When Confederates become Yankees instead, nothing makes much sense

When it comes to the use of imagery of the old Confederacy, it’s next to impossible to tone down the images so as to downplay just what that attempt at secession from the United States was all about.

The altered, and actual, logo images

You usually wind up coming up with some effort that manages to offend everybody with its lameness. It’s almost like, “Why bother?!?”

BUT THAT DIDN’T stop a Southern Illinois business from trying to find a way to make acceptable the logo of Confederate Railroad – a band that was supposed to be a headlining act at the DuQuoin State Fair next month.

Many of the locals are upset that Illinois officials, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, cancelled the band’s contract to perform, citing the fact that their band logo includes depictions of the old Confederate battle flag and expresses sympathies for those who favor the memories of an old segregationist society.

While others say that reading such a view into the band’s logo and music goes way too far! It’s just about the music – which is sort of country-fied but also has enough of a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility to it.

It seems that a local business – Black Diamond Harley Davidson – has taken it upon themselves to sponsor the concert, instead of the state of Illinois. Which might sound like a brilliant business move on the part of the company. They’ll get all the good will from the band’s fans who are now more than willing to blame Illinois for cancelling the concert.

BUT IT SEEMS that Black Diamond also wanted to have the good will of those who find offense at Confederacy imagery.

Hence, their advertising materials for the Sept. 5 concert depict an altered version of the band’s logo. The freight train locomotive that usually has Confederate battle flags flying from it now have U.S. flags.

A concept that has the band’s flags even moreso offended than the initial denial of the band’s performance at the state fair.

The same people who were calling for a boycott of the DuQuoin Fair are now saying they may not want to attend this concert either – because they’ll see it as a censored version of the event they really want. They may wind up going to an alternate concert Aug. 27 in Effingham.

WHICH, TO BE honest, is something that the vast majority of Illinoisans wouldn’t pay any attention to if not for all the political hooey that has arisen as a result.

What actually amazes me is that the Harley Davidson dealership may well have opened itself up to litigation, since it would involve an altering of the band’s logo most likely without their consent.

Their attempt at creating a compromise may well wind up biting themselves in the behind. They’re most likely to wind up wishing they’d never bothered – even if they somehow do escape having to pay out some financial settlement.

The negative publicity is likely to stick.

ALTHOUGH I HAVE to admit this wouldn’t be the most stupid maneuver meant to evade the negative overtones of the Confederacy.

Roy White later became a Yankee instead

For that, we’d have to think back to the existence of the Columbus Confederate Yankees. It was a real-live baseball team that existed in the mid-1960s that was a minor league affiliate of the New York Yankees.

Many teams merely attached their own nicknames to those of their minor league ball clubs. But back in that heated era, it was figured that the people of Columbus, Ga., would refuse to support a team called the Yankees. Resulting in the Confederate Yankees that wore a battle flag patch on the sleeves of their pinstriped uniforms that were hand-me-downs of the Yankees themselves.

The result was a stupid image that left many fans confused. What exactly is a “Confederate Yankee?” Probably somebody who rides around on a Confederate train bearing the Stars and Stripes, and thinks everybody else is too confused to tell the difference!

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Chicago a state; who dumps whom?

It is one of those periodic measures that gets introduced before the Illinois General Assembly – one that calls for the rest of Illinois to break away into its own state, or one that calls for Chicago to be separated from Illinois.

EMANUEL: Mayor gets a chuckle over splitting state

Regardless of the details of anyone’s specific proposal, those measures always manage to make me snicker. Largely because the people who are trying to express frustration with Chicago don’t want to admit how much the sentiment is mutual.

HOW ELSE TO interpret the comments Mayor Rahm Emanuel made this week during a meeting with the Chicago Community Trust. Although it should be realized that Emanuel, himself, was joking around.

For the record, the mayor was talking about Supreme Court decisions of recent days that were blatantly politically partisan in ways that go against the city’s interests, when he said, “Right now, after the last 48 hours, I’d like to pull out of this one nation and one state.”

