My Apologies.

My sincere apologies to all. I have not updated this blog in a very long time...life is extremely crazy right now. I comfort myself with the thought that when I graduate it will all get better!

(Yes, I know this is untrue, but allow me my little delusions, ay? At least there will be no more papers to write and tests to take...only long, long, long, long workdays. Provided I can actually get a job with an English degree. Do you know, there are only several people, including me, who are graduating from my college this May with an English degree? Crazy. Well, anyway.)

So! I saw a funny poster the other day. It wasn't supposed to be funny though. It said, and I quote, "PLAY HACKEY!" Hackey? Is this some new sport I haven't heard about?

In other news, I have been improving my ice skating. I can now go really fast. Yay!

Ummm...what else? Let me think.

OK, how about a rant? That always seems to get the comments flowing.

I do not understand why the people I talk to (with the exception of the ones who comment here) can't seem to separate the issue of slavery from the South. I've been hearing a lot about this lately. Anytime I bring up the War Between the States and reveal that I am a Southern sympathiser, people react with scathing horror.

"How Could You?" they cry in emotional agony. "How could you be on the Southern side? You know, they did horrible things to the slaves. I don't understand how anybody could ever be on their side. You have to be prejudiced to be on the Southern side!"

What I don't understand is what prejudice these people have against actually cracking open a book on the subject. Well, all right, I will grant you that most of the books out there have a Northern/Union bias, because after all -- the winners of any conflict write the history books about the conflict. But there are books out there that can be had that will give you a more accurate picture of the WBTS.

And did you know only between 8 and 10 percent of the Southern population ever owned slaves (some sources say even less)? If I were a poor rural Southern farmer, I'd get tired of being told by snippy Northerners what a horrible person I was just because my neighbour down the road owned slaves on his big plantation. No wonder the Southern people rebelled against being told what to do. The North was doing exactly what it was accusing the South of doing -- judging an entire race of people by a few dimwits.

Now I'm not saying that Southerners were an entirely different race of people than Northerners, but the fact of the matter is that Northerners and Southerners came from different parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (mainly, anyway) and hated each other for hundreds of years before they ever set foot on American soil. There was bound to be a war, and it just so happened that slavery became the catalyst for the conflict.

Because the Southern agricultural economy and climate supported slavery, Southerners were the ones who were blamed for the whole mess. People tried to bring slaves up North, but the slaves died before they could accomplish much. Besides, the North didn't need slaves -- theirs was not an agrarian society. It was mostly industrial.

And one last parting shot before I sign off for now -- the slaves were all brought in via Northern ports. There was never one single slave brought in through a Southern port.

Ahem...OK, I'm done for right now. More later. I may continue this rant in a later post. Feel free to comment...hint, hint.