License plates

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Some time back,  Mississippi wanted to put Nathan Bedford Forrest on the license plate and it had some people upset. Being upset about such matters might actually be a good thing to talk about as we come at this from a variety of angles and that alone makes for a good discussion. After the recent stuff in Virginia and elsewhere, well, the time is ripe.

Let's get to the admirable things about this guy Forrest, as they are very few and far between.  Forrest was something of the original self made man who grew rich in a number of pursuits, slave trading being one of them. I suspect that being a slave who fell into the Forrest trading camp was a fate worse than death or pretty near its equal so I'm at a quandary about anything that smacks of personal enterprise of worth being attributed to him. He must hate this looking at that judgment from his personal place in hell.

I read a lot about the civil war and in that - from a purely military standpoint - Forrest was perhaps the most creative general of the war.  He did more with less than anyone before or since and Lee, in spite of his innovations, was a piker compared to Forrest. If you can divorce the tactician from the person and just look at him without bringing moral issues to bear, then he is a military genius.

Now lets look at this on a broader scope.  The South was in rebellion and its very existence was treason to the constitution. There is no nice way of looking at it. You are part of this nation or against this nation and for a state there is no middle ground.  In spite of the guys in Texas who keep bringing up succession, they are not patriots as being patriotic is do or die stuff - defense of the country and all of it.  For Mississippi to glorify Forrest for anything other than his tactical brains simply is an affront.

I lived in Lexington, Ky for a while - home of Henry Clay the statesman and also home to Jefferson Davis during his college years at Transylvania University there.  Clay was what he was. Davis was president of the confederacy and that was another act of treason to many. A big brouhaha erupted when the old south contingent of Lexington wanted another historical marker and that is much like the Forrest stuff on the license plate now. Big taa-doo. Ultimately the historical people were able to hang the sign but it isn't anything other than "in this spot" and without fanfare, pomp and parade.

We won't go to the issue of Forrest founding the Klu Klux Klan.  That reprehensible organization doesn't deserve print let alone electrons and is so far past the negative that doesn't need the light of day.

So back to Mississippi. The license plate doesn't separate Forrest into a good military man and note that while at the same time filtering out the slave trader, KKK and traitor part (taking up arms against the United States).  When folks do this kinda thing it starts out, to be charitable, as a good thing well-intentioned and then turns sour as the facts float to the surface.

Remember when your parents advised you to "write the letter telling someone off but sleep on it before you mail it"....well this is one of those times.