When asked if he was talking about Chicago breaking off into its own independent city-state (a la the Vatican City that many people might mistakenly think is part of Rome), Emanuel quipped, “I’m going with Toronto.”

Which is Canada’s largest city, and one that is just slightly larger than Chicago.

Would these flags … 

OBVIOUSLY, NO ONE is going to seriously try to move forward with an independence drive. The real solution is that we all have to learn to work together, and to realize that each and every faction that comprises our society at-large offers some benefit.

That goes for just about every place in this nation of ours. We already had our “war” over secession in this country, and they lost!

I have similar thoughts when I hear there are officials in California who seriously think “the Golden State” ought to be broken up into three – the northern part of the state that would have San Francisco as its primary city, a southern part that would focus on San Diego and a third being the Los Angeles metro area.

… be at the heart someday … 

As though there are people who can’t appreciate having the nation’s second-largest city as part of their own political boundary.

SOUNDS SIMILAR TO those rural Illinois residents who think the whole world is focused on farms – even though most farms these days are corporate entities and trying to cling to the vision of a family-run farm is a large part of the reason those rural communities are so isolated from the mainstream of our society.

So are we ever going to get a state of Chicago that is separate from Illinois? Not likely, unless our society gets a whole lot more stupid than it already is tumbling down to in this Age of Trump that we’re now in.

Seriously, I think if anybody tried to split the state of Illinois up, they’d have one heck of a time figuring out where the boundary ought to be. Because it sure couldn’t be as simple as the city limits. Are we prepared to fight a “war” over who gets Naperville or Joliet?

I think people eager to think in terms of kicking Chicago “out” would be amazed to realize how much of Illinois would throw its lot in with the city. All those suburbs (more than 100 in Cook County alone, and those in the surrounding collar counties bring the tally to 250-plus) account for about two-thirds of Illinois’ population, and many of those residents merely think of “downstate” as the place where they, or a relative, went to college before coming back to “Sweet home, Chicago.”

THE REST OF Illinois’ population would be about 4 million people – placing the state at about No. 27 – just between Kentucky and Oregon (although bigger than Iowa’s 3.05 million), rather than the state’s current population rank of No. 6.

… of a 'battle' for the right to claim Joliet?

Anyway, this is all fantasy – which is why Emanuel can make jokes about the idea of “Oh Canada” becoming the new national anthem in these parts. Although it would be interesting if a new baseball rivalry were to develop between the White Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays.

The reality is that we are one, and that is our greatest national (and regional) strength. It is why I always have mocked people who try to tout the concept of “state’s rights,” because it seems to think we’re better off separate, and if it were really true, why not “city’s rights” being preeminent in which we work from the bottom up?

The truth is there’s a contribution to be made by everybody, and the only people who think of breaking apart as a serious concept are ones who deserve the label of “knuckleheads.”

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150 years and counting; what have we learned from Civil War tales?

It may wind up being the most over-quoted statement in coming days, but the view of a Confederate commander upon his surrender at Appomattox in Virginia is a thought that continues to have relevance.

Attributed at times to Henry Wise (and at others to an unknown Confederate soldier), it was the thought that there exists a serious split in the view of North and South – one that will never truly wither away.

“YOU MAY FORGIVE us, but we won’t be forgiven. There is a rancor in our hearts which you little dream of. We hate you, Sir,” was supposedly said to U.S. general Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain when he oversaw ceremonies in which those Rebel soldiers laid down their arms before going home.

Do we fully appreciate the “rancor in our hearts” that was expressed at the ceremonies held in the days following the actual surrender document signed by General Robert E. Lee some 150 years ago Thursday?

It comes across from political operatives in an almost joking sense every time we see the maps that show blue and red states, with the “red” that signifies Republican victories seeming to be based heavily amongst those states that actually talked secession and tried to break away from the United States.

