Monday, January 29, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
ALLEN CENTRAL CONFEDERATE BOYCOTT HOAX REVEALED SAYS SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS
January 27th, 2007 - In a recent movie, "Glory Road", about the first NCAA basketball team with an all-black starting line-up to win a championship, a scene depicted Kentucky Wildcat fans taunting African-American players with Confederate flags. The problem, since the movie was supposed to be based on real events, was that the incident never occurred. When confronted about the deception, the movie producers simply said it made for a better story.
The Associated Press ran a story recently - which was carried nationally and internationally - about a small high school basketball team that was going to boycott a game against Floyd County Kentucky's Allen Central High, because of Allen Central's use of the Confederate Battle Flag and Confederate Soldier mascot, and the fans taunting an African-American player in last year's game with Confederate flags.
Was this really life imitating fictionalized art? It turns out that the story source was Ned Pillersdorf, a transplanted New Yorker who has decided to live in Floyd County, and who is a volunteer basketball coach for the tiny private David school which was supposedly to boycott Allen Central for the flag waving. Pillersdorf specifically claimed that Allen Central fans at last year's game had taunted an African-American player on his team with Confederate flags when he shot free throws, and that his players had voted to boycott this year's game. For some reason, Pillersdorf hadn't complained about anything last year, and had waited until after the Associated Press ran an article about Allen Central's Confederate mascot to announce a boycott by his school.
It turns out, though, that Pillersdorf's flag-taunting incident was just as fictional as the one in "Glory Road". The problems for Pillersdorf began when David school officials held a press conference to announce that there was no boycott, and that Pillersdorf hadn't gone through channels to ask for one. This means that the AP reporter who worked with Pillersdorf to create the boycott story didn't corroborate it with school officials, a basic requirement of journalism, before sending the inflammatory story over the wires.
It got worse for Pillersdorf, though, when the Allen Central athletics director pulled the records from last year's game, and the records showed that the player in question hadn't shot any free throws in that game. That problem for Pillersdorf's story was nothing, though, compared to when his own players spoke. They revealed that they had not wanted to boycott the game with Allen Central, and hadn't been allowed to vote on it, and even supported Allen Central's use of Confederate symbols.
Finally, the African-American player in question in the flag-taunting story drove the ultimate stake into the heart of Pillersdorf's fabrications when he flatly stated that the incident never happened.
Eventually the two school principals decided to postpone the game, with all the emotions that Pillersdorf and the media had created over the fictional flag taunting.
It's bad enough that a movie would pass off such a fabricated event as real, but Ned Pillersdorf pretending that such a thing happened in real life isn't just making a "better story" to make some sort of personal statement of his dislike for Southern heritage; it was disruptive to the community. It cannot be allowed simply to pass. The Kentucky Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans demands that Ned Pillersdorf apologize to his school, Allen Central and the folks in Floyd County for his actions, and the SCV further demands that the Associated Press run a correction story, and apologize for its part in running an uncorroborated fabrication.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a genealogical, historical and educational organization comprised of male descendents of honorably discharged Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines. Founded in 1896, the SCV has over 32,000 members, and in Kentucky there are 27 local chapters called camps.
The Associated Press ran a story recently - which was carried nationally and internationally - about a small high school basketball team that was going to boycott a game against Floyd County Kentucky's Allen Central High, because of Allen Central's use of the Confederate Battle Flag and Confederate Soldier mascot, and the fans taunting an African-American player in last year's game with Confederate flags.
Was this really life imitating fictionalized art? It turns out that the story source was Ned Pillersdorf, a transplanted New Yorker who has decided to live in Floyd County, and who is a volunteer basketball coach for the tiny private David school which was supposedly to boycott Allen Central for the flag waving. Pillersdorf specifically claimed that Allen Central fans at last year's game had taunted an African-American player on his team with Confederate flags when he shot free throws, and that his players had voted to boycott this year's game. For some reason, Pillersdorf hadn't complained about anything last year, and had waited until after the Associated Press ran an article about Allen Central's Confederate mascot to announce a boycott by his school.
It turns out, though, that Pillersdorf's flag-taunting incident was just as fictional as the one in "Glory Road". The problems for Pillersdorf began when David school officials held a press conference to announce that there was no boycott, and that Pillersdorf hadn't gone through channels to ask for one. This means that the AP reporter who worked with Pillersdorf to create the boycott story didn't corroborate it with school officials, a basic requirement of journalism, before sending the inflammatory story over the wires.
It got worse for Pillersdorf, though, when the Allen Central athletics director pulled the records from last year's game, and the records showed that the player in question hadn't shot any free throws in that game. That problem for Pillersdorf's story was nothing, though, compared to when his own players spoke. They revealed that they had not wanted to boycott the game with Allen Central, and hadn't been allowed to vote on it, and even supported Allen Central's use of Confederate symbols.
Finally, the African-American player in question in the flag-taunting story drove the ultimate stake into the heart of Pillersdorf's fabrications when he flatly stated that the incident never happened.
Eventually the two school principals decided to postpone the game, with all the emotions that Pillersdorf and the media had created over the fictional flag taunting.
