“Before we consider these houses,” I told N, “I need to verify whether we won the battles that give the names to these streets and subdivisions. If the enemy won, I can’t live here.”
I’m not very knowledgeable on the American Civil War, so I had to Google. It turned out that the people who named the streets are on our side, and now I’m hugely tempted by one of the houses there. Of course, it just has to be the most expensive one because this is what always happens to me for some reason.
What do you mean by ‘we’? And who was the enemy?
IME places that care enough about the civil war to name things after it are usually pro-confederate (a rare example of Americans adopting the European passion about lost battles) or at least try not to take an us-vs-them attitude so if you’re very pro-union you might not want to be too too vocal about it.
And do you really sure about such a large financial commitment before you get tenure? Is there a special hurry?
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The Chair said last week that the only way I don’t get tenure is if a meteor hits our region and razes us to the ground. I got the highest ratings in all categories during every single evaluation I’ve had here. If after all this, I were to be dined tenure, I’d sue.
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For some reason? You like quality, and it usually costs.
Hope you will find a great house for you. If you intend (at least, currently) to stay there till your deaths, it’s very important.
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Btw, “we won” and “the enemy” shows how closely have you adopted to heart American patriotism too, in addition to Ukrainian one, despite loud denouncing of it. 🙂
I couldn’t care less who won what hundreds of years ago in USA.
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In that war, slavery was defeated. And my Ukrainian ancestors were, in all probability, slaves. I think we all need to care about the defeat of slavery.
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As desirable and overdue as that was, it was more of a happy by product than the original reason for war (assuming you know that but others here might not).
And Lincoln had more than his share of white supremacist and eliminationist moments (his plan was apparently to deport as many freed slaves as possible).
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Stalin was a lot more evil than Lincoln could ever aspire to be, and his reasons for provoking Hitler into attacking were pretty nasty, but we still celebrate the victory over Nazism.
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“we still celebrate the victory over Nazism”
True. My…. not entirely positive image of Lincoln is partly just a reaction against all the whitewashing and idolatry I was subjected to in school (and everywhere else) about him. It was kind of a shock to find out the messy truth. It was one of those first “ah ha!” moments when I realized that a significant portion of the things I was taught in school were not just honest mistakes but lies intended to make me (and the rest of the students) docile and obedient, not that I had the context to see all that then.
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Suddenly I can imagine you living at the intersection of Appomattox Court House Lane and Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, next to Dan Halen’s Sheetrock Museum.
Either that or I’ve listened to way too much Squidbillies while writing this week …
(do not touch the trim!)
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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