I remember one political operative literally saying that the opposition to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential victory was evidence that “they’re still fighting the Civil War” in the south.

I ALWAYS FIND it a little absurd to use Civil War analogies in such cases because one has to admit the significance of that military conflict from 1861-65 was that the split was so severe that people felt compelled to take up arms.

Heck, the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as president was the act considered to be the final straw to the “state’s rights” camp that caused them to try to break away and form their own country. The political observer in me never fails to be amazed that Lincoln could win that election even though he wasn’t even on the ballot in most of the southern states – opposition to his alleged abolitionist ways was so strong!

We may have some serious splits in our national psyche, but I don’t see anyone outside of those militia types seriously talking about taking up arms. And the bulk of us realize those people are nuts.

We’re not taking such talk seriously. Perhaps that is the lesson we learned from the Civil War – that of the need to compromise.

PART OF WHAT motivates me to write this commentary is that I recently stumbled onto a re-run of the Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” documentary on the local PBS affiliate.

The Wise quote (if he really said it) caught my ear, as did the belief of historian Shelby Foote that the Civil War was caused by the ultimate failure of the two sides to reach a compromise – something he believes is the very premise of our society’s successes.

Does that make the Civil War merely an aberration? Something that we learned our lesson from and don’t need to focus so much attention on any longer?

I’d hate to think that, because then the quote from Winston Churchill about “fail(ing) to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” comes up. As in could our social split on so many issues someday become so extreme that somebody feels compelled to dig out their firearm and start shooting at those people who disagree?

TRYING TO MAKE sure that doesn’t happen could be the real significance of the talk that will occur Thursday from all the repeat references to people that the Civil War ended (for all practical purposes, if not literally) on this date in 1865.

That I’m sure many of you will dismiss with little thought – before moving on to the latest White Sox or Cubs score. Or perhaps you’re more intrigued by the sex-change conversion of one-time Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner?

Which is why a poem such as “Unreconstructed Rebel” (performed as a song by Hoyt Axton, although some say it was written as a parody) continues to have some relevance, rather than withering away into a relic of the past.

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Suburban hostility toward Chicago is silly

My perception of Chicago and its surrounding population is a bit different from many others – I didn’t grow up in a single house my entire childhood. I can say that I lived in the city (far south, near north and northwest sides), assorted suburbs and a couple of downstate towns.

If anything, I am a suburban-type person who is a bit more comfortable with the city than many of my neighbors are, and who expects someday to again live in Chicago proper.

SO MY REACTION is to see the humor in a pair of recent incidents where suburban Chicago types are so desperate to maintain their separation from “that urban rathole” that many of them perceive when they think (at all) of the city.

How else to explain the reaction of people from Indiana who on Wednesday learned that some of those “evil Chicagoans” may have tried to cast ballots in their presidential primary on May 6.

Illinoisans (including those who identify primarily with Chicago rather than their home state) had their chance to vote on Feb. 5. Yet elections officials in Lake County, Ind., told local reporters that there were “several” instances of people at polling places in Whiting and East Chicago who asked to cast ballots – and produced Illinois driver’s licenses or other identification indicating they live west of State Line Road.

The Times of Northwest Indiana newspaper reported that none of those people were permitted to vote, and officials are trying to figure out if it was just confusion on the part of people or if there really was some sort of criminal plot to get ballots cast by non-registered voters.

SOME PEOPLE MIGHT think it ridiculously naïve to think that someone would not realize they should not be venturing across the state line in order to try to vote in a presidential campaign. Yet I also have been made aware on many occasions in my life as a reporter-type that not everybody pays strict attention to the specifics of government and electoral politics.

There are many otherwise intelligent people who do not understand the concept of jurisdiction, and can resent it when they are told by a local government official that some facility that sits within a village’s boundaries is actually a Cook County-controlled facility or is a road or other building that falls under state government’s control.

I once had a person (loosely affiliated with the ’92 presidential aspirations of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot) that all government is really the same, and that one of the “reforms” that ought to be imposed is elimination of various levels of government control.