It's bad enough that a movie would pass off such a fabricated event as real, but Ned Pillersdorf pretending that such a thing happened in real life isn't just making a "better story" to make some sort of personal statement of his dislike for Southern heritage; it was disruptive to the community. It cannot be allowed simply to pass. The Kentucky Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans demands that Ned Pillersdorf apologize to his school, Allen Central and the folks in Floyd County for his actions, and the SCV further demands that the Associated Press run a correction story, and apologize for its part in running an uncorroborated fabrication.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a genealogical, historical and educational organization comprised of male descendents of honorably discharged Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines. Founded in 1896, the SCV has over 32,000 members, and in Kentucky there are 27 local chapters called camps.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
LEE CELEBRATIONS BREAK ALL RECORDS
Elm Springs, Tennessee, January 26, 2007
The year of Robert E. Lee continues thru December 31st. Early returns from
the media throughout the United States indicate by far the most coverage of
the General Lee birthday in history.
Calvin Johnson and myself of the SCV Public and Media Relations Committee
have been trying to track the results from the various media. The numbers
came piling in so fast, after a while, we have lost an accurate count. They
keep coming. Considering the functions listed below, we've passed the
hundreds and are in the thousands, and still counting.
This year, the sub committee headed by Calvin, determined to make an all out
assault on every form of media. The results have been astounding.
Consider first, daily metro newspapers. Practically every daily in the
South and several in the North carried favorable articles and editorials.
Some, such as Washington, D. C. seemed to have a battle between two
competing papers as to which could run the most copy on General Lee, the
background and local events in Virginia, D. C. and Maryland.
The Associated Press fed a feature article to all dailies, and to radio and
TV.
We are still counting the hundreds of weekly newspapers throughout the
country that ran stories, many with local features and events.
It doesn't stop here. This year we expanded our media reach to talk radio.
We have reports of several compatriots who appeared in many local areas.
Calvin and I both did interviews, Calvin in
several states, via telephone.
Calvin's committee is still trying to arrive at the total of proclamations
which was another accented program this year. We know with states,
counties, cities and towns, this number could exceed a
thousand. Most proclamations are great opportunities for media releases,
and we got em because our camps asked for the coverage.
Then, the big local media events, local celebrations, parades, banquets.
This is media 101. Local events, great speakers, entertainment, and copy,
sound bytes, and television and news photos.
Folks, it couldn't have been done without you. The response from camps
throughout the country was and continues to be, tremendous.
We hope the awareness we created and the copy for various type events and
proclamations has been helpful.
Calvin Johnson has done such a commendable job, we have now asked him to
handle the international Confederate History and Heritage Month, which takes
place in most areas in April.
Start your plans now, if you haven't already. We're out to break all the
records for participation in the past. Calvin will be providing sample
proclamations and suggestions for events that you may find helpful. Most of
all, remember to tie your local media into the hard work you're doing.
The new image the SCV is projecting is, we're a vital local organization
with a purpose, which includes community involvement.
The sum and substance of this report is that both the public and the media
know the Sons of Confederate Veterans are alive and well, and the current
campaign is just getting started.
Thanks to all who are making it so.
Jeff Davis, Chairman
Public and Media Relations Committee
Camp 1418, Cleveland, Georgia
The year of Robert E. Lee continues thru December 31st. Early returns from
the media throughout the United States indicate by far the most coverage of
the General Lee birthday in history.
Calvin Johnson and myself of the SCV Public and Media Relations Committee
have been trying to track the results from the various media. The numbers
came piling in so fast, after a while, we have lost an accurate count. They
keep coming. Considering the functions listed below, we've passed the
hundreds and are in the thousands, and still counting.
This year, the sub committee headed by Calvin, determined to make an all out
assault on every form of media. The results have been astounding.
Consider first, daily metro newspapers. Practically every daily in the
South and several in the North carried favorable articles and editorials.
Some, such as Washington, D. C. seemed to have a battle between two
competing papers as to which could run the most copy on General Lee, the
background and local events in Virginia, D. C. and Maryland.
The Associated Press fed a feature article to all dailies, and to radio and
TV.
We are still counting the hundreds of weekly newspapers throughout the
country that ran stories, many with local features and events.
It doesn't stop here. This year we expanded our media reach to talk radio.
We have reports of several compatriots who appeared in many local areas.
Calvin and I both did interviews, Calvin in
several states, via telephone.
Calvin's committee is still trying to arrive at the total of proclamations
which was another accented program this year. We know with states,
counties, cities and towns, this number could exceed a
thousand. Most proclamations are great opportunities for media releases,
and we got em because our camps asked for the coverage.
Then, the big local media events, local celebrations, parades, banquets.
This is media 101. Local events, great speakers, entertainment, and copy,
sound bytes, and television and news photos.
Folks, it couldn't have been done without you. The response from camps
throughout the country was and continues to be, tremendous.
We hope the awareness we created and the copy for various type events and
proclamations has been helpful.
Calvin Johnson has done such a commendable job, we have now asked him to
handle the international Confederate History and Heritage Month, which takes
place in most areas in April.
Start your plans now, if you haven't already. We're out to break all the
records for participation in the past. Calvin will be providing sample
proclamations and suggestions for events that you may find helpful. Most of
all, remember to tie your local media into the hard work you're doing.
The new image the SCV is projecting is, we're a vital local organization
with a purpose, which includes community involvement.
The sum and substance of this report is that both the public and the media
know the Sons of Confederate Veterans are alive and well, and the current
campaign is just getting started.
Thanks to all who are making it so.
