"HERITAGE, NOT HATE"

This weekend, I attended a conference (of attorneys) at Stone Mountain, Georgia. For those of you who do not know, Stone Mountain's historical significance comes from its being the site of the formation and foundation of the Second (and present-day) Ku Klux Klan. Appropriate, given the company with whom I was with. And once I found out the fact, I no longer wondered why there were so many extra sheets tastefully arranged on my hotel bed.

The above infelicitous phrase, which reeks of a primitive defensive self-awareness, is, the more I talk to Southerners, so much sloganeering - why is it that people who use it so much are so ignorant of the 4-year period of history encapsulated by the phrase - not to mention the history of the South both before and afte that period?

For an interesting take on the phrase, check out:

http://www.chicora.org/heritage.htm