I receive all kinds of correspondence that I affectionately describe as “hate mail”. Generally it comes from people who do not like what I write about in Words for the Day, but yesterday I received one about Honey Lake.
It seems that this gentleman does not like the fact that Honey Lake is a “plantation”, and he went on to say that the word “plantation” promotes slavery and white supremacy and I should quit using it.
Huh?
Egad! That is just so much poppycock. Normally I don’t respond to letters of this type, but in this case I did. It irks me to no end as to how far people go in what can only be described as a racist line of thinking.
Honey Lake Plantation is a quail hunting plantation and is not unlike the 47 other plantations that are located in what is affectionately referred to as “Red Hills Country”. The finest quail hunting in the entire world lies within the rolling red clay hills of this area and Honey Lake is an integral part of it. We are not a farm, estate, park, manor, domain, cultivated area, or a ranch, but a quail hunting “plantation” and it has nothing to do with slavery or white supremacy.
I don’t know if any of my ancestors ever owned any slaves or not. For all I know they might have been slaves or indentured servants themselves. I’m no genealogist, but those who have delved into the family history discovered that most were poor dirt farmers. My dad was raised on a hard scrabble cotton farm with 12 siblings and didn’t have running water, indoor toilets, or electricity the entire 17 years he lived at home on the farm.
I don’t really care whether or not my ancestors owned slaves or not; that has nothing to do with me. I’ve never owned any slaves and I’m not a white supremacist, and I don’t advocate slavery.
The guy that wrote me calls himself a “Reverend”. He told me that my insensitivity is only superseded by my arrogance.
Hmmm…I suppose I am insensitive to the slavery issue that occurred in the United States. I don’t know why people enslave each other, I know that it’s satanic in nature, but like many of the darkest evils in this world I believe some good came out of it. If the African Americans in this nation would look at the starvation, disease, wars, and poverty taking place on the continent of Africa today compared to their own situation here in the United States, the fair minded among them might appreciate the opportunity that God gave them to come live in this great land.
If I were in their shoes I would get down on my knees and thank God that the terrible sacrifice of my ancestors got me and my family into this great country where I can enjoy a better way of life and not be subjected to the horrors of Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Somalia, et al…
This is not to say that slavery was right or a good thing; it wasn’t – It isn’t! It is a dark, demonic evil, but slavery is not something that began with Africans and they shouldn’t keep claiming it as their exclusive issue. It dates back to the beginning of time. Many nations have both owned slaves and been slaves themselves, such as the Jews, Egyptians, Arabs, Babylonians, Mayans, Native Americans, etc. In fact there is a robust white and black slave trade that still exists today.
I don’t know many people who started out in life any worse off than I did. When I was 24 years old I was homeless, penniless, had little formal education, was addicted to drugs and alcohol, had a criminal record, had been kicked out of the military as a diagnosed sociopath, had no friends and my little family had long since disowned and given up on me.
Poor little old me!
Poppycock again! I could have sat around whining about my horrible station in life, or I could’ve gotten off my lazy butt and gone to work, (which is what I did). I started at the bottom and worked my way up. Millions of blacks have ignored their dire circumstances and done the same. Today we have a black President of this country, a black Attorney General; we have blacks in Congress and sitting on the Supreme Court, blacks in professional sports, teaching at universities, doctors, lawyers, and on and on.
So don’t play the race card with me. People in this country have opportunity regardless of whether or not someone in their ancestry was enslaved hundreds (or thousands) of years ago. Slavery has long since been eradicated in this country and it is time to get over it; I mean give me a break, the civil war is over and no one has heard a rebel yell in this neck of the woods in hundreds of years.
I’m not bowing to any politically correct – speech police enforcer to mollify someone who wants to live in the pre-civil war era.
When and where would it ever stop?
Call me arrogant, insensitive, evil, bad, unloving, a scoundrel if you will; for sure never use our resort, spa, or church; go ahead and march down Honey Lake Road, boycott, protest, embargo, shun, reject, spew hatred, gripe, complain, object, dissent, dispute and remonstrate,
And after all is said and done?
Know this, in spite of all of your effort, Honey Lake Plantation will still remain being called a “plantation” as long as I can draw a breath and I hope centuries thereafter through my heirs. It’s the principle of the thing and besides that is what it is; a quail hunting plantation, thank you very much!
Much of our world is turning away from God. The misery index worldwide is escalating astronomically because most of humanity is turning its back on God which in turn forces Him to turn His back on its sin and withdraw His blessings. My advice to my “Reverend” friend is to focus on the present and the future and quit living in the past. The world needs revival, evangelism, and to hear the “good news” of Jesus Christ, and not divisive hatred that is racially motivated.
Mark 16:15
And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.