Jeff Davis, Chairman
Public and Media Relations Committee
Camp 1418, Cleveland, Georgia
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS APPLAUD NCAA DECISION
In response to the announcement by the National Collegiate Athletic Association of their decision to not expand existing postseason competition bans in South Carolina and Mississippi due to their use of the Confederate battle flag, the Sons of Confederate Veterans applauds the NCAA for exhibiting prudence and acumen in reaching that decision.
The NAACP had demanded the NCAA to broaden its moratorium on bringing predetermined postseason events, such as NCAA basketball regionals, to the two states. The ban will not be expanded, however, to sites awarded on merit, such as baseball tournament regionals or football playoff games.
According to SCV Commander-in-Chief Christopher Sullivan, the NCAA has made a prudent decision that simply supports the wishes of the citizens of those states.
"Under political pressure from the NAACP, South Carolina took the battle flag down from their statehouse in 2000 and placed it on a nearby soldiers memorial monument, but that apparently wasn't good enough," Sullivan stated. "Mississippi put the issue of their flag on a ballot, and even though the citizens there overwhelmingly voted to keep their flag as is, apparently that wasn't good enough either. We salute the NCAA for finally respecting the wishes of the people of South Carolina and Mississippi and displaying a better understanding of the meaning of the symbols at the center of the issue than those wishing to use collegiate sports as a political crowbar."
Sullivan also pointed out that any kind of ban based on Confederate symbolism is based on a misplaced understanding of history.
"Most Southerners know that the symbols of the Confederacy are not based in hate, as some would like to have everyone believe," he said. "Arbitrarily banning anything because of links to Confederate symbols would be ludicrous, considering that North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas all have state flag designs that pay homage to their Confederate lineage."
Sullivan concluded that the athletic arenas of the South are not the places to determine political policy.
"Southerners love sports, and most especially collegiate sports, since they harken back to the Confederate concept of one state competing against another," he stated. "We disapprove of attempting to use a point of state and regional pride as a hostage to reach a political ends. Political issues should be decided by the people within the states themselves, not outsiders who know little or nothing about those states or the families that call them home. The NCAA should do the right thing and drop the ban altogether."
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a fraternal organization comprised of descendents of Confederate soldiers that was formed in 1896.
The NAACP had demanded the NCAA to broaden its moratorium on bringing predetermined postseason events, such as NCAA basketball regionals, to the two states. The ban will not be expanded, however, to sites awarded on merit, such as baseball tournament regionals or football playoff games.
According to SCV Commander-in-Chief Christopher Sullivan, the NCAA has made a prudent decision that simply supports the wishes of the citizens of those states.
"Under political pressure from the NAACP, South Carolina took the battle flag down from their statehouse in 2000 and placed it on a nearby soldiers memorial monument, but that apparently wasn't good enough," Sullivan stated. "Mississippi put the issue of their flag on a ballot, and even though the citizens there overwhelmingly voted to keep their flag as is, apparently that wasn't good enough either. We salute the NCAA for finally respecting the wishes of the people of South Carolina and Mississippi and displaying a better understanding of the meaning of the symbols at the center of the issue than those wishing to use collegiate sports as a political crowbar."
Sullivan also pointed out that any kind of ban based on Confederate symbolism is based on a misplaced understanding of history.
"Most Southerners know that the symbols of the Confederacy are not based in hate, as some would like to have everyone believe," he said. "Arbitrarily banning anything because of links to Confederate symbols would be ludicrous, considering that North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas all have state flag designs that pay homage to their Confederate lineage."
Sullivan concluded that the athletic arenas of the South are not the places to determine political policy.
"Southerners love sports, and most especially collegiate sports, since they harken back to the Confederate concept of one state competing against another," he stated. "We disapprove of attempting to use a point of state and regional pride as a hostage to reach a political ends. Political issues should be decided by the people within the states themselves, not outsiders who know little or nothing about those states or the families that call them home. The NCAA should do the right thing and drop the ban altogether."
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a fraternal organization comprised of descendents of Confederate soldiers that was formed in 1896.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Man in Gray: A Tribute to the Life of Robert E. Lee
Robert F. Hawes Jr.
rhawes73@gmail.com
The British historian Lord Acton once said, "Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority." As a student of history myself, I am compelled to agree with that observation. Unfortunately, the majority of names that occur to me when I think of history's most notable figures are, to some degree or another, associated with tyranny and oppression.
Nor has American history escaped this disturbing trend. Abraham Lincoln is most often named when Americans are asked to identify the best or greatest president of the United States; yet Lincoln overthrew the principles of the American Revolution, deliberately provoked a war when he might have negotiated a peace, figuratively tore the Constitution to shreds, ruthlessly silenced his opposition, and went to his grave with the blood of hundreds of thousands -- and, in a sense, the lifeblood of the Republic itself -- on his hands. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, in the words of former Supreme Court Justice William Rhenquist, "ranks foremost among the runners up" to Lincoln, imprisoned 110,000 Americans in internment camps, confiscated private property by fiat, stacked the highest court in the land with judges that would rubber-stamp his edicts, and firmly wove socialism into our political fabric with his New Deal. Of Roosevelt, H.L. Mencken once wrote: "I am advocating making him king in order that we may behead him in case he goes too far beyond the limits of the endurable." To this day, the shadows of Lincoln and Roosevelt still loom vast and dark over our public institutions and mindset, virtually eclipsing the world that preceded them. Usurpers and authoritarians all of political stripes routinely invoke their words and deeds like talismans against those who dare to challenge the power of the almighty State.
