CardinalBacker

The North didn't have a problem with slavery, either, or they'd have freed their own slaves. But that's not what they did, now is it? At the end of the day, the location where you and your family lived and owned property played the main deciding factor on which side of the conflict you found yourself. Think about it. Let's assume you were a landowner in Texas, which joined the union in December of 1845. Fifteen years later (1861) the Federal government is trying to impose much more authority over the people of the State of Texas than the government of the Republic of Texas ever had. What would you do? Abandon your land and head North in a show of solidarity to this new, over-reaching goverment, or stay home and join with your friends and family to defend your home? Too many people who never owned slaves died too close to home to ever paint all Southerners as traitors who just wanted to keep the institution of slavery in place.

So why wasn't an executive order issued for the Northern slaves at the same time? Those people remained enslaved. I'll give you a hint... the US government didn't care about freeing slaves... ol' Honest Abe was solely interested in disrupting production of slave-made war goods in the South. If the North was truly fighting to free the slaves, they would have been freed in the North before the war ever started. Of course slavery was a key issue in the dispute over states' rights. But pretending that the war was fought solely over slavery by people who were either for it (South) or against it (North) is as silly as claiming the Revolutionary War was fought over stamp prices. There was enough common sense around 150 years ago that people realized that reconciliation and cooperation were the keys to rebuilding a strong union. Its kinda funny how suddenly after the 2016 Election you have Democrats realizing that they have seemingly forever lost the support of the South, suddenly wanting to punish Southerns by branding them all as racists.

Robert E Lee opposed slavery. He freed the slaves on his plantation (which later became the Arlington National Cemetery) before the war, educated black children (which was illegal at the time), and was a decorated general in the US Army before and after the Civil War. He even taught at West Point. At the time of the Civil War, the majority of governing power was centralized in state governments instead of the federal government. It's hard for people to imagine today, but in the mid 1800s state governments played a much larger role in everyday life. The federal government was only 70 years old at the time of the civil war. Most states had been members of the US for an even shorter period than that. If I'm not mistaken, Texas had joined the Union less than 20 years before the war broke out. Leaving the union didn't seem to be the "traitorous" or "treasonous" act that it seems to be today. Robert E Lee was a patriot and unfortunately was a major landowner in the self-glossed Commonwealth of Virginia at the time that they decided to secede. People who claim that the civil war was primarily about slavery are taking a very simplified view on a very complex subject. The Emancipation Proclamation enacted by the federal government in the North freed slaves, but only those in the South. Slaves in the North weren't freed by the Federal Government until much later. If it truly fought over slavery, then why didn't the North free their own slaves until later? Seems to me that Northern slaves would have been freed first, not last, if the North was truly fighting just to end slavery. But why let actual history get in the way of a good story.

And uneducated.

Ozen.... Legacy.... you name it. Lol. This is where I'd normally cue the theme from the Beverly Hillbillies and sing about how they "loaded up the truck and they moved to Sils-beereeeee," but it's just the first scrimmage. I've got to pace myself.

It's hard to say with Baker out. We had one sustained drive that resulted in a td. The other TD came when Denton outran everybody outside... but I don't think he'll start on "o." There seemed to be too many blue jerseys making plays in our backfield, IMO. Overall, they looked like a bunch of kids getting ready to make their first varsity start. I wouldn't say we're in trouble, but we've definitely got our work cut out for us. Go Cards!

Bridge City has some work to do. Buna's D line looked pretty good. BC defensive front played well, too. Several key pieces were out of action for BC tonight, but the team overall just looks green. I think we'll start slow and gel by the time district rolls around. I counted 2 BC touchdowns and 1 Buna TD.

It's alright... are you going to make it over to historic Larry B Ward Stadium in BC for the Week 1 Showdown? Our visitors stands are freshly refurbished.

We opened up at HF last year. We wore red and were overflowing the visitor's stands, but that's not saying much because I counted and the visitors stands only seat 175. That's the game where we returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Remember? If you weren't there, it's ok to admit it.

