Return the Confederate Battle Flag to the Capitol's Dome in South Carolina!
J. D. Longstreet***********************
To catch up on the latest antics of the politically correct crowd and their permanently offended allies you need to read this article titled: Flag fallout: ACC reverses S.C. baseball bid". You will find it HERE.
It would appear the deal to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the dome of the Capitol Building in Columbial, South Carolina has finally, and irrefutably, fallen through. For anyone who had even the remotest hope the deal was holding, the latest antics of “The Offended” should remove any, and all, doubt. So, what I am advocating is simply tossing the “agreement” (Obviously, it never REALLY existed!) and returning to the way things were before the – ahem -“agreement.” That means - returning the Confederate Battle flag to its place atop the SC Capitol Dome in Columbia, South Carolina!
No, I am NOT kidding. It would be a rare thing, indeed, to find a time in my life when I have been more serious about this subject. Now that the “deal” turns out to be no deal, at all, the Confederate Battle Flag should immediately be run back up the flag pole, on top of the capital dome, and flown daily as a reminder to anyone and everyone that South Carolina will not the cowed and will not bend their knee to those who would dictate how "The Sandlappers" live their lives and how they honor their ancestors.I'm a native South Carolinian- and damned proud of it! My home state was the first state to secede from the union. It was the only Confederate state whose legislature voted unanimously to secede and it was the only Confederate state that did not send recruits to fight in Union forces against their brothers - the Confederates. In other words, South Carolina stood its ground in the face of all adversity. Every few years, it seems, we have to fight the battle all over again. It is not enough that the history of the United States has been re-written multiple times in an attempt to erase all vestiges of the truth behind The War for Southern Independence, or The War of Northern Aggression, whichever you choose... both are correct.
Before we go any further, all Americans need to understand this: The so-called Civil War was not a civil war! It was not a rebellion! The South broke away and formed a new country complete with a constitution, a President and vice-President, a Congress, an Army, a Navy, and a Marine corp, AND it was much larger, in land area, than the original 13 colonies when they broke away from Great Britain. A civil war and/or a rebellion require(s) that one side, or the other, attempt to overthrow the government of the original country. The South never did that. That was not what they were about. They wanted their independence just the same as their grandfathers wanted theirs from Great Britain. All they ever wanted from the United States of America was, in the words of President, Jefferson Davis, was to be "left alone!" That hardly defines a rebellion!)In any event, recent developments, here in the Carolinas, have some Sandlappers and Tarheels blistering mad and others doubled over in laughter at the antics of powerful organizations apparently afraid of a piece of cloth with the Christian symbol, the Saint Andrew's Cross, on it. Of course, I refer to the Confederate Battle flag. OK, so it is not the flag itself they despise. It is us, the Southerner with roots and DNA that runs deep into the past where dwell the most honored soldier ever to walk the face of the earth, the Confederate soldier. That flag, the Confederate Battle Flag, was their emblem, their battlefield ensign. It never flew over the nation of the Confederacy as a national flag, ever, which means: it never flew over slavery. The Confederate Battle Flag as a National flag of the Confederacy is pure Hollywood, pure fiction.
The Confederate Battle Flag was a battlefield standard. On the battlefield, it flew over white and black Confederate troops. The flag that flew over the Union Forces, however, DID fly over slavery, and yet it gets a pass while the Confederate Battle Flag is dishonored by the revisionists of history and the priest, priestesses, and acolytes of Political Correctness who continue to heap lies upon it in an all-out attempt to strike at the people who are the proud descendants of the men who fought, bled, and died beneath the ruffles, snaps, and flourishes of that grand old standard.If it sounds as if I take the slanderous attacks against the Confederate Battle Flag personally, you're damned right I do! I had ancestors who fought, bled, and yes - died beneath it. I carry their genes and their DNA in my wretched old body. They were heroes and people who are not worthy to even stand in their shadow are disgracing them!
Did you know that around three-quarters of a million Confederate troops held off 2 and a half million Union troops for four of the bloodiest years in the history of this continent? Did you know that? A rag tag bunch of southerners almost, almost, gained a resounding victory over the forces of a fledgling world superpower! Yeah, they were, absolutely, heroes. Their battle tactics are still taught in military academies the world over. The First World War reflects the tactics of trench warfare the Confederates introduced in defense of the Confederate capital.
To say that I am angry about the decision to halt plans to hold a conference baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, SC, and moving that tournament to North Carolina while citing failure to reach an agreement on the Confederate Battle Flag issue – is putting it mildly! In my opinion, it is an insult to every southerner in this country… not just the Carolinas. (And you wonder why this country can’t “come together” and be as one???) These are the kinds of actions that bring back memories of the “Reconstruction Period” in the South that wreaked more pain, devastation, and destruction on the South than the war itself.
Do not tell southerners to put it behind us and move on! We can’t. We live it every day. To us, in our collective memories, the war was just yesterday. All around us are reminders of the destruction and the cost in lives each southern family suffers to this day. This state, North Carolina, lost 40,000 men to that war. In four years, 40,000 men, from North Carolina, alone, gave their lives in a war for Southern Independence! Think about that. In roughly ten years the entire United States of America lost 58,000 men in the Vietnam War. That’s 58,000 dead Americans spread over 50 states. You know the impact that had on the country as a whole. Just think what the loss of 40,000 men, in four years, had on a single state, North Carolina. How do you forget something like that – even if you wanted to?
There are many very angry southerners over this insult. It will not be forgotten.
