Southern shades of gray

This post is 367 days late. I hoped to find a place for it last year, but that didn't work out. So now a new year has begun and it is timely again.
This year I am in a quandry. I am both a life long liberal and a loyal southerner. With the advent of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, I've been forced to watch my pundit heroes disparage the commemorations, the re-enactments and the south itself. While I continue to admire these people, I feel I must point out the issue is not that simple.
One question raised is why the south, which lost, is the one commemorating the war. To me that reveals a lack of understanding, surprising in people who deal with politics all the time, of conquered nations. For the north, the war is one event in U.S. history; for the south it is the event, a center everything circles around. This is hardly unusual for a subjugated people. While the pundits compare confederates to Nazis, a better comparison might be the Irish. Like them, we were drawn into our current nation by force and an uneasy peace has existed since. And like them, most people cling to the past in various ways.
Repeatedly I've heard that the war was only about slavery. While that was definitely in the mix, I say once again it is not that simple. By now we should surely know that states' rights is not a one issue or even one philosophy thing. Most recently liberals defended California's right to set tighter emission standards than the Feds, so they must believe in it at least a little.  And you don't have to be a World Government wacko to see that a counterbalance to unrestrained federal power might not be a bad idea. Then we could worry less about a future George Bush.
Southern culture too has been dismissed, denied as something distinct from the culture of other areas. It's true in our mobile society regional differences have greatly diminished. But that is more reason to establish events to celebrate them, not less. Of course, it is past culture that most people are trying to keep alive in events.  And I believe the South has as much esteem for its past culture as any place on earth - in fact these commentators do too, that's what they're complaining about. This is another aspect of the argument that puts my two loyalties in conflict. Beyond slavery, the south also represents the last gasp of feudalism in western societies. The wonderful homes and glittering lives they created were born of great inequality, something I despise. But they also clung to what were already becoming old ways in their time - pastoralism and hospitality. Unfortunately in modern times the second has disappeared quickest of all and the first has been degraded to redneck clannishness. So why not idolize the genteel past we imagine?
That being said, since the end of the Civil War, black culture has become intrinsic to Southern culture. Blues, jazz, and soul food have crossed over big time. Race relations certainly have changed - in the last 50 years and the last 150 years. From what I saw on my last drive through the south, a stable but uncommitted peace is achieved the same way it is in the rest of the country - by staying away from each other. Those who claim racism only existed in the south have forgotten the Boston busing riots and the Los Angeles problems through the years. In fact, my American history professor showed us a photo of a group of white men posing for a picture  around the burned body of a black man - in Pennsylvania.
So there it is. It's no surprise that secession commemorations should stir up liberal talking heads. Leftists have long feared and hated the south. They had some good reasons, but they also portrayed it as a monoculture, which it never was, and used it to feel superior, which they may have been, but their regions were not. And to some extent the north, either through the war itself or the poorly handled reconstruction, is partly responsible for the path the south took. Most likely slavery would have died without the war and without all the animosity and backlash. And I can't even imagine what the south would be like without its historical centerpiece. As it is, all Americans continue to take baby steps toward true colorblindness. Historical celebrations have nothing to do with that.