What many Americans thought would be a battle of three months lasted four horrendous years (1861 – 1865).  The first Civil War cost over 360,000 Union and approximately 260,000 thousand Confederate soldiers their lives. It remains the greatest and possibly the most tragic event in United States history, where an incalculable sacrifice of “brothers blood” was spilled to restore to one republic torn in two.  While the reasons for the Civil War are sometimes still debated, political disagreements between the North and South began soon after the American Revolution ended in 1782. Those arguments gradually increased between 1800 and 1860. Quarrels over unfair taxes paid on goods brought into the South from foreign countries as well as perceived shifts of political power in the federal government to favor the Norther states fueled the Southern call away from central federal authority in Washington and to a restoration of states rights.

Unfortunately, the southern governments desire for more state control wasn’t based upon the Founders concept of unalienable rights for all citizens.  They preferred to be free from the scrutiny of northerners in the federal government who frowned upon the concept of brutal slavery.  In fact, slavery was the defining issue that drove the southern states to make war on the Union rather than accept Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in 1860.  After all, slavery had been a part of America’s history for over 200 years and was protected by southern state laws regarding unlawful seizure of property.  In the early 1800s, slavery was promoted as an economic issue and second as a moral issue, but it eventually evolved into the pivotal issue that divided the nation’s political leaders.

Extensive theological debate was waged over a Biblical understanding of slavery, which Scripture never expressly denounces, though abolitionists gave convincing argument that the spirit of the Bible condemned slavery.  But the bottom line was that if the South lost her slaves, her socio economic system would collapse.  Unfortunately, the southerners either ignored or simply did not wish to adopt a more solid form of economic development that involved the free exercise of the creativity, innovation and manufacturing which was successfully working in the Northern states.  Because that would mean the blacks would be free to live for their own sakes and experience personal achievement, the southern democrats were not ready to see blacks educated and living well off the fruits of their own efforts.

When one closely views America today, there are similar developments.  OK Black Americans are not in physical shackles and possessed like caged beasts of labor and raping like in the days of southern slavery, but there is a form of slavery practiced today that is just as oppressive as the physical slavery of old.

The slavery I am referring to is both mental and philosophical in nature.  When one views the living conditions of many American urban ghettos, things are not much better than what the slaves experienced during the years of forced labor.  For example, slave masters are not today blowing away young black males at record numbers.  But rather, it is other blacks who are today voluntarily harming their fellow black Americans at a level that dwarfs the multiple years of oppression during the awful democrat party ally Ku Klux Klan reign of terror.

Frederick Douglas and most other black slaves desired not only to be free, but to assume their rightful place as Americans.  Their thirst for real knowledge was unrelenting.  It did not matter that the democrat dominated south at the time did not allow blacks to read.  If they had an opportunity to learn even the simplest level of reading, writing and arithmetic they would go for it with gusto.  But today, after decades of programed government school indoctrination at the behest of democrat/leftist control, most black Americans now enslave themselves with self proclaimed victimhood.

Until democrats dominated most school systems in America, even during the Jim Crow era, if a young black American attended school, they were educated and qualified to get into university, of course many democrats did not allow or want blacks to attend college or university.  Ironically, today with leftist democrats in control of the schools, most black students do not qualify to attend university.  Moreover, democrat controlled schools have gotten rid of good skilled trades instruction such as plumbing, electrical, construction, or computer programming.  The democrat/leftist concept of low expectation years ago was enacted to set black Americans on a downward path of low intellectual achievement.  What the democrat/ leftist could no longer do through legal edict is now voluntarily carried out by many Black Americans against themselves.

So now, we have a second Civil War brewing in the United states.  One side is comprised of those who want the status quo of low Black achievement, bitterness against the United States and the self-destruction of black Americans to continue.  It would be wrong if I did not remind you about the leftists goal to fundamentally transform America into another Venezuela or Argentina.  If that were not true, there would not be the vast urban wastelands in our republic that resemble third world countries today. Check out skid row in Los Angeles, for example.

On the other hand, there are many, including yours truly who want to encourage our great nation to fully engage the astute principles enumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. What is taught to one generation dictates the direction the nation takes in the next.  That alone is a very good reason to restore a high quality of authentic education and the traditional family as well.  In addition, a return to America’s Judeo/Christian ethics and belief in God almighty would also reap great benefits.

The opposing sides have been established and the second Civil War is fully engaged.  Which side are you on? Check out The Ron Edwards Experience weekends and The Edwards Notebook now on www.talkamerica.us daily.

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