Dr.Wilson, I am the Father of a nineteen year old son. Your above statement is very true. The only place my son ever heard the truth and taught morals was at home (the domestic church) and some at Church. Like so many other things the foundation needs to be made out of quality stuff. Society at large teaches the opposite in fact. If any Father is hoping that the school system or society will take up the slack he is sadly mistaken. Most of the men I know are cowards in this regard.

Mr. Newland, I think you make an excellent point. By extension we are suffering a cultural crisis. Yes, many people are ignorant and unintelligent. But the bigger point is that even if we could magically elevate their cognitive abilities and knowledge of the world, it would be for nought if they did not have the necessary virtues or moral frameworks by which to make the world more human. Principle is lacking in most every corner of our "politicized" and animalistic ("evolutionary") society.

Americans (and Europeans, for that matter) elevate to a level of god those who can shelf their pride, dignity, and any sense of right and wrong in order to achieve political success, whether it be in the sphere of government, business, academia, or, even, churches. And, let's all be objective in our assessment, ALL those spheres are now dominated by the disease of politics where rarely can a man of principle "succeed". Society now measures "success" not by the character of men and their offspring, and the decisions made and paths chosen, but by office and wealth attained.

It is a sick world that cannot and will not endure. The relevant questions are when and how will it all crumble.

Lincoln is a icon among Southern Baptists in the Deep South. One of his pictures "graced" a page in a Sunday school book. He is often quoted right along with St. Paul in sermons, with just once being too often. That blasphemous hymn written by a heretic "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is sung with voices raised on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. I leave the sanctuary evey time that it is sung, for what can be designated as "sanctuary" with the Union army camped in it. This last Memorial Day when it was sung, it could still be heard outside. I noted that for Christians of post-modernity, there is is politically correct version: they no longer sing "as He died to make men holy let us DIE to make men free." They sing, "as He died to make men holy let us LIVE to make men free." Dying, unless one is the unborn or some foreigner under our sanctions or bombs is not cool or in.

So you're right, Dr. Wilson, that there are far too many intellectuals running around (although the intellectuals today are generally too stupid and uneducated to be really willful ones, like those of mid-century; these are more like trained monkeys, who imitate signs they've been given), and that, by contrast, actual thinkers--i.e. those who seek the truth wherever it may be found--are light on the ground.

"Young men are no longer taught to ride hard, shoot straight, and tell the truth. (I say this after 40 years observation inside the belly of the academic beast.)"

This is far too sweeping a judgment. It may be true of your school, Dr. Wilson, and it is undoubtedly true of the vast bulk of American institutions, but there are exceptions. Some men are still taught to ride hard, shoot straight, and tell the truth. The problem is that their voices are rarely heard and they are actively prevented from rising by the keepers of our societal gates. The man of principle is not welcome in most modern American venues, as I know you understand.

There has been some criticism of Washington because he tried to mold the Continential Army into a European style, with its discipline and top-down structure, ignoring, according to some, that Americans were usually more successful fighting less conventionally. I do not claim to be an authority on Revolutionary War tactics or strategies but merely note the similarities between criticisms of Washington and Stromberg's thesis to which you have alluded.

My grandmother, in whom my great-grandfather, her father-in-law, confided as he aged, told me as a young child of the things that the old man had reported to have seen as he walked back to Louisiana after surrendering with Johnston. One of the things which she related to me was his sorrow at the devestation of the civilian population which they encountered across the South as they made their way homeward.

It should also be remembered that in 1865, the South had no international allies, no means for sustaining a protracted guerilla war and the enemy was among us in overwhelming numbers with the means and the will, already well demonstrated, to scorch the earth, to rape and to murder. It is the inclination of Christian men to protect home and hearth, wife and children, and not to commit mass suicide or the pursue victory at all costs. Assuming for a moment that we could have won such a war, what would we have had in the end - millions more dead, much more devastation than in the previous four years and even through Reconstruction and perhaps, worst of all, a devastation of the soul. Thank God, we have our souls; and with that we can continue to resist.