Fortunately, however, not all 'great' names need be found on display in history's rogues gallery. There are some noteworthy exceptions to Lord Acton's dictum, and one of them has a significant birthday this week.
Born January 19, 1807, General Robert E. Lee is perhaps even more towering a figure in death than he was in life, and he is nothing if not an enigma to most Americans. His military exploits are legendary. His character was such that even many of those who denigrate the Southern cause in the War of Secession cannot help but admire the man who nearly put the Confederacy on a paying basis. Physically, he was an imposing figure, yet battle-hardened men rallied to him like a standard and wept like children in his presence. He insisted upon strict disciplinary standards, and took to the field of war with the wrathfulness of an Old Testament prophet; but he is equally famous for his humility and gentleness. A statue in his honor stands in the rotunda of the Capitol building in Washington D.C., the seat of power against which he once labored with all his energies. Having fought against the United States, he is still venerated as one of the greatest Americans.
As enigmatic as these qualities make Lee appear on the surface, he actually strikes me as one of the most easily understood personalities in our history. You see, General Lee lived by a code; and while many people profess to live by various creeds, Lee stands out as one of the few people who demonstrably kept to the course he had set for himself. Having studied the general and his life in detail over the years, I say with some assurance that his outlook on life can be summed up in the following quote:
“Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.”
This simple ideology is key to dispelling the mystery that surrounds Robert E. Lee, and for commending him to future generations as an example of both a great and good man. If he seems mysterious, or larger than life, or perhaps too good to be true, I feel it is largely because we are unaccustomed to such men in this age of denial, complacency and moral relativism. Lee's celebrated biographer, Douglas Southall Freeman, writing in his four-volume R.E. Lee, stated: "Lee was one of the small company of great men in whom there is no inconsistency to be explained, no enigma to be solved. What he seemed, he was -- a wholly human gentleman, the essential elements of whose positive character were two and only two, simplicity and spirituality".
No, we are not accustomed to this kind of man at all in our day. For that matter, neither were many who lived in his own day. Winfield Scott, general-in-chief of the United States army in 1861, scolded him for making the biggest mistake of his life when he turned down Lincoln's offer to command United States troops against the Confederacy, but Lee's sense of duty would not permit him to take that command. "I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home," said Lee. And so saying he set himself on the hard road, one that led to Appomattox and ultimate defeat. In the end, however, it was also Lee's sense of duty that led him to end the fighting. "There is nothing left for me but to go and see General Grant," Lee remarked to his men during the those dark days following the Army of Northern Virginia's retreat from Confederate Richmond, "and I would rather die a thousand deaths...but it is our duty to live. What will become of the women and children of the South if we are not here to protect them?" When some of his men suggested that, instead of surrendering Lee might disband his army and let the men continue to fight as guerrillas, Lee replied:
"If I took your advice, the men would be without rations and under no control of officers. They would be compelled to rob and steal in order to live. They would become mere bands of marauders, and the enemy's cavalry would pursue them and overrun many sections they may never have occasion to visit. We would bring on a state of affairs it would take the country years to recover from."
In the few years remaining to him after the war, Lee would have preferred to retreat altogether from public life and become a farmer; but once again, his sense of duty compelled him to do otherwise. He accepted the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee) in Lexington, Virginia, firmly believing that the South's best hope for the future lay in raising up a generation of learned, self-disciplined men. "The thorough education of all classes of the people is the most efficacious means, in my opinion, of promoting the prosperity of the South," said Lee. "We must look to the rising generation for the restoration of the country." Lee continued in this new post, leading by example, until his death in October, 1870.
And while Lee was gracious in defeat, and is generally recognized as having done more to restore relations between North and South than any other single individual following the war, he never repented his participation in the Confederacy and never recanted her cause. "I could have taken no other course without dishonor," he wrote, "and if all were to be done over again, I should act in precisely the same manner."
"I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization," Lord Acton wrote to Lee on November 4, 1866, "and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo." In reply, Lee wrote that the South had fought for "the supremacy of the constitution, and the just administration of the laws made in pursuance to it":
"I can only say that while I have considered the preservation of the constitutional power of the General Government to be the foundation of our peace and safety at home and abroad, I yet believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people, not only essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but the safeguard to the continuance of a free government. I consider it as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it."
"Aggressive abroad and despotic at home." The United States of America, consolidated under a supreme federal system as per the wishes of men like Lincoln and Roosevelt, has largely fulfilled this dire prediction made by Lee. He had all of the assurances of history before him in making that prediction, and yet, as surely as he saw the inevitable consequences of our Jeffersonian Republic's overthrow, he also saw a reason to hope:
"My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor indisposed me to serve them; nor, in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or of the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope."
We live in troubled, uncertain times, and many are tempted to despair of the future. But to those who feel the darkness closing in around them as freedom's light dims and western civilization falters, I urge you to bear Lee's words in mind. History provides us with innumerable examples of tyrants and usurpers, but it also provides us with men like Lee, and how many more such men we see in the future will depend upon how much emphasis we place on his example, and the examples of men like him, upon re-affirming the concepts of duty, honor and responsibility for oneself. Like those of Lee's day, we must look to the rising generation for the restoration of our hopes, and we can start by celebrating the life of this extraordinary man on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Join me in paying tribute to General Robert E. Lee, a great and good man, and a hero not only for the American South but for all people and for all time.
rhawes73@gmail.com
The British historian Lord Acton once said, "Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority." As a student of history myself, I am compelled to agree with that observation. Unfortunately, the majority of names that occur to me when I think of history's most notable figures are, to some degree or another, associated with tyranny and oppression.
