December 22, 2013
Letter to the Editor
The Dallas Morning News
Box 655237
Dallas, TX 75265

RE: General Nathan Bedford Forest and the difficulty of retroactive punishment, particularly when said punishment is “eclectically indignant” – Some comments on your editorial of 12/21/13 agreeing with the name change at Nathan Bedford Forest High School in Jacksonville, FL.

Sirs,

Assuming that the massacre of “black Union troops at the siege of Ft. Pillow” was one of “the most ghastly episodes in the nation’s brutal Civil War” – Shiloh, Antietam, The Wheat Field, Sheridan’s jaunt through the Shenandoah, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, inter alia, can contend for the “ghastly” title – we are faced with the unenviable task of applying today’s standards, a term that no longer means what it is supposed to, there being a general disregard for the “permanent things”, to yesterday’s actions.

“LOUSY YELLOW RAT MONKEY BASTARDS”

There was a certain euphony to the above phase, particularly when Admiral William F. Halsey – a quintessential “Jersey” guy – used it to describe the Japanese during the unpleasantness of 1941 to 1945.

The people of New Jersey gave him one of its highest honors when it named Turnpike Exit 13 after him.

Should drivers of Japanese cars be given a 50% discount? Should Japanese drivers be allowed to exit toll free? Should Japanese drivers of Japanese cars be given free passage plus 50% of the toll that they didn’t pay? Can these rights be part of one’s estate? Can they be sold? [Let it be known that Coach Vince Lombardi’s name adorns a full service truck stop on the same turnpike.]

The USS Tarawa [LHA-1] is an amphibious assault ship that is fast and nasty. It is designed to kill people and break things. It is named after the battle of Tarawa, a Marine invasion that had 2 remarkable occurrences. #1 – The first day was a monumental military clusterfuck for the Marines. #2 – The battle ended on the 3rd day. There were no, as in zero, zip, nada, Japanese prisoners.

How about renaming the ship the USS Kumbaya as a sign of our commitment to international anger management and racial reconciliation?

The USS Stennis [CVN74] and the Richard Russell Senate Office Building were named after 2 men who were patriots and strong supporters of the military. They shared one other thing in common.

They dedicated their entire adult lives to keeping little Black boys from going to school with little White girls.

Perhaps we should re-name the carrier the USS Mandela.

I leave the renaming of the office building to others with the sincere hope that Harrison Williams and Robert Torricelli, 2 more “Jersey” guys, be given due consideration.

When George Washington executed soldiers for desertion or insubordination he assigned the “ghastly” task to men who either served with or knew the executees very well.

Is it too late to re-name the monument?

Abraham Lincoln suspended the 4th Amendment – Sounds familiar but at least he had a war going on – and arrested a sitting member of Congress for opposing him.

What in the name of head up your ass Political Correctness are we to do with him?

He wasn’t “yellow” but the Democratic Party, the pro-slavery party in 1864, and the New York Times, its bum kissing lackey, regularly referred to him as a “monkey”. Perhaps we can borrow from Admiral Halsey.

Things get curiouser and curiouser, don’t they?

It is always easier if you adhere to one of the great traditions of modern American Liberalism and never let facts interfere with your already formed conclusion.

Speaking of “ghastly situations”, Black women – 6% of the population - have had 38% of the abortions performed in this country since 1973. Then again, all genocides are “ghastly”, regardless of the color of the victim. Could Black abortions be an example of, forgive me, Affirmative Action overkill?

What are we to do with Senator Robert Byrd [D-WV]? He was Deputy Vice Kleagle [in charge of recruiting] of the Christian Sons of the Ku Klux Klan. As President Pro Tem of the Senate he was 2nd in line to be the President of the United States. He was not a rotter like Duck Dynasty homophobe Phil Robertson but he used to wear sheets and burn crosses. That should count for something, shouldn’t it?

It is a small thing, no bigger than a man’s fist held against the horizon, but Senator Robert Kennedy, he who fell to a bullet fired by a Muslim terrorist, began his working career in Washington, DC as an aide to Senator McCarthy. [His father helped him get the job.] Not Clean Gene from Minnesota but Tail Gunner Joe from Wisconsin.

Nothing could be more “ghastly” to the ohmadahns who make up the shock troops of modern American Liberalism. They are well on their way to airbrushing – Politburo style – that turd in the punch bowl out of his official entry in the hagiography of “Yes, We Can” progressive History.

The History of winners killing losers, ghastly or not, has a long trail. From Caesar to Cromwell to Stalin to Pol Pot to the bug-eyed thugs in Africa we find a butcher’s bill that is always stamped “paid”.

It is my sad duty to tell you that you didn’t discover it. There was only room for one Cortez “high on a hill in Darien”.

Remember too that, “after the first death there are no other”.

Merry Christmas!




Kevin Smith