Today, while America is ripped and torn by a government as inept as any we have ever had in our nation’s history, along comes something as arguably unimportant as a sporting event, which quickly becomes a tool for adding fuel to the fires of dissension and discord in a country which is already dangerously balkanized and at the extreme limits of it’s comity for fellow Americans holding different political opinions.
These are, indeed, times that try men’s souls. Tread lightly, ever so lightly.
No, I am NOT kidding. It would be a rare thing, indeed, to find a time in my life when I have been more serious about this subject. Now that the “deal” turns out to be no deal, at all, the Confederate Battle Flag should immediately be run back up the flag pole, on top of the capital dome, and flown daily as a reminder to anyone and everyone that South Carolina will not the cowed and will not bend their knee to those who would dictate how "The Sandlappers" live their lives and how they honor their ancestors.I'm a native South Carolinian- and damned proud of it! My home state was the first state to secede from the union. It was the only Confederate state whose legislature voted unanimously to secede and it was the only Confederate state that did not send recruits to fight in Union forces against their brothers - the Confederates. In other words, South Carolina stood its ground in the face of all adversity. Every few years, it seems, we have to fight the battle all over again. It is not enough that the history of the United States has been re-written multiple times in an attempt to erase all vestiges of the truth behind The War for Southern Independence, or The War of Northern Aggression, whichever you choose... both are correct.
Before we go any further, all Americans need to understand this: The so-called Civil War was not a civil war! It was not a rebellion! The South broke away and formed a new country complete with a constitution, a President and vice-President, a Congress, an Army, a Navy, and a Marine corp, AND it was much larger, in land area, than the original 13 colonies when they broke away from Great Britain. A civil war and/or a rebellion require(s) that one side, or the other, attempt to overthrow the government of the original country. The South never did that. That was not what they were about. They wanted their independence just the same as their grandfathers wanted theirs from Great Britain. All they ever wanted from the United States of America was, in the words of President, Jefferson Davis, was to be "left alone!" That hardly defines a rebellion!)In any event, recent developments, here in the Carolinas, have some Sandlappers and Tarheels blistering mad and others doubled over in laughter at the antics of powerful organizations apparently afraid of a piece of cloth with the Christian symbol, the Saint Andrew's Cross, on it. Of course, I refer to the Confederate Battle flag. OK, so it is not the flag itself they despise. It is us, the Southerner with roots and DNA that runs deep into the past where dwell the most honored soldier ever to walk the face of the earth, the Confederate soldier. That flag, the Confederate Battle Flag, was their emblem, their battlefield ensign. It never flew over the nation of the Confederacy as a national flag, ever, which means: it never flew over slavery. The Confederate Battle Flag as a National flag of the Confederacy is pure Hollywood, pure fiction.
The Confederate Battle Flag was a battlefield standard. On the battlefield, it flew over white and black Confederate troops. The flag that flew over the Union Forces, however, DID fly over slavery, and yet it gets a pass while the Confederate Battle Flag is dishonored by the revisionists of history and the priest, priestesses, and acolytes of Political Correctness who continue to heap lies upon it in an all-out attempt to strike at the people who are the proud descendants of the men who fought, bled, and died beneath the ruffles, snaps, and flourishes of that grand old standard.If it sounds as if I take the slanderous attacks against the Confederate Battle Flag personally, you're damned right I do! I had ancestors who fought, bled, and yes - died beneath it. I carry their genes and their DNA in my wretched old body. They were heroes and people who are not worthy to even stand in their shadow are disgracing them!
Did you know that around three-quarters of a million Confederate troops held off 2 and a half million Union troops for four of the bloodiest years in the history of this continent? Did you know that? A rag tag bunch of southerners almost, almost, gained a resounding victory over the forces of a fledgling world superpower! Yeah, they were, absolutely, heroes. Their battle tactics are still taught in military academies the world over. The First World War reflects the tactics of trench warfare the Confederates introduced in defense of the Confederate capital.
To say that I am angry about the decision to halt plans to hold a conference baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, SC, and moving that tournament to North Carolina while citing failure to reach an agreement on the Confederate Battle Flag issue – is putting it mildly! In my opinion, it is an insult to every southerner in this country… not just the Carolinas. (And you wonder why this country can’t “come together” and be as one???) These are the kinds of actions that bring back memories of the “Reconstruction Period” in the South that wreaked more pain, devastation, and destruction on the South than the war itself.
Do not tell southerners to put it behind us and move on! We can’t. We live it every day. To us, in our collective memories, the war was just yesterday. All around us are reminders of the destruction and the cost in lives each southern family suffers to this day. This state, North Carolina, lost 40,000 men to that war. In four years, 40,000 men, from North Carolina, alone, gave their lives in a war for Southern Independence! Think about that. In roughly ten years the entire United States of America lost 58,000 men in the Vietnam War. That’s 58,000 dead Americans spread over 50 states. You know the impact that had on the country as a whole. Just think what the loss of 40,000 men, in four years, had on a single state, North Carolina. How do you forget something like that – even if you wanted to?
There are many very angry southerners over this insult. It will not be forgotten.
Today, while America is ripped and torn by a government as inept as any we have ever had in our nation’s history, along comes something as arguably unimportant as a sporting event, which quickly becomes a tool for adding fuel to the fires of dissension and discord in a country which is already dangerously balkanized and at the extreme limits of it’s comity for fellow Americans holding different political opinions.
These are, indeed, times that try men’s souls. Tread lightly, ever so lightly.
J. D. Longstreet
**********************
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