Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Another Southern-Born Anti-Confederate Heritage Reactionary Gets Pwned!

The following is my response to comments written by an anti-Confederate heritage reactionary named Rick Bohan. The comments themselves are followed in red by this blogger's response:

Many words have been written and spoken recently about whether the Confederate flag is a fitting symbol of southern heritage. As a native of the South (born in Tennessee, raised in South and North Carolina), I think I have something to add to the discussion.

And right at the start, Mr. Bohan uses his pedigree as a native of Dixie to justify his pro-white supremacist, anti-Confederate heritage reactionary view of the flag. 

As a young boy in South Carolina during the 1950s and early '60s, I remember "whites only" rest rooms, water fountains, restaurants, and hotels. We had two very separate swimming areas at our local state park, the one where we white kids swam and another where the black families took their children.

I myself was fortunate. I was a young boy in the 1980s and early 1990s, a generation removed from such sights. I recall going to school alongside black children and hanging out with them and their families, sharing childhood experiences and just being kids.

I remember being excited every Friday waiting till 8PM on CBS for the next episode of The Dukes of Hazzard TV series. On Saturday mornings, I had honest to God cartoons worth watching on the same channel, particularly reruns of the Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show that had Yosemite Sam as a Confederate officer and Tweety as a Confederate messenger outwitting the Yankee Sylvester. 

Now many of those same kids - white and black - both watched the same shows and grew up with them.
 
Finally, I remember the posters that the KKK put in store windows announcing upcoming rallies. Those posters always featured an image of the Confederate flag. I never felt then, nor do I now, that the KKK intended the use of that flag as simply a symbol of my heritage as a Southerner.

Obviously they never did. For the KKK and other like-minded Tools, that flag serves only as a convenient symbol to attract people to their sordid and obscene cause. Their own connection to it is weak at best and not supported by any legitimate Confederate heritage organization, any historical society, or unbiased civil war roundtable in America. Hell, it's not ever supported by organizations that represent the descendants of Union soldiers. 

It stands for and is a symbol of only the dark aspects of Southern history.

And of course you would be wrong. The illegitimate misuse of it by a hate group and other like-minded fools, even when supported by certain academics and "history bloggers" does not translate into the total sum of its history.

I was certain then, as I am now, that the Confederate flag was used by people who sought to send a clear message of white supremacy and harsh, sometimes violent, resistance to full enfranchisement of black men and women and their children. I am just as certain that the use of that flag hasn't changed in the five decades since.

And right there is the biggest hole in your argument and the condemnation of your entire point of view on this subject. While the first sentence there is unfortunately true, the latter sentence is not and here is why. 

Every generation brings something new to Confederate heritage. That is why the battle flag is a
living cultural symbol.

Since the 1970s and 80s, there was a growing movement among Confederate heritage organizations and civil war history groups to push back hard against the misuse of that flag by white supremacists. Even during the 50's and 60's there had been a few voices speaking out loudly against such misuse. 

In 1988 the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) took a leadership role in this issue, proclaiming to the world that racist bigots had no moral claim to that flag. They were joined by many others. 
Since that time a small but growing movement by a new generation of Southerners - whites and non-whites alike - have advanced the honorable aspects of that flag's heritage. "Heritage Not Hate" is not just a slogan, but a pledge and a message that many Southern-born people were willing to stand up and fight back against intolerant misuses of that flag. 

Today an entire generation of Southerners have grown into that philosophy with the newer generation today being taught by those values.  

Southern history has many dark aspects, of course. We are made better by seeking to understand that history so that all Americans can have full inclusion now and in the future. But, it's also true that Southern heritage and Southern culture have offered much to America.
Most of what we think of as "American music," blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll, bluegrass, zydeco and country, originated in the South. It's been said that Southern cooking represents this nation's only true cuisine. Southern writers like Harper Lee and Flannery O' Conner and, of course, Mark Twain, have provided some of the world's foremost literature. The impact of Southerners on our military, religious, and political institutions is pervasive.  

Now there you and I are in total agreement. I could add so much more to that, but I will let what you wrote stand.

So, like most Southerners, black or white, there is a great deal about my heritage that I'm justifiably proud. That flag, however, does not stand for that heritage. It stands for and is a symbol of only the dark aspects of Southern history.

It stands that way to you because you choose to ignore and ridicule those who have fought against its misuse, and instead chosen to embrace the very display of that flag championed by white supremacists you claim you reject. 

There is a great deal more of its history than just that misuse. How about how Southerners and Confederate descendants in the US Armed Forces took that flag with them to Europe and the Pacific when they helped free the world from Nazi Fascism and Japanese Imperialism? How about the men who took that flag as a reminded of home and, yes heritage, when they defended the 38th Parallel, South Vietnamese firebases, the oil fields of Kuwait, marching in the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iraq? How about a man named Richard Jewel who had a battle flag on the plate of his car when he helped save thousands of people from being killed by the bomb of a domestic terrorist at the 1996 Olympics? I could go on but you would either get the point or you wont. Hopefully someone will.  

