Join me in a thought experiment if you will. Imagine we elected a new president that received less than 5% of the vote in our state. That President, for fear that Marylanders would resist his new policies, decided to land military troops, arrest legislators and hold them without charge, destroy landmarks in the city of Baltimore and sent military troops to shoot them in the streets.

Well folks that is exactly what happened in our state in 1860 during the secession crisis. Maryland never succeeded and while historians debate the point, Maryland was never likely to secede. Yet Maryland, unlike other border slave states Kentucky and Missouri, was occupied militarily and threatened with destruction for showing any signs of resistance. Popular leaders were arrested without charge or availed the writ of habeas corpus.

It was this injustice and the resistance to it that is contained in our state song. Our state song is an important reminder of the unique and important history of our state. It has nothing to do with slavery or with the Confederacy, other than looking to states that were resisting a federal government that was literally killing Marylanders in the streets.

That is why the recent advisory committee deciding that we should change our state song is dead wrong and why Governor Hogan is exactly right and calling it what it is:

“Political correctness run amok”

RMN Wake Up Call #2 1-5-2016

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