DocWard

The easy answer to that is, because they have a known country of origin. The tendency to use the broad "African-American" started when most blacks in the U.S. couldn't name a country of ancestry, because their ancestors were brought over against their will and they had no specific ancestral memory to rely on. With the use of DNA testing, there has been improvement in that area. Oh, I'm an American of Scots-Irish, Dutch and English ancestry. But I agree with the great Theodore Roosevelt as well.

Didn’t I start one of these threads not too long ago?

And their dog, according to what I read. Carbon monoxide?

Ya know, @Alpo, sometimes you start a thread that doesn't leave me wondering about your thought processes, and this is one of them. I believe you hit the nail on the head with both questions and insight. I rarely talk specifics about what firearms I might or might not own, or ammunition either, unless I have a specific need to know. Even then I try to find the answer without posting a question. On occasion I might let my guard down, but I try hard not to. Because, like you said, "it's just nobody's business."

Please, oh please, tell me you're joking.

Uhmmm... What about humans?

I will keep them and you and yours in my thoughts and meditations during this difficult time.

I do not, but it likely was just a bit before my time here.

Given your response, I'm not sure you read my entire post. My point was that by 1860, slavery wasn't normal nor acceptable. Except in the South, where they literally chose, according to their own documents, to fight a war over it. Instead of the comparison to the Taliban, having those statues up would be more akin to leaving statues and artwork of Saddam Hussein in Iraq after the war, or statues and monuments to Hitler and other high ranking Nazis in Germany at the end of WWII. I won't get into why the statues were erected in the first place. One can remember history and keep it from being "erased," without keeping statues placed for the wrong reasons. Erasing history can work both ways.

This always brings a lump to my throat.

In his 1775 treatise, Taxation No Tyranny, British author Dr. Samuel Johnson rhetorically asked, “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?” “[T]here is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it...” - George Washington 1786 I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in abhorrence … ” - John Adams 1819 “Slavery is … an atrocious debasement of human nature.” Benjamin Franklin 1789 "He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce." - Thomas Jefferson, early draft of The Declaration of Independence, 1776 One need look no further than the secession documents of the Southern states to understand that, while they claimed "states' rights," as allowing their secession, the first and primary reason for doing so was to avoid the elimination of slavery. This, many decades after so many, slave holders among them, argued against the practice as against human nature. While I will assert the states should have had the right to secede from the Union, I am under no illusion as to why they chose to do so.

Yes indeed!

Pffft.... Did you ever look at a map of Ohio?

How convenient for you. You can ignore an entire exposition that you would otherwise have to defend against by keying in on one little word near the end. An adjective in this usage at that. I suppose that's analogous in its own way to those on the left who don't like something and simply say "Hitler." I suppose it saves you from being offended and butt hurt. Or does it? At any rate, congratulations on finding a safe out so that you don't have to worry one way or another. Quick knowledge check, do you even know who you are quoting? It's by philosopher George Santayana, and the actual quote is "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Interestingly, nowhere did I say that PFC Bragg was undeserving. I simply noted that MSG Roy Benavidez would have been my preference. Considering the fort is the home of the JFK Special Warfare Center I consider it appropriate.

What in the wide, wide world of sports does that have to do with anything? Before you start in with "If you didn't serve...," just remember this: The military is, and by necessity must be, subservient to the Constitution and the duly elected civilian authority. That is, the citizenry of the United States who elect their representatives. Thus, if an American citizen formulates an intelligent, articulate and well reasoned opinion, then their military experience on such issues is irrelevant. I would say it was relevant to matters of combat experience and armchair quarterbacking things done in the heat of battle, but that is a very different thing. There is significant documentation to support the assertion that the forts named for confederate generals were so named to assuage Southern feelings at the time the "lost cause" argument was propounded as confederate soldiers aged. It may be coincidental that the naming, the placement of statues of confederate heroes, the lost cause argument, and Jim Crow were taking place at roughly the same period in time, but I think meeting the burden in showing such a coincidence would be quite taxing. So, for those who are comfortable maintaining such names, despite the arguably racist history surrounding them, my response is feel free to do so, just be honest with yourself and everyone else as to that history. Personally, I still think Bragg should have been renamed Fort Benavidez.