Like the old saying goes "I never owned any slaves, and I'm pretty sure you haven't picked much cotton..... so what do you say we move on from here?" Nah... because then certain groups would have to look in the mirror and admit that 95% of the problems facing them are self-inflicted.

I don't have it too bad at all. I feel very sympathetic towards the plight of so many of those raised in single parent households in violent neighborhoods, surrounded by poverty, with substandard schools, and believing that all of those problems are caused by "white privilege." I also feel bad because if the hate-mongers on both sides have their way, people who don't have hard feelings will generate them and the conflicts will only worsen. I mean, if somebody on the left was had plowed into a crowd of conservative protestors, it would be labeled "road rage," not a hate crime.

You've got to admit... there's not a lot of diffence between a group waving signs and blaming the Jews and "mud people" for all of their woes.... and the group of people waving signs and blaming "white privilege" and racism for all of their woes. Don't buy into the hype. Trump is about as responsible for that guy slamming into the rock-throwing protestors last weekend as Obama was for the guy who sniped all of those cops in Dallas last summer. The guys on the right always have to answer for the actions of the biggest jacksass out there who wants to be associated with the right. Let some Republican state senator from Idaho make a ridiculous statement about rape/abortion and he just spoke for every conservative out there. Nobody holds the left collectively accountable for what their most despicable voices are saying. Obama wasn't even associated with his own preacher's hateful speech. We're moving in the wrong direction. Instead of progress and equality, we're moving into more and more racially divisive policies. One group says a word and it's a term of endearment. A different shade of person says the same word and they're branded a horrible person, fit for firing, etc... A group of people tear down a confederate statue in NC yesterday and they won't be prosecuted. Let some other guy snatch down a similar statue of MLK or bust a window at the Holocaust Memorial and face hate crime charges. Unlike most of you, I actually used to know some guys who were white supremacists and belonged to certain groups whose names get thrown around a lot. They would talk about a coming race war and I thought they were totally out in left field on that one. These days I'm not so sure. I think what you're seeing now is that a lot of white people are sick and tired of being painted as a devil because it's a whole lot easier to blame whitey than admit that most of the problems facing black communities today are self-inflicted.

Are y'all still scrimmaging us the week after? It's not on the schedule.

You ain't got no fans!

This is also the era when a lot of kids don't even care enough to go get their drivers license anymore. I think a lot of kids are more concerned with getting followers on social media than yards or tackles.

My old boss went that route.... A&M then on to UT Law. He liked say that he went to A&M for an education and UT to learn a vocation.

I know y'all have to be excited about Coach Burnett coming on board. This could turn into a good season for the bears.

They're ready in LCM, too.

Nobody is certain that the "home" lights work on the scoreboard, either.

We're running the slot T.

They have us at six and Silsbee at nine.... I'm not sure how accurately that will actually play out. If they're basing it off of last year, how does Navasota come in at 10?

Coach Dubois' younger son will be back at qb, Max Baker and Hunter Denton will be back in the backfield. I expect Denton to take more snaps on offense this year, and I expect Andy Lara to produce big numbers replacing Draper. There aren't any Calvin Tylers in the bunch, but with four guys running out of the backfield and running up big rushing numbers you have to consider us one of the "most dangerous offensive backfields."

Keep sleeping on BC. All you have to do is stop the run.

I know.... the deficits are worse in the smaller classifications. I mean, how would a school with 125 kids fare versus a school with 425? 300 hurts a lot worse on smaller schools. We're closer in size to tons of 4A D2 schools than the 4A D1 schools in our district. I can't imagine how we'd do if we played schools our size. We might win a DC, LOL. I guess I shouldn't gripe.... the year before the top three finishers (Silsbee, Jasper, BC) were the smallest three schools in that district.

I think the split in 4A D1 is probably the harshest of the splits. When you compare a school the size of Bridge city at 783 and growing 2 years ago facing off against schools the size of Lumberton/LCM at 1100 kids, it's a killer. A three or four hundred kid difference isn't that big of deal when you're talking about enrollments of 3200 vs 3600. I always joke that you could add the entire Newton High School to BC and we still wouldn't be as big as District rival LCM, but it's true. I can't think of a spread that seems to create a disparity as big as 4A D1.