A comment about the “outrage” expressed in some corners about a picture of RuPaul in a Confederate gown (s/he wore it well, I think) brought forth the following observation by Andy Hall:
… nothing the MoC does, short of full-out hagiography of the Confederacy and its heroes, would ever satisfy the small-but-loud group of critics who’ve been carping about the institution for years. If it weren’t RuPaul, it would be something else. They would be unhappy to discover a mention that Lee owned slaves, or that there’s a section devoted to Lincoln’s visit to Richmond a few days before his death. If the flag display out front that’s caused so much heartburn, was to feature (say) Union and Confederate national flags of April 1865 flying side-by-side, they’d be bitching about the presence of the “Yankee rag.” Outrage is what these folks do. Fish gotta swim.
Sure do. One began swimming after reading Andy’s comments here as well as his post … as if on cue.
Andy’s right. Nothing that Waite Rawls and the Museum of the Confederacy does, short of caving in to Connie Correctness or Sebesta Sensibilities (see here), will please such extremists, who insist that anyone who does not agree with them is simply unreasonable. Thus, why even try?
By now the MOC Appomattox museum is closed for the day, after what seems to have been a highly successful opening. Oh, I expect to see some YouTube videos posed by the handful of Flaggers (who swore they would not enter the place … ignorance is their bliss), just like I’ve grown used to Sebesta’s relentless (and mindless) attacks upon a place he’s not visited. Here’s the problem, folks … the museum will be open tomorrow, the next day, and the one after that … and no one’s really going to care what y’all say. I can’t wait to see James I. Robertson blasted as a Yankee abolitionist tool for speaking at the opening by certain parties, and assailed as a Confederate apologist by others. Maybe someone can nominate one of Connie’s “books” for an award by the MOC so that she can launch a campaign to make sure she doesn’t get the award, just like Ed did.
Like Waite Rawls, Kevin Levin, and others, I’ve been blasted by both Connie Chastain and Ed Sebesta. So I know I must be doing something right. You can just hear Connie now. Same with Ed.
Crossroads 
Well, when I was an attorney for the PA Department of Labor and Industry, Office of Employment Security (since reorganized and split up), during a very tense period I was accused, over the same issue, by a union rep of being pro-management (kind of funny. I come from a very Union background) and by a business rep of trying to drive business out of the Commonwealth. I figured I must be doing something right if neither side was happy.
I have always been intrigued by the posted rules at the Southern War Room Forums:
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“Act the Lady/Gentleman you were raised to be. You are adults and know right from wrong.
Without warning: We reserve the right edit or delete post and to ban anyone who is not a Lady or Gentleman…
Foul Language Will Not Be Tolerated!!!”
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What will be tolerated? Incitements to commit Battery with bodily fluids, icluding “piss”; and suggestions that individuals be lynched.
What a bunch of tools.
Maybe they should have a life-size mannequin of some blond hottie in a Confederate flag bikini about the size of a pirates eye-patch. Then we could all be entertained by the ‘outrage’ from other quarters. Plus, it would probably increase attendance, which, from a business sense, is viewed as a _good_ thing, as opposed to alienating the very people you’re trying to reach out to, which is generally regarded as a _bad_ thing.
Let’s be honest: the people who protested the RuPaul image so loudly would have found something else to whine about, because it is manufactured outrage. I don’t know of people who were going to go to the museum and then declined because of the image. Do you?
Again, I think that in this case, size matters. The same image in a display case or on a wall with other images does not draw this sort of attention.
There’s a place online that sells battle flag pasties. Now THAT image would increase attendance, from some quarters anyway.
Apparently Connie would have no problem with the exploitation of women to promote what she believes is Confederate heritage, so long as it’s done in a tasteful, heterosexual, values-affirming sort of way.