NATION IN BRIEF
Friday, March 16, 2007; A09
Ga. Senate Panel Backs Confederacy Month
ATLANTA -- A panel of Georgia lawmakers signed off on a plan to create a Confederate heritage month, even as legislative leaders reacted coolly to a push to apologize for the state's role in slavery.
State Sen. Jeff Mullis's bill would dub April as Confederate History and Heritage Month to honor the memory of the Confederacy and "all those millions of its citizens of various races and ethnic groups and religions who contributed in sundry and myriad ways to the cause of Southern Independence."
The unanimous vote by the Senate Rules Committee -- which sent the plan on to the full Senate for consideration -- comes days after black lawmakers announced plans to ask the state to officially apologize for its role in slavery and segregation-era laws.
Virginia's legislature last month passed a resolution expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery, and lawmakers in Missouri and Congress have proposed similar measures.
Democratic Rep. Tyrone Brooks, chairman of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, said it is discouraging to see the Confederate month proposal moving ahead after leaders of the Republican-controlled House and Senate said they are not in favor of apologizing for slavery.
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The National White People's Party aka The Republicans
This should be one more wake up call to black folks to spend their tourist and conference dollars in a more hospitable geographical location.
By "Southern Independence", state Senator Jeff Mullis obviously means the right of his ancestors to keep slaves and to extend the practice of slavery as far west as California and as far south as Central America.
Abraham Lincoln was wrong. Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis et al. should have been tried and hung by the necks until they were dead. This would have given Senator Mullis and his ilk something real to mourn about rather than trying to prettify or minimize the South's desire to keep our ancestors and their descendants in chattel slavery for perpetuity.Â