Anyone who is genuinely interested in advocating for Southern heritage should listen to Howlin' Wolf and Ralph Stanley. You should read "To Kill a Mockingbird," "The Color Purple" or "Cold Mountain." You should learn how to pick out a really good watermelon and make a good gumbo. You should travel down to Martha Lou's Kitchen in Charleston, South Carolina, the Loveless Café in Tennessee and any barbecue restaurant in Lexington, North Carolina. You should drive down the Skyline Drive and the Natchez Trace Trail. You'll find yourself immersed in the very best of Southern culture and heritage.

Not to impugne your taste in music and literature, but I could literally list a dozen other artists and authors who fit the bill better in that regard. But again, I will concede the point that they are fine examples of Southern culture and heritage. 

However, one cannot simply pick and choose Southern culture or any of its aspects, either good or bad...or if you define them as "good or bad" respectively.  

But, please, don't fly the flag. Yes, it's a part of our history but in no way does it represent the best of Southern heritage.

Today, in the hands of those who honor it, that flag represents a group of dedicated Southern people of all races and religions, Confederate descendants and Southern born, who have chosen to take a noble and heroic stand against both white supremacist ideology and political correct cultural fascism. 

In rejecting both like-minded ideals which seek to divide the Southern people and force conformity of thought onto said groups, those Confederate heritage activists are boldly telling the haters that nobody defines what it means to be Southern but us and us alone. 

That is true moral courage! Taking back from hate what it has no claim to....and not just a flag, but all of our individual identities. Out very souls! 

Your way, to pick and choose, to condemn and surrender, is not courage and its not being Southern...it's just moral cowardice. Period. 

Well, there you have it folks. Once again a Leftist ideologue gets schooled by The Man The Deniers Fear Most. Once again, I was proud to take a moral stand for Southern and Confederate historical heritage, as well as dish out a little Southern Fried Common Sense. 

Y'all have a good day. See ya next month...which ironically is tomorrow. Peace out! 

2 comments:

Steve Gambone said...

"Flag of Hate"

I don’t remember the exact day in my youth when I first saw that flag of hate. Like many of us, I didn’t know that it was symbol of hate and the evils of slavery. It was just a flag.

As a teen my bedroom had a red wall, a white wall, a blue wall and a big 50 star US Flag that I painted on the fourth wall. Maybe that’s why I was blind to the hate in that flag with its similar color scheme? Perhaps my mathematical nature made me doubly blind? That unmistakable cross... a perfect match to the emotionless arithmetic symbol. Like so many of us after those senseless killings, I had to learn the true meaning of that flag of hate.

For me that awakening occurred when I reacquainted myself with the story of that hanged young man. A promising life ended with a rope secured and the noose fashioned by a 13 year old child. What adults would do that? Encourage a child of one race to assist in killing a man of another race? That flag of hate the witness to that evil deed. What kind of adult monster would such a child become? A monster of an evil race.

If you were the same race as that hanged young man wouldn’t you loathe and fear the sight of that flag? Wouldn’t you be wary of men of that child’s evil race? Of course, that’s how you would react. Even more so knowing the appalling history of slavery and the thousands of US lives lost fighting against those executioners with their flag of hate.

Why would any State in the Union want to have such a flag within their State flag? It’s evil. Those flying that flag killed US soldiers, they fought for their status quo including the right to own their fellow man. The monsters fought to preserve wealth and control built on slavery. What could be more evil than that?

I mean... what on earth are the people of Hawaii thinking? The Union Jack on their State Flag? It’s awful. The British killed US soldiers in two wars... the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. They hanged Nathan Hale and had a little black kid make the noose and fasten the rope to a tree. Nathan Hale was a white guy. All white people should loathe and fear that British flag. That’s how this politically correct flag hating nonsense works... right?

Haven’t we all learned from those senseless killings? Obama started an anti-cop witch hunt war on the US that got cops and others killed by crazy people. In response to that deadly anti-US war another crazy guy shot nine people at a church. That church massacre never would have happened if Obama hadn’t mishandled race relations and got a bunch of cops and civilians killed first.

Have you noticed how the number of crazy killings has increased during Obama’s reign? Not a surprise from a guy born in a State with such a traitorous flag is it?

Thank goodness we still have that Confederate Flag of love protecting the US Confederation and Perpetual Union. No way the evil Brits with their flag of hate would ever attack us again with the Confederates on the US team.

Steve Gambone said...

C.W. there's a story about a shop, Wild Bill's, in California that put the Dixie Cross back up. Something worth keeping track of. Here's the URL where I left a comment. You and the other Confederates should comment as well.

http://www.californiatelegraph.com/index.php/sid/237401011