Nor has American history escaped this disturbing trend. Abraham Lincoln is most often named when Americans are asked to identify the best or greatest president of the United States; yet Lincoln overthrew the principles of the American Revolution, deliberately provoked a war when he might have negotiated a peace, figuratively tore the Constitution to shreds, ruthlessly silenced his opposition, and went to his grave with the blood of hundreds of thousands -- and, in a sense, the lifeblood of the Republic itself -- on his hands. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, in the words of former Supreme Court Justice William Rhenquist, "ranks foremost among the runners up" to Lincoln, imprisoned 110,000 Americans in internment camps, confiscated private property by fiat, stacked the highest court in the land with judges that would rubber-stamp his edicts, and firmly wove socialism into our political fabric with his New Deal. Of Roosevelt, H.L. Mencken once wrote: "I am advocating making him king in order that we may behead him in case he goes too far beyond the limits of the endurable." To this day, the shadows of Lincoln and Roosevelt still loom vast and dark over our public institutions and mindset, virtually eclipsing the world that preceded them. Usurpers and authoritarians all of political stripes routinely invoke their words and deeds like talismans against those who dare to challenge the power of the almighty State.
Fortunately, however, not all 'great' names need be found on display in history's rogues gallery. There are some noteworthy exceptions to Lord Acton's dictum, and one of them has a significant birthday this week.
Born January 19, 1807, General Robert E. Lee is perhaps even more towering a figure in death than he was in life, and he is nothing if not an enigma to most Americans. His military exploits are legendary. His character was such that even many of those who denigrate the Southern cause in the War of Secession cannot help but admire the man who nearly put the Confederacy on a paying basis. Physically, he was an imposing figure, yet battle-hardened men rallied to him like a standard and wept like children in his presence. He insisted upon strict disciplinary standards, and took to the field of war with the wrathfulness of an Old Testament prophet; but he is equally famous for his humility and gentleness. A statue in his honor stands in the rotunda of the Capitol building in Washington D.C., the seat of power against which he once labored with all his energies. Having fought against the United States, he is still venerated as one of the greatest Americans.
As enigmatic as these qualities make Lee appear on the surface, he actually strikes me as one of the most easily understood personalities in our history. You see, General Lee lived by a code; and while many people profess to live by various creeds, Lee stands out as one of the few people who demonstrably kept to the course he had set for himself. Having studied the general and his life in detail over the years, I say with some assurance that his outlook on life can be summed up in the following quote:
“Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.”
This simple ideology is key to dispelling the mystery that surrounds Robert E. Lee, and for commending him to future generations as an example of both a great and good man. If he seems mysterious, or larger than life, or perhaps too good to be true, I feel it is largely because we are unaccustomed to such men in this age of denial, complacency and moral relativism. Lee's celebrated biographer, Douglas Southall Freeman, writing in his four-volume R.E. Lee, stated: "Lee was one of the small company of great men in whom there is no inconsistency to be explained, no enigma to be solved. What he seemed, he was -- a wholly human gentleman, the essential elements of whose positive character were two and only two, simplicity and spirituality".
No, we are not accustomed to this kind of man at all in our day. For that matter, neither were many who lived in his own day. Winfield Scott, general-in-chief of the United States army in 1861, scolded him for making the biggest mistake of his life when he turned down Lincoln's offer to command United States troops against the Confederacy, but Lee's sense of duty would not permit him to take that command. "I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home," said Lee. And so saying he set himself on the hard road, one that led to Appomattox and ultimate defeat. In the end, however, it was also Lee's sense of duty that led him to end the fighting. "There is nothing left for me but to go and see General Grant," Lee remarked to his men during the those dark days following the Army of Northern Virginia's retreat from Confederate Richmond, "and I would rather die a thousand deaths...but it is our duty to live. What will become of the women and children of the South if we are not here to protect them?" When some of his men suggested that, instead of surrendering Lee might disband his army and let the men continue to fight as guerrillas, Lee replied:
"If I took your advice, the men would be without rations and under no control of officers. They would be compelled to rob and steal in order to live. They would become mere bands of marauders, and the enemy's cavalry would pursue them and overrun many sections they may never have occasion to visit. We would bring on a state of affairs it would take the country years to recover from."
In the few years remaining to him after the war, Lee would have preferred to retreat altogether from public life and become a farmer; but once again, his sense of duty compelled him to do otherwise. He accepted the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee) in Lexington, Virginia, firmly believing that the South's best hope for the future lay in raising up a generation of learned, self-disciplined men. "The thorough education of all classes of the people is the most efficacious means, in my opinion, of promoting the prosperity of the South," said Lee. "We must look to the rising generation for the restoration of the country." Lee continued in this new post, leading by example, until his death in October, 1870.
And while Lee was gracious in defeat, and is generally recognized as having done more to restore relations between North and South than any other single individual following the war, he never repented his participation in the Confederacy and never recanted her cause. "I could have taken no other course without dishonor," he wrote, "and if all were to be done over again, I should act in precisely the same manner."
