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My Fake-Confederate Great Grandfather and Me
My middle name came from my great grandfather. I was always told that he had fought for the South in the Civil War — until my aunt (my father’s sister) corrected this family story.
“Oh no,” she exclaimed. “He was never in the war. But he used to put on a uniform and sword and ride around town like he had been.”
Recently I did a bit of genealogical research. Turns out that my great-great grandfather had fought for the CSA (it’s on his tombstone), but his son was born too late to have served.
The man I was named after was indeed a fake.
My great grandfather’s sham seems a fitting metaphor for today’s sons and daughters of the Confederacy — the ones parading around with CSA battle flags in their pickups.
The same people who yell “Send her home” in reference to a U. S. citizen who they believe challenges American values, while at the same time they protect statues of military figures who fought to overthrow the U. S. Constitution in order to preserve the “rights” of a few privileged slave-holding aristocrats.
…
On one of his live albums, Frank Zappa says to his audience something like “Everyone here is wearing a uniform and don’t kid yourselves.” (The fans applaud in lemming-like fashion.)
