Posted 8/28/2005 01:36:00 PM by Douglas

I honestly can't believe why the WaPo is making a big deal out of this. Civil War or War Between the States. Yes, the language is important, but what, if anything, is the WaPo trying to extrapolate from Roberts's editing?

A fastidious editor of other people's copy as well as his own, Roberts began with the words "Until about the time of the Civil War." Then, the Indiana native scratched out the words "Civil War" and replaced them with "War Between the States."

While it is true that the Civil War is also known as the War Between the States, the Encyclopedia Americana notes that the term is used mainly by southerners. Sam McSeveney, a history professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University who specialized in the Civil War, said that Roberts's choice of words was significant.

"Many people who are sympathetic to the Confederate position are more comfortable with the idea of a 'War Between the States,' " McSeveney explained. "People opposed to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s would undoubtedly be more comfortable with the words he chose."

So Roberts is opposed to the civil rights movement? What else could they be implying? It's a mighty fine hair to split, but what about those that refer to the conflict as the Civil War? A civil war is "a war in which the competing parties are segments of the same country or empire," and anyone who passed 4th grade history knows this wasn't the case in America in 1861. "War of Southern Independence" is probably the most accurate term for the conflict, but it's doubtful you'd ever hear it anywhere but here. But if someone doesn't like Roberts as a Supreme Court nominee (and I don't know who that is yet, except maybe Ann Coulter) it's a pretty big jump to go back to the 1860s to find something you don't like about the guy.