"Sic semper tyrannis"

[edhopper]

Never thought it would actually be appropriate for an American President.

It is now.

[brooklynite]

1. Alerted: Inappropriate even in a fit of anger

[ffr]

2. "thus always to tyrants?"

Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants."

Or is there another urban meaning I'm not aware of? Doesn't sound like something requiring an Alert. Maybe if I understood the context?

[eShirl]

3. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

[MountCleaners]

6. Is it because of the Lincoln assassination?

Booth uttered this phrase in Ford's Theater after assassinating Lincoln. Timothy McVeigh wore a t-shirt with this saying on it when he was arrested. I'm thinking the alerter might have thought of the saying's appeal to the far right.

[Squinch]

12. What is the problem?

[MrScorpio]

4. The Virginia State motto

Always appropriate.

[Chichiri]

10. Also motto of Allentown, PA

...and now the song is in my head.

[aeromanKC]

5. And while you're at it

Impeach the MF'er!!

[Ron Obvious]

8. Impeachum Copulator Maternae! n/t

[edhopper]

7. His threat of calling a State of Emergency

made me see him this way.

Yes Julius Caesar reference.

[ffr]

9. I can understand the first reply then.

Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants". It is a shortened version of the phrase "Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis" ("Thus always I bring death to tyrants&quot .

The full meaning is not appropriate for DU, even in a fit of anger. You might want to just err on the side of caution and delete the post. We all have our moments of regret. I would anyway.

[VOX]

13. If John Wilkes Booth actually said that after shooting Lincoln, there's a connection to today's mess

Booth assassinates Lincoln, so Reconstruction becomes quite different — 4 million ex-slaves, rather than receiving education, healthy living, and 40 acres, are simply told to hit the road. Some seriously shitty Northern carpetbaggers plunder what little is left and further shame a defeated people. So they push back, and going after former slaves becomes sickeningly “heroic.” (See: D.W.Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation,” aka “The Klansman.”)

I’m not sympathetic to the South’s unholy “cause” one whit, and it is good and right that they were conquered, and the idea of the slave-based Southern Confederacy burnt to ashes.

But imagine a compassionate (and very calculating, but only for a greater-good outcome) Abe Lincoln touring the destroyed Southern cities, appealing to the best instincts of people, and offering some help with rebuilding. He might have toned down some of the hatred, some of the bitterness. (Although some hard-line “fire eaters” would not be moved, and would have to be dealt with.) But imagine a Reconstruction where Southern states are treated again as equals, in a stern but fatherly fashion (as Lincoln wanted to do) in order to soften their wayward ways, and bring them back into the fold with as little shame as possible. Imagine ex-slaves receiving reparations in 1865-67, and given training and education to enter the world as free people. But who really knows what would have happened? Assassinations evoke that speculation more than anything else.

As historian Barbara Harris has said, in the larger picture, although the outright fighting stopped in 1865, that war is still going on today, and there’s still a chance that it could be lost.

And regrettably, Harris’s fear is more applicable today than ever before.