Righting wrongs: siding with South, hurricane victims

Letters to the Editor (1, 2, 3, 4)

Dear Editor:

In his article "Today's South is still not grown up" [YH, 10/29/99], John Schochet has finally reached the pinnacle of misinformed historical revisionism. Coming from the South, I know more about the issue than a Californian who chooses to spout nonsense rather than to analyze his subject.

Every Southerner is willing to admit that slavery was a cancer on our society. In fact, most Southerners recognized slavery's evil during its existence and were willing to release their slaves into society. By 1865, slavery was a dying institution, and as agricultural technology got better, most were willing to let it die.

Mr. Schochet cites slavery as the cause of the War of Yankee Aggression, but the real cause began several decades earlier, when the U.S. government passed tariffs that damaged the Southern economy. It became a battle of the balance of economic power between North and South, a conflict that only heightened with expansion westward. By the time the battle of Fort Sumter came around, Southerners feared that the North was trying to destroy their economy and spread their God-forsaken factories to the agrarian South, an act that would have destroyed Southern culture and foreign trade. The average Southerner was not manipulated by the planter class; he was defending his own farm. The Confederate flag is part of this defensive past. I will grant the flag's connection to racism only in the case of Alabama and its governor, George Wallace. However, Georgia, Alabama, and other states have flown flags reminiscent of the Confederate flag since at least the 1860s. These states are expressing cultural, not racial, pride. Southerners hold on to a life of agrarianism that was more genteel than cold Northern industrialism, education that surpassed any in the nation, and a culture richer than the North could have wished for. Is it any wonder that the best American literature of this century has been written by Southerners?

Finally, Schochet calls the acts of the South "treasonous" although the South had every right to secede from the Union under the Constitution; in fact, New England almost did the same thing a few decades earlier with the Hartford Convention. It is indeed telling that the U.S. government was never able to successfully try, much less convict, any Southerner of treason after the war. The South was not treasonous, but the North was certainly malicious.

—Jeffrey Dorough, TC '01

Dear Editor:

I just read John Schochet's column [YH, 10/29/99], and I am angry. I'm not upset by some of the content of Mr. Schochet's comments, because the South's history of slavery and segregation is clearly a historical tragedy. However, the real disgrace in Mr. Schochet's column is his indictment of an entire region. By stereotyping everyone in a particular section of the country as backward racists, Mr. Schochet only demonstrates what true bigotry is.

And while I appreciate that the rest of the country "kindly helped [us] correct" our "unfortunate error," Mr. Schochet, you better be sure your hands are clean. How could northern Californian forebearers spread social justice southward during an era in which they were busy treating an influx of Asian immigrants about as badly as white Southerners were treating African-Americans? How could Northerners preach tolerance while Watts, Detroit, and much of New Jersey were aflame with racial unrest?

No part of this nation can avoid the taint of racism. In fact, over the past few decades, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois have become among the most racially segregated states in the union. Mr. Schochet's home state has abolished affirmative action in its university system. Perhaps the South can teach us a lesson: the University of Georgia is currently defending its affirmative action policy against a legal challenge. So, Mr. Schochet, instead of imploring the South to "grow up," why don't we all work together toward achieving greater maturity in our national racial attitude.

—Eric Wachter, TC '00

Dear Editor:

John Schochet, the author of "Today's South is still not grown up," [YH, 10/29/99] forgot to mention that all Southerners sleep with their sisters.

—Joshua D. McNeil, MC '02 Huntsville, Ala.

Dear Editor:

According to Mr. Andrews, hurricane victims should not live in their respective areas because of the inevitability of hurricanes. He also states that an earthquake is a true emergency and that California has a year-long "earthquake season." This would suggest that earthquakes are inevitable in California. If he defines an emergency as "something you don't know is going to happen," how can an earthquake in California be considered a true emergency? Furthermore, should Californians not live in California because they are at risk for earthquakes?

—Ayan R. Kayal, TC '03 Charlotte, N.C.

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