Overstepping.

The young black writer on the Atlantic website, in a post entitled, "The Civil War Isn't Tragic Cont." finally comes to the point late in the thread with this line:

" But as I said before, when I think about the Civil War I am, on a human level, giddy. "

After spending some afternoons walking those hallowed battlefields, perhaps imagining the stench of death, that's what he gives us: "I am, on a human level, giddy."

And people wonder why Rick Perry is so appealing a candidate to plenty of non-liberal whites, in these allegedly "post racial" times.

It's one thing to tank the economy, up the ante in more foreign wars, and pretty much be clueless and reactive in response to an economic collapse. But if Obama supporters keep on with this line of dialogue "When I think about the Civil War I am ... giddy!" I suspect it won't even take rioting in the American streets for all the moderate and middle-class voters who originally took a chance on him, to rethink casting their votes.

Easier to just sit out, if you're not inclined to support Romney, Perry or the woman candidates. Hang on to your dollars for a while, wait for the Nancy's-Harry's-Hillary's to age out of their cushy jobs, and recognize: the liberal cause is dying of its own accord.

"I am, on a human level, giddy."
That one liner, pretty much, says it all. After all the artificial upreach, after all the unnecessary busing, after all the federal government help via monthly checks and all the educational standards lowering -- for black minorities only -- to induce their participation in higher ed and otherwise unreachable corporate positions, this is how the young black man -- a Howard U dropout -- views his "work".

As I've said before, the future -- even in the black community, I believe -- really does rest in the minds of the immigrants and strugglers who don't want ongoing race wars, and not with those who seek to divide the country in troubled times rather than find common ground.

The future will be with the educated, no matter the skin color. The race will go to the competitive, not he who gets the biggest artificial head start, or extra help from the refs.

The future, in short, goes to those who don't get giddy -- wee-weed up? -- at the thoughts of all those Union soldiers who laid down their lives to afford the black man a chance ... which he threw away as a dropout only to impregnate his girlfriend out of wedlock, and then sign on to a creaky online publication pushing his personal race nonsense.

I hope his son has his eyes open, and isn't poisoned by his father before he sets out to fully discover America himself. That's what I hope ... for change. Real change. Worthy of all those who sacrificed to make this country a better place, yes even for the black men who would choose to compete, honestly, rather than to whine and delight in the deaths of so many.

Those battlefields ... Gettysburg: It's a noble place, it's a sacred place. It should be honored and respected as such, if you've got the historical chops to understand what occurred there. Maybe in time, the lessons will take.

ADDED: A commenter tries to reach him, to get through his black-tinted glasses and get him to think more humanely, namely the way a black man who actually suffered from the tragedy of slavery might view the War:

Surely you can imagine that even, say, a freed slave might have felt some tinge of lamentation over the massive destruction and loss of life, black and white alike.... or am I just being deeply naive?

I think the black/white mindset's pretty much ingrained in this one though. But still, you hold out hope for the son... Poor kid.

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ADDED: And to understand why so many young men -- non slave owners themselves -- fought for the Confederacy, Shelby Foote has this great quote:

When a Confederate POW was asked by a Union soldier why the South was putting up such a fight despite smaller armies, less supplies, and near starvation the Reb replied:
"Because y'all are down here!"

Education increases understanding. If you are confident in your own identity, surely you can understand that one. It's not all black v. white, rich white v. poor black,* afterall. And yes, you can have sympathy for the individual soldier, but not support his cause. (see Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, etc. etc.)

And Americans of all stripes can agree, our Civil War was a draining bloodbath, one that we shouldn't choose to emulate in this 21st Century.

Little minds turn to violence as a solution. Bigger minds seek to understand their "enemies" and eventually, learn to overcome their ethnic grievances to look forward and work their way ahead. Really, it's the American way.

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* If anything, the affirmative action and other "reparations" don't afflict the rich white, slave-owning descendants much. Instead, they fall disproportionally on the working-class and ethnic white populations, plenty of which were involved in survival struggles of their own and not even in the country yet when the Bad Whites were enslaving the noble black man. Plenty of whom sit side by side with black children in those public schools -- the same facilities, teachers, materials and tests. Tell me again why we reward the non-competitive students merely for having a black skin? There's plenty that can and do make the grade without the artificial help. Plus, they're much less likely to drop out of schools, if they've actually earned their way in...

And no, I simply don't buy that such "enslavement" continues by all white people to this day. (That's excuse-making to cover the consequences of one's own choices in these modern times.)

Not with a black president sitting honestly in the White House. Not with the "welcome mats" spread far and wide for even underperforming black students at institutions of higher learning across this great country.

That might be a nice narrative to propagate, but it simply is not true in this day and age. And more and more, good people are coming to realize it, and reject such racial nonsense and attempted shaming.

Whites don't bear the original sin of slavery. Not in America. Not in these better times. It's a shame to try and build a career pushing such vile. (I thought the Jesse Jackon days were finally gone and done: his son, in fact, is the current congressman for my hometown. Pehaps Mr. Coates needs to get away from his Gettysburg giddiness and visit Chicago's Southland, to see how an integrated society can grapple collectively with their current troubles, and most importantly, to see how people can get ahead with the excitement of bloody violence motivating them on.)