Correcting Common Current Misconceptions and Errors Re: Coal, Hispanics, Confederate Monuments and Seasons

           There have been many factual errors circulating widely of late, which are often made or repeated by otherwise knowledgeable political leaders and opinion-makers.  This post is devoted to correcting some of the most significant.

            Many politicians and political commentators have predicted the demise of the coal industry because of the decline in the use of coal as a source of energy.  Although coal may be replaced for the production of energy, after having been mostly replaced already as a source for heating or cooking, there is still one major use for coal: bituminous coal is combined with iron to produce steel.  Therefore, there will continue to be a need for bituminous coal, at least for metallurgical purposes.  However, it is noteworthy that the less common anthracite coal burns efficiently and cleanly.

            Contrary to how they are often referred to, Hispanics are not members of a separate race, but may be of any race.  Hispanics are an ethnic group who are Latin Americans who speak Spanish.  Brazilians, who speak Portuguese, and Haitians, who speak French, are not Hispanics.  The Native Americans from Latin America who speak Spanish, the Caucasians who descend from the Europeans (usually Spanish) colonists there, the blacks descended from the African slaves, and the various combinations thereof are all Hispanics.  In addition to other diverse European peoples, there are even major communities of other races in some Latin American states, such as Semitic (both Jewish and Arab) and East Asian peoples, as immigration into Latin America has come from around the world and made some states especially cosmopolitan.  Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio), of Argentina, is an example of a “white” (Italian) Hispanic.  Recent Latin American national leaders have been of Japanese, Lebanese, Italian and Polish descent.  Therefore, there is no typical “look” of Hispanics.  Because “Hispanic” is an ethnicity, not a race, prejudice against them is ethnic, not racial.  Hispanics are subdivided by nationality, such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, etc.

            Another misconception about Hispanics is that they are necessarily immigrants to the United States, but Hispanics have inhabited parts of America since before those parts were U.S. territory.  Therefore, Spanish has been the native language there since before English was introduced.  Just as Hispanics should not be said to “sound” foreign by speaking their native language, as Americans, they also cannot “look” foreign.  A related note is that Puerto Ricans who inhabit the States of the American Union or the District of Columbia are not immigrants, either, as Puerto Rico is an unincorporated American territory whose residents are U.S. citizens.

            One of the erroneous arguments frequently made in support of the current wave of iconoclasm directed especially against Confederate monuments is that there are no other statues in U.S. territory honoring those who took up arms against and killed Americans or those who lost wars.  However, there are a number of statues of Native American leaders, such as the large statue being sculpted of Lakota Chief Crazy Horse, who took up arms against and killed Americans and who lost wars.  It is not unprecedented in world history for a victor to honor the valor and military leadership of a vanquished foe or to permit a defeated people to honor their own heroes.  I intend to address other false, misleading, unfair and inconsistent arguments about the relevant historical events and the meaning of symbols in another post, as the subject is far more complex than it is often being portrayed.  

           The federal U.S. holiday of Labor Day, which is observed on the first Monday in September, is traditionally or “unofficially” regarded by Americans as the end of summer, as Memorial Day is similarly thought of as the start of the warmest season, but these holidays are neither the end of astronomical or even meteorological summer.  The widespread use of the traditional, unofficial seasonal beginnings, instead of the astronomical or meteorological ones, encourages start times for academic years that are too early and thus require additional energy costs and cut short the summer tourist season, or diminish the observation of Memorial Day as a day of mourning for American veterans who died in war by treating it as a day to celebrate the beginning of summer.  The spring equinox, which marks the end of spring and the beginning of summer, occurs around March 20.  Summer ends and fall begins with the autumnal equinox (when the hours of sunlight and darkness are equal), which occurs around September 22.  Instead of being made to feel depressed over the supposed early “end” of summer, enjoy the last three weeks of it.