I wonder about the assertion that The Unreconstructed Rebel was a parody. There's nothing in it that strikes me as parodic; certainly not comedic.

There are thousands of songs about unpopular views and about grim events people would just as soon forget. But the solution to a distasteful past is not forgetting; it is confronting fully and honestly. Forgetting the Civil War is one of the things that produced the brutal slaughters of the Civil Rights era--dramatizing the buried anger instead of facing it squarely.

Singing those songs is a good way for those long-ago positions and actions to be remembered. Not glorified but understood. That's my humble opinion anyway.

Of course, that requires the intention to understand on the part of the listener, and there are some folks who can't hear "The Bonnie Blue Flag" without wanting to kill a few more Yankees. Maybe you just have to choose your audiences wisely.


A