"I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization," Lord Acton wrote to Lee on November 4, 1866, "and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo." In reply, Lee wrote that the South had fought for "the supremacy of the constitution, and the just administration of the laws made in pursuance to it":
"I can only say that while I have considered the preservation of the constitutional power of the General Government to be the foundation of our peace and safety at home and abroad, I yet believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people, not only essential to the adjustment and balance of the general system, but the safeguard to the continuance of a free government. I consider it as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it."
"Aggressive abroad and despotic at home." The United States of America, consolidated under a supreme federal system as per the wishes of men like Lincoln and Roosevelt, has largely fulfilled this dire prediction made by Lee. He had all of the assurances of history before him in making that prediction, and yet, as surely as he saw the inevitable consequences of our Jeffersonian Republic's overthrow, he also saw a reason to hope:
"My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor indisposed me to serve them; nor, in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or of the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope."
We live in troubled, uncertain times, and many are tempted to despair of the future. But to those who feel the darkness closing in around them as freedom's light dims and western civilization falters, I urge you to bear Lee's words in mind. History provides us with innumerable examples of tyrants and usurpers, but it also provides us with men like Lee, and how many more such men we see in the future will depend upon how much emphasis we place on his example, and the examples of men like him, upon re-affirming the concepts of duty, honor and responsibility for oneself. Like those of Lee's day, we must look to the rising generation for the restoration of our hopes, and we can start by celebrating the life of this extraordinary man on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Join me in paying tribute to General Robert E. Lee, a great and good man, and a hero not only for the American South but for all people and for all time.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS APPLAUDS DAVID SCHOOL DECISION
EXPRESSES INTEREST IN BATTLE FLAG INCIDENT
Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander in Chief Chris Sullivan has issued a statement on behalf of the organization lauding The David School of David, Kentucky, for their decision not to cancel a basketball game because of the presence of a Confederate battle flag at Allen Central High School.
Previously, the players on David's basketball team voted to not participate in a January 19 game in the city of Eastern, Kentucky based on Allen Central's use of the Confederate flag and alleged taunting towards the David School's only African American player.
However, according to a press release from The David School Board of Directors, the decision to cancel the basketball game with Allen Central was made without the consent of the appropriate school administrators. Upon this discovery, directors declared the decision to cancel the game as invalid and the basketball schedule stands. The board said all decisions that affect the activities of the school need to be made within the legitimate lines of authority of the school.
The Board of Directors also said administrators with the school will take the necessary steps to ensure respect at any games in which its players participate.
As the leader of the SCV, CiC Sullivan agrees with this decision, and the stance of the board.
"As a historical organization based on defending the honor of the Confederate soldier and the symbols that represent him, we are pleased to see The David School allow reason to supercede any action that otherwise might have been made in haste," he stated. "The presence of a battle flag, if used appropriately and honorably, should be no reason to cancel or postpone any event."
Sullivan did add, however, that the SCV is seeking out more information on the circumstances surrounding the use of the flag which precipitated the situation.
"Our organization will not stand by and condone the misuse or abuse of the honorable symbols of the Southern soldier any more than we will idly condone the arbitrary condemnation of those symbols by those who automatically equate them to racism or hate," he added. "We want to be sure that the flag in question was not, in fact, being used inappropriately. If it was, we need to make sure such misuse does not happen again."
"As Southerners, we love high school athletics that display the spirit of competition and good sportsmanship," Sullivan concluded. "The Sons of Confederate Veterans believes those qualities are foundations for good ethics and proper social behavior for young men and women as they approach their adult lives. We don't believe high school sports should be used as a forum for social or political purposes or demeaning behavior, and are proud to see the parties involved reach an amicable and reasonable solution to this situation."
Randy Young
SCV Public and Media Relations Committee
Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander in Chief Chris Sullivan has issued a statement on behalf of the organization lauding The David School of David, Kentucky, for their decision not to cancel a basketball game because of the presence of a Confederate battle flag at Allen Central High School.
Previously, the players on David's basketball team voted to not participate in a January 19 game in the city of Eastern, Kentucky based on Allen Central's use of the Confederate flag and alleged taunting towards the David School's only African American player.
However, according to a press release from The David School Board of Directors, the decision to cancel the basketball game with Allen Central was made without the consent of the appropriate school administrators. Upon this discovery, directors declared the decision to cancel the game as invalid and the basketball schedule stands. The board said all decisions that affect the activities of the school need to be made within the legitimate lines of authority of the school.
The Board of Directors also said administrators with the school will take the necessary steps to ensure respect at any games in which its players participate.
As the leader of the SCV, CiC Sullivan agrees with this decision, and the stance of the board.
"As a historical organization based on defending the honor of the Confederate soldier and the symbols that represent him, we are pleased to see The David School allow reason to supercede any action that otherwise might have been made in haste," he stated. "The presence of a battle flag, if used appropriately and honorably, should be no reason to cancel or postpone any event."
Sullivan did add, however, that the SCV is seeking out more information on the circumstances surrounding the use of the flag which precipitated the situation.
"Our organization will not stand by and condone the misuse or abuse of the honorable symbols of the Southern soldier any more than we will idly condone the arbitrary condemnation of those symbols by those who automatically equate them to racism or hate," he added. "We want to be sure that the flag in question was not, in fact, being used inappropriately. If it was, we need to make sure such misuse does not happen again."
