Gee Whiz, Betty, I'm so sorry if I gave offense.  I had to leave work
yesterday from pain, messed my pants on the way home, and still had to work
from the laptop when I got there.  My ancestors on my father's side, the
Clevelands, owned virtually all of northeast Georgia 150-300 years back,
centered around the town of Hartwell.  One predecessor, Col. Benjamin
Cleveland, was a hero in the first war against Britain at the Battle of
King's Mountain S. C. I have copies of the courthouse records where one
grandfather-plus co-owned 1200 slaves and over 12,000 acres in peanuts,
cotton and 'backer.  One of the slaves, a housegirl, was named
Anna--ironically what we named our middle daughter, but without
fore-knowledge.

We still would have been landed gentry had it not been for Sherman, so you
can see that the bitterness in my family runs deep.  In a few short years
the entire extended family fell from opulence to abject poverty--some of
which still remains.

My point is that I cannot hold that bitterness against Sherman and the
following century of reconstruction.  I also cannot be made guilty of the
sins committed against the slaves and their progeny through the ages.  My
folks, like your mom, have deep seated prejudices--not borne of experience,
but of nurture.  I'm glad that you have decided to bury those ghosts once
and for all, but your mom only knew what sermon she'd been preached.  Try
not to hold it against her.

If I've still misunderstood your intent, then I'm going to take another pill
and lie down.

Laura and I would love to hear from you--we miss our phone chats.

-Kyle

-----Original Message-----
From: Betty B [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 4:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Education/Educators


I didn't say anything like that Kyle.

In a message dated 12/04/2000 2:16:05 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> I'm prone to all manner of "sin".  Fortunately, I'm responsible for my own
>  behavior and not that of my slave-owning forbears.  White guilt is no
reason
>  to rewrite history to make it palatable for the Politically Correct.  My
>  dark cousin's heart is just as full of filth as my own.
>
>  -Kyle
>


Betty
aut viam inveniam aut faciam
"I will either find a way or make one."