So could there be some people from Chicago who heard all the intense news coverage of the Indiana primary campaign activity and figured it was their civic duty to make a trip to the Land of Hoosiers so as to cast a ballot?

IT’S POSSIBLE, EVEN though a part of me finds it scary to realize that some otherwise hardworking, decent people in our society are clueless enough to not immediately realize the difference between an Illinois primary election and one in Indiana.

Of course, I couldn’t help but notice that the sources of these stories about “Those People” from Illinois coming east to Indiana were members of the Republican Party organization in Lake County.

How weak is the GOP in the northwest part of Indiana? Almost as weak as the GOP in Chicago proper, I would think. At least the Hoosier GOPers in and around Hammond, Ind., know they have the bulk of the rest of their state on their side, whereas the GOP in Illinois has become so weak that it can offer the Chicago Republican Party no moral support whatsoever.

So making scurrilous charges about Chicagoans coming to Indiana to try to stuff ballot boxes with their “outsider” way of thinking is probably the most attention the Lake County Republicans will get in a long time. And there are too many local people who are willing to believe it because they want to think the isolated ways of their town are the ways of the world.

MY POINT IS that while I don’t doubt there are some people clueless enough to try to vote in an Indiana election, I’m not sure the problem is anywhere near as extensive as Indiana Republicans want us to believe it is.

But the notion of wanting to maintain separation between Chicago and its suburbs is not just an issue for the people who live in the part of the metropolitan area that spills over into Indiana. Sadly, even some of those people fortunate enough to live in Cook County, Ill., don’t truly appreciate the benefits their towns derive from being so close to the Second City (it’s really third), which remains the transportation hub of the nation.

Why else would some residents of the northwest suburb of Palatine be seriously looking into the concept of secession?

Some people up there do not like the idea that they are a part of Cook County, which they feel is totally dominated by Chicago. They would rather be able to say they are in a separate county – one of which Palatine would likely become the county seat.

A BILL IS pending in the Illinois General Assembly (sponsored by Palatine’s member of the Illinois House of Representatives) to make it easier for communities to secede from their counties, although it is far from certain that anything will ever happen to advance that bill.

Earlier this week, county board President Todd Stroger held a hearing at Harper College, where he confronted the masses of Palatine (about 200 people, according to the Chicago Tribune) and listened as they blamed his urban ways for causing the problems that confront Cook County government.

“I think Cook County represents the residents of Chicago,” and “I don’t trust you guys,” were among the lines of rhetoric tossed out at Stroger by people who likely wish they lived in some rural burg without any significant city in or near its boundaries.

I only wish these people could take a look at rural life sometime, particularly the sense of isolation that occurs when one’s home is far from anything and when such daily necessities as grocery shopping requires lengthy automobile drives.

THEY’D SEE PLACES like some tiny communities in Southern Illinois and rural Indiana where overall population is on the decline, and where local officials have to seriously address issues related to the drain of young people with talent and skills from their populations.

A place like Palatine can claim some stability in large part because it is so close to a place like Chicago, which serves as a drawing card to the region, and to which some of its working population spills off into the surrounding suburbs.

If the unique set of circumstances required for secession were to ever occur, we would see a place like Palatine engage in celebration for a day at the thought of their independence.

Then, after realizing just what they lost by not being directly tied to the largest county in Illinois (at 5 million people, it is five times the size of the second-largest county – DuPage), we likely would see a mass movement to undo the damage they had just done. It would be interesting to see how quickly they would clamor to come back to Cook.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: And we wonder why some Indiana and Michigan residents make disparaging remarks about (http://nwi.com/articles/2008/06/18/news/top_news/doc08777d7ebc2032a18625746c0000e8c6.txt) “F-I-P’s.”

Palatine wants to think of itself as a world separate from the rest of the Chicago (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-stroger-17-both-jun17,0,1327158.story) metropolitan area.