...or do Virginia and France have a lot in common?

Virginia is a wonderful place to live. It has everything: temperate climate, vibrant cities, breathtaking vistas, proximity to the Nation's Capital and as much history as one could absorb in a lifetime. America started in Virginia (screw Boston). Four of our first five presidents were born here. Aside from the cuisine, which Virginia sadly retained from her British forebears, the place has everything. Unfortunately, Virginia, like France, is a victim of its indigenous population. In other words, Virginia would be paradise were it not for Virginians.

Don't take my word, look at the history:

Having spawned the ablest leader of its generation, Virginia chose sides poorly in the conflict of 1861 and forced Robert Edward Lee to play for the runner-up.

Virginia leads the country (and probably the world) in state-sponsored murder, known to you as court-ordered executions.

It was Virginia, attempting to justify its ban on interracial marriage, that prompted the Supreme Court to overthrow all such vestiges of Jim Crow (Loving v. Virginia).

Most recently, Virginia passed a law requiring an intrusive vaginal ultrasound for women seeking an abortion.

The state whose leaders gave the world a new meaning of freedom and self-government can never quite decide which end of the stick it wants to hold. Should Virginia be the state typified by the University of Virginia, a renowned seat of learning or by Liberty University, a renowned seat of reactionary intolerance? Does Virginia want to return to its place as the home of thought leaders or will it be content to be nothing but a gaggle of over-educated, Bible-thumping rednecks?

Yes, Virginia went for President Obama in 2008 but honestly, without the D.C. suburbs, most notably Fairfax County, Virginia is just Oklahoma with less dust and a lousier football team. That fact was vividly on display this week as the Virginia State Assembly finished up its housekeeping for the spring session. Among the docket items was the confirmation of three judges which required legislative approval. One appointee, C.L. "Clay" Athey is a proponent of carrying concealed weapons in public buildings. His approval was semi-automatic. Another appointee was Tracy Thorne-Begland whose public personae was a bit less "good ole boy". Mr. Thorne-Begland was a fighter pilot and Navy officer who challenged the Navy's ban on gay service more than twenty years ago. For his troubles, Mr. Thorne-Begland was honorably discharged...twice. He is currently a prosecutor in Richmond. Mr. Thorne-Begland was rejected by the Virginia House.

Naturally, everyone in Virginia who could see beyond their bigotry and Christian crapology thought Mr. Thorne-Begland would have made a fine judge. Even Governor Bob McDonald, hardly a rainbow activist, was dismayed at this blatant discrimination. (Bob apparently forgot his torpedoing of Verbena Askew, a lesbian judge from Newport News. Bob was a state assemblyman at the time. McDonald's quote in 2003 was "homosexuality raises questions about a person's qualification to be a judge". How quickly we forget.)

Predictably, Thorne-Begland's candidacy was opposed by the Family Foundation whose comments went along the lines of: ... inability to be objective... contrary to tradition..blah...Christian bullshit...blah, blah...right-wing bigotry...sleeping with goats...God's plan...guys kissing guys is icky...blah, blah. These people talk as if they were Amish. Why is progress in technology, science (not climate science, of course) medicine (except stem cells) and every other field of human endeavour acceptable but not progress in how we live together? What possible difference could it make to some baggy-pants legislator from Lynchburg how a judge in Richmond lives his life?

Memo to the Virginia Assembly: Your job is to pass laws and make decisions for the general well-being and prosperity of the residence of the Commonwealth. You were not elected to shove your bigoted religious beliefs up my nose. If I want someone to tell me how to live my life I'll call Dr. Phil. You are not in the Assembly to pass judgement on people who are different from you. We have Bill O'Reilly for that. And lastly, you are most certainly not in the Virginia Assembly to force women to have unnecessary, invasive, costly medical procedures. If your interest in the vagina is so all-consuming, become an OB-GYN. At least your probing will be by invitation.

or does the small type hide the big stories?

