April 9

I'd be remiss in my duties as a writer of Southern ramblings if I let April 9 come and go without so much as a mention. I've wanted to write something on this topic for some time, so here goes.

For all of you up north or elsewhere on the globe, the significance of the date is that it was the day that Robert E. Lee donned his finest uniform, polished to perfection and with great dignity and honor entered the home of Wilmer McLean to present the formal surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to his dingy, mud covered fellow West Pointer, Union General Ulysses S. Grant (we all know his name was Hiram, but we humor him anyway). The time is memorialized in the song best known as performed by The Band (better performed by the Black Crowes and also butchered by Joan Baez) "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down".

Yeah, I've read a little about it before. (And the version by The Crowes is my inspiration today)

There is a certain sadness in the heart of this Southern boy when I hear the very name "Appomattox". It marked the certain doom of the Confederacy and the end of an experiment. And yet, while the Tenth Amendment died in that house on that day, there was some good that came from that house. The abolition of human slavery on this continent (as it was operated then) was accelerated by several years and untold lives were saved as two formidable foes ceased trying to destroy each other.

I want to share a little about the fact that the Confederate Revolution was missing one major point that would have made all the difference. Like it's predecessor, the American Revolution, the Confederate Revolution was a fight for individual liberty, a war for freedom from tyranny, oppression and government manipulation. The problem is, they weren't fighting for all Southerners and that is the very thing that doomed the endeavor from the beginning.

The South is a diverse place, made of diverse people from diverse cultures. Each and every component is needed to get a true South. You have to have the West Paces Ferry Rd section of Atlanta, the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, The Great Smoky Mountains, the Paynes Prairie area of Florida, The Alamo, Beale Street in Memphis, The Grand Ole Opry and the 40 Watt - and so much more. You have to take it all or you lose the essence of what it is to be Southern. Tied in all of this is the food, music, lore, the very attitude of the region. And while on that evening of April 9, 1865, they may have drove ol' Dixie down, it wasn't so much a death as it was a second chance at life, the opportunity to go back and be Southern, truly Southern, with everyone and everything included.

If I'm honest, I have to say that part of me would like to see the day where another Southern Nation is born in the spirit of the Constitution but I also have to be honest and say that I would never want to see that nation allow Southerners, or any one else for that matter, to be chained in bondage while guilty of nothing but being a particular race. The immense freedom that is afforded in the Confederate form of government would only be beneficial to some if it were available to all.

I've said all of that to say that seeing the flag furled brings a tear to my eye. But it also reminds me that some people, even close friends of mine, would have been set back if that experiment had worked at that time. I could take this time to explain the facts that the war was about much, much more than slavery. I know that already, the statistics don't lie. But there are enough people arguing that point all over the South today and honestly, I'd rather see the South look to a promising future, one in which Slavery and Jim Crow are laid in their graves.

This isn't just another token "can't we all just get along" article. It is a statement of fact that Southern is a big word with a big definition and if we are to be truly Southern we have to be truly Southern - with liberty for all.