"As Southerners, we love high school athletics that display the spirit of competition and good sportsmanship," Sullivan concluded. "The Sons of Confederate Veterans believes those qualities are foundations for good ethics and proper social behavior for young men and women as they approach their adult lives. We don't believe high school sports should be used as a forum for social or political purposes or demeaning behavior, and are proud to see the parties involved reach an amicable and reasonable solution to this situation."
Randy Young
SCV Public and Media Relations Committee
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Silly Pandering Season Opens in South Carolina
What was intended as a Martin Luther King, Jr. observance in Columbia,S. C. has turned into the opening of the silly political pandering season.
With the South Carolina Democratic primary scheduled as one of the earliest in the nation in 2007, silly political rhetoric seems to have pushed the purpose of the event to the background.
Showing up for events in Columbia were at least three Democratic candidates, or potential candidates, Senators Christopher Dodd, Connecticut, Joseph Biden, Delaware, and Barack Obama, Illinois, who was hosted at a breakfast by Jesse Jackson.
Two of the three addressed the issue of the Confederate flag at the soldiers memorial on the South Carolina capitol grounds.
Senator Dodd is quoted by the Associated Press as saying " I don't believe it (the Confederate flag) belongs on the capitol grounds. It belongs in a museum." Senator Dodd's comments beg the questions good journalists used to ask like "What has your experience with slavery in Connecticut history led you to this conclusion?"
Too bad the Hartford (Ct) Courant reporters weren't present in Columbia. Particularly Jenifer Frank, Anne Furrow or Joel Lane, the authors of the 2005-6 best selling expose "Complicity, How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited From Slavery".
Senator Dodd seems a little disoriented as he is sometimes thought to be in Washington. Perhaps memory has failed him about the major slave import business taking place in the 19th century in places like New London and Old Mystic, Connecticut. Could it be that Senator Dodd overlooked one of the largest slave plantations in America, located in Connecticut, described in the above publication?
Senator Dodd claims familiarly with the Yale University Law School of New Haven, Ct. One of their proudest achievements is called the Avalon Project, "Confederate States of America". In it, he could learn a lot of truth from those in his own state without going to South Carolina to tell their legislators and people how they should think or vote.
Senator Biden is a case study of its own. The AP quotes him as saying "If I were a state legislator (SC) I'd vote to have it removed from the grounds...out of state." This is the same Senator Biden who, on a previous visit commented about Delawarians having to go South a couple of states to reach the Confederacy, or some similar quote. In the disorientation contest, Biden might win. Most of Maryland is north of Delaware and Virginia is due west. This is the same Senator Biden who sometime back got the sources of speeches disoriented, believing he wrote what others before had written.
South Carolinians are smart people. They've been through the pandering politician exercise before. History shows that little attention is paid to the ill informed who spend oodles of campaign dollars in South Carolina to grovel for votes in a primary.
It seems senseless, spending money despite a boycott that is centered around the same issue they are pandering about.Duh, who is in charge here?
Jeff Davis, Chairman
SCV Public and Media Relations Committee
Camp 1418, Cleveland, GA
With the South Carolina Democratic primary scheduled as one of the earliest in the nation in 2007, silly political rhetoric seems to have pushed the purpose of the event to the background.
Showing up for events in Columbia were at least three Democratic candidates, or potential candidates, Senators Christopher Dodd, Connecticut, Joseph Biden, Delaware, and Barack Obama, Illinois, who was hosted at a breakfast by Jesse Jackson.
Two of the three addressed the issue of the Confederate flag at the soldiers memorial on the South Carolina capitol grounds.
Senator Dodd is quoted by the Associated Press as saying " I don't believe it (the Confederate flag) belongs on the capitol grounds. It belongs in a museum." Senator Dodd's comments beg the questions good journalists used to ask like "What has your experience with slavery in Connecticut history led you to this conclusion?"
Too bad the Hartford (Ct) Courant reporters weren't present in Columbia. Particularly Jenifer Frank, Anne Furrow or Joel Lane, the authors of the 2005-6 best selling expose "Complicity, How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited From Slavery".
Senator Dodd seems a little disoriented as he is sometimes thought to be in Washington. Perhaps memory has failed him about the major slave import business taking place in the 19th century in places like New London and Old Mystic, Connecticut. Could it be that Senator Dodd overlooked one of the largest slave plantations in America, located in Connecticut, described in the above publication?
Senator Dodd claims familiarly with the Yale University Law School of New Haven, Ct. One of their proudest achievements is called the Avalon Project, "Confederate States of America". In it, he could learn a lot of truth from those in his own state without going to South Carolina to tell their legislators and people how they should think or vote.
Senator Biden is a case study of its own. The AP quotes him as saying "If I were a state legislator (SC) I'd vote to have it removed from the grounds...out of state." This is the same Senator Biden who, on a previous visit commented about Delawarians having to go South a couple of states to reach the Confederacy, or some similar quote. In the disorientation contest, Biden might win. Most of Maryland is north of Delaware and Virginia is due west. This is the same Senator Biden who sometime back got the sources of speeches disoriented, believing he wrote what others before had written.
South Carolinians are smart people. They've been through the pandering politician exercise before. History shows that little attention is paid to the ill informed who spend oodles of campaign dollars in South Carolina to grovel for votes in a primary.