America's fifty governors, in their capacity to create joy among their fixated constituents, declare commemorative days, weeks and months all the time. Several states have officially declared Dec. 7th as Pearl Harbor Day. In Illinois, September is Spinal Chord Injury Awareness Month. February is Sweet Potato Month in North Carolina and Fresh Tomato Month in Florida. State legislatures waste countless hours entertaining motions to declare Fluke Fishing Week, Kleptomaniac Awareness Month (Watch your wallet!) or, in places like Alaska, Don't Marry Your Sister Week. Governors sign this drivel to the great joy of the purveyors or fans of whatever is being proclaimed or honored.

If you take him at his word, the newly minted governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, was only trying to promote tourism and respect for the brave soldiers of the Commonwealth when he re-instituted Confederate History Month. Unfortunately, rather than appellations from the Sons of the Confederacy, Governor McDonnell has received a shower of righteous manure from every corner of America. It seems that in his desire to paint the Rebellion of thirteen southern states as the glorious response to Union tyranny, he omitted one teeny tiny aspect of the conflict, namely, the 400 year bondage of millions of black Africans. Slavery may have been an unpleasant, even inconvenient aspect of the Civil War but it is difficult to ignore.

The cynics among us might believe that this wholly unnecessary proclamation was issued entirely to remind Governor McDonnell's conservative base that, in spite of the ethnic circumstance of the current President, Virginia is still the good-ol-boy, red-neck, gun-loving backwater that it was before all those liberals in Fairfax County (Washington's tony suburb) started turning this red state purple. McDonnell has stopped short of declaring Jeff Davis' birthday a state holiday or adding the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy to the state flag but the message of this re-invigoration of honor for the rebellion is unmistakable: Virginia may look progressive and intelligent but we're still as backward as any Mississippi town sheriff.

Governor McDonnell's ham-handed attempt to paint Virginians as shoeless rubes notwithstanding, there remains the delicate issue of how to promote a healthy respect for the actors in the Civil War without glorifying their cause. How do you praise the character of Robert E. Lee and JEB Steuart without justifying the reason for the secession and subsequent conflict? Is it even possible to respect the courage and loyalty shown by thousands of fallen southern soldiers, most of whom never owned a slave? The rules for the conduct of the vanquished in the land of the victorious seem vague. It does, however, appear easy to determine when the rules are broken.

Although Civil War battles were fought from California to Florida to Pennsylvania, most of what Americans know of the Civil War took place in Virginia. The Confederacy established its Capital in Richmond. The first and last major land battles were fought there. Bull Run, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, Petersburg, and The Crater all happened in The Old Dominion. Even Gettysburg and Antietam took place less than a hour's drive from the Potomac. Virginia was doing just fine as a tourist destination for Civil War enthusiasts before Governor McDonnell decided that, once again, the old wounds should be opened. In point of fact, Virginia was a reluctant partner in the rebellion. Virginia didn't actually secede until after Ft. Sumter and even then the Western counties remained loyal; hence the admission of West Virginia to the Union in June 1863. Virginia doesn't require a new Bill of Secession in order to persuade a few tourists to stop on their way down I-95 toward South of the Border.

Virginia was doing just fine as the neutral epicenter of a tragic episode in American history. The National Park Service maintains several of the battlefields without fanfare or flag-waving. The gift shops sell memorabilia from both sides. The heroism of Stonewall Jackson and the ineptitude of George McClellan are represented as equal parts of the history of America from 1861 -1865. No one needed to be reminded that there are still ignorant knotheads who harbor resentment over the war's outcome. No one with an IQ in two digits ever uttered the phrase "The South Will Rise Again".

There is nothing more sinister in American politics than pandering to the evil angels of our nature cloaked in the high-minded innocence of a well-intentioned mistake. Governor McDonnell knew exactly whose ass he was kissing when he issued his proclamation on Confederacy Month and it wasn't the hot dog vendor at the Bull Run Battlefield. McDonnell was reminding Virginians and the rest of the South that the days of Democratic Governors and blue state flirtations are over. Virginia is a Southern State, with all the racist, backward, tea-party assumptions that entails. Virginia may have elected the first black governor in 1990 but damn it, it's still the capital of the Confederacy...and we're not just whisltin' Dixie.