[Vision2020] Let's all take a Fly Nap

[Joan Opyr]

>
>Joan,
>    Okay, so my dad isn't a racist because you think he's a poor historian, 
>he's a racist because you think he really, really, sucks at history? I see 
>that I misrepresented your case. Please accept my apologies.

Apology accepted, Nate, but I believe you're confusing me with someone else. 
  I haven't accused your father of being a racist.  He might be or he might 
not -- I'm not interested enough in delving into his psyche to say.  The 
assertion I made is that his arguments are suspect and his bona fides 
non-existent.  His obsession with showing what good Christians those 
Confederate slave-holders were is frankly puzzling, and I wonder what 
exactly Doug and the Reverend Wilkins are trying to achieve.  Are they 
really hoping to change the terms of the historical debate?  Do they imagine 
that a screed like 'Southern Slavery: As It Was' will once and for all knock 
that tiresome Shelby Foote off the map?  Note to Ken Burns: the Wilsons are 
ready for their close-up.

I grew up in North Carolina, kids.  My family has lived there for a few 
centuries now.  Do you imagine that in a region as self- and 
history-obsessed as the South that I wouldn't have read hundreds of original 
documents pertaining to slaves and slave-holders?  I've read wills, 
conferring ownership of money, acres, and human beings to the next 
generation; I've read slave narratives and listened to oral histories.  I 
was born at night, but it wasn't last night.  I've heard all of your 
arguments before.  The road you're on might begin beneath a wisteria arch, 
but it winds up at the gallows tree.

Yours sincerely,
Joan Opyr

PS: I have read Darwin.  It's a good place to start if you're trying to 
understand evolutionary theory, but it isn't where you should stop.  Much 
has happened in the intervening century.  Move on; catch up.  There was a 
lovely fellow who worked with fruit flies in the 1930s to demonstrate 
certain principles of genetic mutation -- but don't take my word for it.  
Any biological supply house would be happy to sell you a microscope, some 
drosophila, and a bottle of fly nap.  Let's engage in a bit of hands-on 
learning!

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