Past As Prologue

Oh, so you think history has no bearing on the present?

Further to my post of a few days ago, about a nascent and growing secession movement in Western Loudoun County, in reaction to the nauseating wholesale destruction of the countryside. From Marc Fisher's Metro column in today's WashPost:

Secession, came the cry. Last week, at Purcellville Town Hall, more than 50 rebels gathered to launch a movement....

[major snip]

There is a deep historical basis for this split, said Keating, a retired government cartographer who writes on local history. "Western Loudoun and eastern Loudoun have always been two separate places. The east was part of slave society; the west was settled by Quakers and Germans from Pennsylvania."

And during the Civil War, the western piece of the county was the home of the Loudoun Rangers, a group of Union loyalists who recruited Southerners to fight for the North.

"This is an inevitable collision," Keating said. Residents of the proposed Catoctin County have a tradition of standing up against the majority to do what's right. Their task is huge; their time is now.