Thursday, January 24, 2008

Once more… In Defense of the Confederate Battle Flag!

Once more… In Defense of the Confederate Battle Flag!
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OK… ONE MORE TIME! This is NOT the “Stars and Bars”












It is the Confederate Battle Flag! (The Battle Flag is ALWAYS SQUARE! If it is rectangular it is a Naval Jack, not the Battle Flag.)

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This IS the “Stars and Bars”.








It is the First National flag of the Confederate States of America.
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As a Southerner, I and sick and tired of the ignorance displayed by the Main Stream media in this country as well as that of those who denigrate the Flag of my Confederate ancestors! It is disgusting, and disgraceful, and disrespectful of fellow Americans to associate Southerners with the Klan simply because the Klan uses the Confederate Battle Flag at their rallies, marches, and such. Please, please, for God’s sake, notice that they also carry the flag of the United States of America and... sometimes... they carry the Christian Flag, as well. If you are one of those airheads who makes the connection between the Klan and the Confederate Battle Flag and somehow, somehow, in that vast emptiness between your ears, miss the connection between the Klan and the US flag, the Klan and the Christian flag then, by God, that is ignorance, on YOUR part, that cannot be excused. It looks, for the all world, as if you are INTENTIONALLY slanting your attacks and aiming your attacks at the Southern people, the descendents of the brave men and women of the Confederacy!

Now, lets get another thing straight. In 1962 when the Confederate Battle Flag went back up on the capitol dome of the statehouse of my home state, South Carolina, the governor, and the man who pushed hauling that flag back up atop that glorious old building, was none other than Fritz Hollings, a democrat of Charleston, South Carolina. You may recall that he recently retired from the US Senate. (Since passed away.) You may recall, if you try really hard, that he was a dyed in the wool DEMOCRAT! Ain’t facts inconvenient???!

Since the NAACP instituted a tourism boycott of SC …after the SC legislature agreed to remove the CBF from the dome and place it at a Confederate Memorial, which happens to be at street level and in view of millions more passers by, tourism in my home state of South Carolina has not suffered one dime’s worth of loss in tourism dollars. In fact tourism dollars spent in SC had been on the rise ever since.

When the Republican Party sends candidates to my fair home state who stand on it’s sacred soil and denigrate that honored old flag, and our brave and heroic Confederate ancestors, then I have nothing but disgust and disdain for them and for the Party they represent.

I have even less respect for the MsM when they don’t take the few minutes of research time to understand what that flag means to us who claim it as a symbol of our heritage.

It will be 146 years this spring since that glorious ensign was created as a battle flag to be used by Confederate troops on the battlefield. It was created because the First National Flag… the REAL “Stars and Bars”… looked entirely too much like the US flag and some Confederate troops fired on each other thinking just that in the heavy smoke of battle at First Manassas.

If you think the CBF resembles the flag of Scotland… that is intentional. The Southern people were heavily Scot-Irish. The “X” isn’t an “X”, at all. It is, in fact, the Cross of Saint Andrew, the Apostle of Christ, who, legend says, was crucified on a cross in that image. The 13 stars on the cross are not the stars of the 13 original colonies but the stars of the 13 Confederate States.

The blood of the Southern men who died beneath that flag still flows in our veins. We honor it and we cherish it. The men who wore the gray were only 800,000 strong but they valiantly held off the 2,800,000-man army of a fledgling world super power for four long, bloody, years in a desperate fight for independence. When you denigrate that flag you denigrate the families of those honored fighting men the likes of whom the world has never seen, before or since.

Do not think we will not come to their defense. For we will. As long as we breathe we will. For as long as it takes, we will. Against all odds, we will. If you believe anything less you underestimate us as Lincoln did our ancestors.

It has been 146 years, this April, since Ft. Sumter. We have not forgotten. Every insult, every slight, every oily-tongued politician, taking verbal swipes at our heritage, only serves to remind us WHY we have not forgotten.

And finally, if you think there is passion in this piece, let me assure you, sir/madam, I am restrained!

A fellow Southerner wrote the following:


I am a Southerner . . .I won’t apologize


I won’t be reconstructed.


I will not surrenderMy identity, my heritage.


I believe in the Constitution,


In States’ Rights,


That the government should be theServant, not the Master of the people.


I believe in the right to bear arms,


The right to be left alone.


I am a Southerner . . .The spirit of my Confederate ancestor Boils in my blood.


He fought Not for what he thought was right,But for what was right.


Not for slavery, But to resist tyranny, Machiavellian laws, Oppressive taxation, invasion of his land, For the right to be left alone.


I am a Southerner...A rebel, Seldom politically correct, At times belligerent.


I don’t like Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Or modern neocon politicians like them.


I like hunting and fishing, Leonard Skynnard,The Bonnie Blue and “Dixie.”


I still believe in chivalry and civility.


I am a face in the Southern collage of Gentlemen and scholars, belles and writers, Soldiers and sharecroppers, Cajuns and Creoles, Tejanos and Isleños, Celts and Germans, Gullah and Geechi, freedmen and slaves.We are all the South.


The South . . . My home, my beautiful home, My culture, my destiny, my heart.


I am a Southerner.


Deo Vindici.




I would echo: Deo Vindici! (“God will vindicate us”!)

Longstreet

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3 comments:

  1. I agree with much you say here,believe it or not. I've tried to point out the differences between what is "recorded" history and what is now known of the truth of the matter. You'd be surprised how many truly understand what did happen during the Civil War.

    I can empathise with those who feel strong negative emotions to the CBF. I think they have a valid concern,considering that the CBF has been coopted by various racists movements. I also don't believe that proud southernors want this negative connotation by association,so many do not fly it.

    I think the National Flag of the Confederacy is much more appropriate for severl reasons. Not being a "battle standard",it leaves the battlefield behind. It also doesn't carry the stigma of the CBF.

    I think,in the end,that empathising with each other,all of us,we are better served. Myself, I have in my ancestry people who fought on both sides of that bloody conflict. And truly,I can say without qualm that I have pride in all of them. They stood up and fought for what they believed in,whether or not their leaders had the best of intentions at heart(and many didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I forgot to add.

    I'm aproud American,and a proud Democrat. Stereotypes do not fit real patriots of any stripe.

    Good luck to you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you, kind sir, for the respectful manner in which you presented your comments!

    Best regards to you, sir!

    Longstreet

    ReplyDelete