrect. Kentucky started out neutral... then seceded through a special convention.

Things changed then. I dove into american history with both feet. I spent hours upon ours per day... everyday reading... just devouring everything I could find. I read countless newspapers from the day... I read articles from periodicals... I read dozens of books. For the better part of 2 years I was online or in a book... pretty much the whole time my wife was in medical school.

What was the result?

A true life secessionist. I joined the Southern Party and have contributed as much as I could to that cause. JAC and I were well known in the movement back in the late 90's. Unfortunately it mostly self-destructed. For the longest time I always wrote my address as Occupied Tennessee.

Today?

I don't accept 5 dollar bills. I don't celebrate Memorial Day. I don't participate in federal elections because, in part, I believe that federal elections don't apply to me or my people. I don't consider myself a citizen of the United States. I consider myself a citizen of the Sovereign State of Tennessee. I've got my debate on the topic finally tuned to the point that I am basicly unbeatable. There is no arguement I haven't heard before and learned to counter. I will beat any yankee into a corner where his only options are to argue that Might Makes Right, or The Ends Justify the Means. Either way... he's lost.

While in Morgantown I urinated on a monument to the Union Dead from the War for Southron Independence.... several times... I may have even deficated on it.

But practicly? day to day? I would say that I am confrontational about history. I don't bite my tongue when some ignorant trollop repeats what he learned in 4th grade history class. I will raise my sons to know for certain which side was right and which side wasn't... and I prepare. I horde and wait... and wonder...

Back when Bill was President... support for Southron Secession reached a modern era high of 20%. University of North Carolina polls showed that almost 1 in 5 Southrons supported secession in 1996.

So I wonder... how high will those numbers get when Hillary is elected without winning a single state in the South? I wonder... will we get a rematch?