Maryland as part of a 15-state country known as the Confederation of Southern States?
That’s exactly what a group of neo-Confederates called the League of the South has proposed. An e-mailer sent me that info after my recent column about the Johns Hopkins University/Sons of Confederate Veterans controversy. According to the book “Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction,” the “League of the South advocates secession from the United States and the establishment of an independent Confederation of Southern States. The CSS … would contain four states more than seceded to form the Confederate States of America … the additional states being Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland.”
Why would anyone even dream of secession in the 21st century? Oh yeah, because it worked SO well the last time. Do these people who formed the League of the South believe blacks in Maryland — not to mention Latinos, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Africans, Indians, Arabs, Pakistanis, Russian Jews and the thousands of other immigrants who’ve settled here — really want this state to be part of the CSS?
I want Denzel Washington’s looks and Terrell Owens’ torso, but that’s not happening either.
At any rate, the idea of secession is completely backward. States shouldn’t be looking to secede; the federal government should look at which states need to be KICKED OUT of the Union.
Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he? So which states being kicked out of the Union would make me happier than a turkey at a vegan Thanksgiving?
I’ll start with California (like you didn’t see that one coming). Home to more than its share of the nation’s whack jobs, the state has given the country quite a few things it doesn’t need. Like the street gangs the Crips and the Bloods, which began in California and have spread like some malignant fungus across the land.
California is also the state, more than any other, that has elevated cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal to the status of hero. The city of Oakland even had a “Mumia Abu Jamal” day. I won’t rehash all the details of how Abu Jamal executed Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner on the morning of Dec. 9, 1981. I’ll just say that Abu Jamal was found with a bullet in him — from Faulkner’s gun — nearby with his own empty gun. Ballistics experts testified that bullet fragments removed from Faulkner were consistent with those used for Abu Jamal’s gun. No fewer than four eyewitnesses testified to seeing Abu Jamal shoot Faulkner.
Abu Jamal’s supporters — especially out in the Nutty State — believed that Philadelphia police should have come on this crime scene with this physical evidence and, after talking to witnesses, arrested someone else.
California’s got to go, for one other reason. The conflict between blacks and Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles has received little media attention. (It’s not deemed politically correct to highlight beefs between groups of “people of color.”) But it exists, mainly because of a dispute between the notorious prison gangs the Black Guerrilla Family and the Mexican Mafia. We certainly don’t want this brouhaha spreading across the country. Kick Cali out and build a moat around it now.
The southern part of Florida — or at least the part where anti-Castro Cuban-American whack jobs who wield national influence far out of proportion to their numbers live — needs to go. Cut it off and tell Fidel and Raul Castro they can make it the northernmost province of Cuba, which it virtually is anyway. Need a reason? I can give you several, the most obvious being all the terrorist acts anti-Castro Cubans have committed on these shores and others.
There’s no need to kick out the entire state of Louisiana, or even the city of New Orleans. But does New Orleans, or Louisiana or even the country need the street gang the Gotti Boys, which terrorized the city even before Hurricane Katrina?
You probably heard nothing about the disaster that hit New Orleans BEFORE Katrina, probably because all those who went on an anti-President Bush rant after the hurricane couldn’t find a way to blame the Gotti Boys’ reign of terror on him. Let’s make the ward where the Gotti Boys live a state.
Then let’s boot it out of here.
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Baltimore and Maryland for more than 15 years.
Look for his columns in the editorial section every Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at [email protected].