It seems senseless, spending money despite a boycott that is centered around the same issue they are pandering about.Duh, who is in charge here?
Jeff Davis, Chairman
SCV Public and Media Relations Committee
Camp 1418, Cleveland, GA
Monday, January 15, 2007
Praise For Lee and Jackson
However, Lee knew that what Lincoln was about to do was both immoral and unconstitutional. As a man of honor and integrity, the only thing Lee could do was that which his father had done: fight for freedom and independence. And that is exactly what he did.....
NewsWithViews.com
by Pastor Chuck Baldwin
READ IT HERE
NewsWithViews.com
by Pastor Chuck Baldwin
READ IT HERE
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
Frankly Speaking
Frank Gillispie
frankgillispie671@msn.com
April 19 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert E. Lee. Lee is, in my opinion, richly deserving of our admiration and appreciation for many reasons.
It is true that Lee took an inferior force and won victory after victory during the War for Southern Independence, surrendering only when his position finally became hopeless. He developed strategies that are still studied in military history classes today. But that is not the primary reason we should honor his memory.
It is true that after the war, Lee accepted the presidency of a struggling little college in Northern Virginia and led it to a high academic and social reputation. His influence on the college was so strong that, after his death, his name was added to it, becoming Washington and Lee University. But his success as an educator is not the primary reason we should honor his memory.
Lee deserves our honor because he was the prototype of a Southern Gentleman, another of the fine traditions of the South that is fading from view. Let me quote a description of a Southern Gentleman given by a legislator from Massachusetts.
Sen. Hoar spoke of the South on the floor of the U. S. Senate on the 23rd of February, 1889. Sen. Hoar did not understand the South and its problems before, during and after Reconstruction, nor was he unbiased toward the South, but he sure did have a good understanding of Southern men.
"They have some qualities which I cannot even presume to claim in an equal degree for the people among whom I, myself, dwell. They have an aptness for command which makes the Southern gentleman, wherever he goes, not a peer only, but a prince. They have a love for home; they have, the best of them, and the most of them, inherited from the great race from which they come, the sense of duty and the instinct of honor as no other people on the face of the earth. They are lovers of home. They have not the mean traits which grow up somewhere in places where money-making is the chief end of life. They have, above all, and giving value to all, that supreme and superb constancy which, without regard to personal ambition and without yielding to the temptation of wealth, without getting tired and without getting diverted, can pursue a great public object, in and out, year after year and generation after generation."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower had this to say about Lee in a letter to a critic who questioned why a portrait of Robert E Lee was among the four great Americans on his office wall:
“General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man and unsullied as I read the pages of our history. From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained. Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.”
When he signed legislation restoring citizenship to General Lee President Gerald Ford said: "General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.”
Robert E. Lee was the prototype of a Southern Gentleman. Any of you young men who might wish to rise to that standard could do no better than emulate this great man. And all Americans should honor him on his 200th birthday on January 19th.
frankgillispie671@msn.com
April 19 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert E. Lee. Lee is, in my opinion, richly deserving of our admiration and appreciation for many reasons.
It is true that Lee took an inferior force and won victory after victory during the War for Southern Independence, surrendering only when his position finally became hopeless. He developed strategies that are still studied in military history classes today. But that is not the primary reason we should honor his memory.
It is true that after the war, Lee accepted the presidency of a struggling little college in Northern Virginia and led it to a high academic and social reputation. His influence on the college was so strong that, after his death, his name was added to it, becoming Washington and Lee University. But his success as an educator is not the primary reason we should honor his memory.
Lee deserves our honor because he was the prototype of a Southern Gentleman, another of the fine traditions of the South that is fading from view. Let me quote a description of a Southern Gentleman given by a legislator from Massachusetts.
Sen. Hoar spoke of the South on the floor of the U. S. Senate on the 23rd of February, 1889. Sen. Hoar did not understand the South and its problems before, during and after Reconstruction, nor was he unbiased toward the South, but he sure did have a good understanding of Southern men.
"They have some qualities which I cannot even presume to claim in an equal degree for the people among whom I, myself, dwell. They have an aptness for command which makes the Southern gentleman, wherever he goes, not a peer only, but a prince. They have a love for home; they have, the best of them, and the most of them, inherited from the great race from which they come, the sense of duty and the instinct of honor as no other people on the face of the earth. They are lovers of home. They have not the mean traits which grow up somewhere in places where money-making is the chief end of life. They have, above all, and giving value to all, that supreme and superb constancy which, without regard to personal ambition and without yielding to the temptation of wealth, without getting tired and without getting diverted, can pursue a great public object, in and out, year after year and generation after generation."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower had this to say about Lee in a letter to a critic who questioned why a portrait of Robert E Lee was among the four great Americans on his office wall:
“General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man and unsullied as I read the pages of our history. From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities, including his devotion to this land as revealed in his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the bitter struggle was over, we, in our own time of danger in a divided world, will be strengthened and our love of freedom sustained. Such are the reasons that I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.”
When he signed legislation restoring citizenship to General Lee President Gerald Ford said: "General Lee's character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.”
Robert E. Lee was the prototype of a Southern Gentleman. Any of you young men who might wish to rise to that standard could do no better than emulate this great man. And all Americans should honor him on his 200th birthday on January 19th.