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PLEASE, Howard, while we appreciate your passion, have the decency to tell
the truth.  Some of us are SICK AND TIRED of having you repeatedly suggest
that anyone who does not agree with you about what we should do here is
uncaring or immoral.  And do your homework--find out just how much of a
"free ride" our riders get.  I would challenge you to pay the same price
that they are paying to go, in order to support the cause of the abused
young boys in the UAE.  It is entirely possible to be moral, caring, and
patriotic, and still be utterly disgusted with your repeated exhortations
on this and the AERC list, and to have strong feelings that we are doing
much more to be moral, caring, and patriotic to GO and be present. Below
is a post that I sent to the AERC list in response to Truman:


> The juxtaposition of this can't help but except me. The American flag is
>  more than a few pieces of fabric sewn together. The flag carries the
> sprit of every man that fell in defense of his country. Many of those
> fell in the American Civil war - a war to rid the United States from the
>  barbaric practice of slavery.
Truman, that is a nice pat thing to say.  Unfortunately, it is not
historically accurate.  The Civil War was fought about states' rights, not
about slavery.  Although there were certainly strong abolishionist
movements in the North, many who fought on the Union side had no use for
blacks and cared little for whether slavery was outlawed or not--they were
fighting to keep the Union intact.  And on the Southern side, three in
four men who took up arms did not own slaves and had no vested interest in
slavery--they were fighting to defend the rights of their home states to
make decisions, free from encumberment from the Federal government.  Had
the conflict been over slavery, many of those people would have fought on
the other side.  But to most of them, it was a lesser issue than the
invasion of their homeland--and it was a part of their culture, rightly or
wrongly.  The Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves was not even
done until 1863--over halfway through the Civil War.  If you want to get a
better idea of what the Civil War was really about (beyond the superficial
version that we teach in our elementary schools) you might want to read
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CONFEDERACY, by Jefferson Davis.  It is a very
in-depth look at the dirty politics of the time.  (I know that I, for one,
despite being appalled at the very notion of slavery, am a secessionist at
heart--I should have been a Southerner!)

That said, I agree fully that the American flag is a heck of a lot more
than a few strips of cloth.  It is a powerful symbol, and as such, has
great meaning throughout the world.  Whether you love it or hate it, the
symbolism is there.  (And I happen to love it dearly.)

> I hope whoever carries this flag understands he is carrying the
> collective conscience of the American people and the sprit of the
> 360,000 Union troops that died to rid the United States of slavery
> during the civil way.
Again, Truman, let's get real.  The North had an abominable record for how
it treated blacks prior to the Civil War, and that didn't change
afterward.  If anything, it got even worse with the number of impoverished
blacks who came north to get away from the lynchings, etc. that were
happening in the South.  The only jobs available to them were menial labor
(they were only welcome in the country club if they were wearing white
jackets and passing trays, or were in the back cooking).  It has taken us
well over a century post-war to get any sort of equity for black Americans
in this country.  My father can remember having a group of black
evangelists come to his church when he was a kid here in Idaho--they were
treated far more kindly here than in many parts of the country, but
nonetheless, it was unthinkable to even consider getting them rooms at a
local hotel, as that was completely out of the question.  Instead, they
had to be lodged and fed in private homes.  This was the 1930s.  In the
early 1960s, I can remember going to Missoula, Montana (we had no blacks
here in Salmon at the time) and only seeing blacks in the roles of Pullman
porters, luggage handlers, cooks, busboys, and highway workers doing
manual labor.  It took another major social movement (which you yourself
have cited--Rosa Parks, MLK, etc.) to gain any sort of equitable treatment
for a whole race of people in this country.  Now, 140 years after the
Emancipation Proclamation, we are finally seeing equitable treatment in
most parts of the country, and blacks now sit in Cabinet posts, serve as
doctors and lawyers, and have a shot at "the American dream."  I daresay
our flag means a heckuva lot more about human rights now than it did in
1865.

That said, partly because our flag IS such a powerful symbol, I'm proud
that our riders carry it into parts of the world where slavery still
exists.  Its very presence makes a strong statement.  I'm saddened that so
many here look upon our riders as "accepting a free ride" by going to the
UAE.  They are paying dearly to go.  I'd challenge those of you who
suggest that they are merely sponging off the UAE to ante up what our
riders and our National Federation have done to be able to go.  You might
be surprised.  (No, since you think it is a free ride, I GUARANTEE you
will be surprised.)  And I proudly support their going, to stand tall
under a flag that MEANS SO MUCH in terms of human rights and our own
struggles to achieve same.  May that same flag wave in areas where there
are slaves, to help to give hope and courage to those who suffer and to
those who work to end the suffering.

And given how long it took our own country, with its vocal abolishionists
active for many years even BEFORE the Civil War, to come to any equitable
treatment of black Americans, as incensed as we may be over the plights of
slaves in other countries, we have to be honest and understand that no
changes happen overnight, and that ANY positive effect we can have by
lending our presence and our conscience to the situation is a step in the
right direction, even if we don't see an immediate about-face.  I'm
grateful for the cooler heads here who can understand that in our
disapproval, it is still imperative to keep a relationship and
communications with the UAE in order to make a difference.

Heidi



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