Candidate Rising Like a Meteor in the Georgia Governor's Race

(ATLANTA, December 22, 2009) -- Having won several polls in the Governor's race across the state in the past month, Ray McBerry's campaign continues to pick up steam across the state.

In the past month, McBerry won first place in the governor's race straw poll conducted in Tifton the week following two candidate forums in south Georgia, one in Tifton and another in Valdosta. Even Austin Scott, a native of Tifton, came in second to McBerry among the seven Republicans.

Meanwhile, Ray McBerry scored overwhelming victories in the online polls for the Governor's race that were conducted by both the Augusta area Young Republicans in east Georgia and the Paulding County GOP in west Georgia.

In north Georgia's Walker County, the McBerry Campaign came in second place in the Republican party's straw poll, being bested only by Nathan Deal, in whose "back yard" the straw poll was conducted.

For several months now, there have been record turnouts each time that Ray McBerry has spoken at different county GOP meetings across the state, leading to an increase in the number of speaking invitations from other county chairmen.

Additionally, Ray has been invited to be the "kickoff" speaker for nearly a dozen " tea party patriot" groups springing up around the state -- groups who are looking for candidates who are not part of the current Democrat and Republican establishment. The most recent of these events was this past Thursday evening in Dalton in which approxima tely 200 people turned out to hear Ray speak on the subject of "States' Rights."

The record turnout at both Republican-sponsored events and these "town hall" type meetings every time that Ray McBerry is invited to speak have certainly gotten the attention of many within the Republican Party. Being called "the best public speaker in Georgia today" by a number of statewide candidates, Ray's message of "States' Rights" is resounding incredibly well in all areas of the state and among all groups, including "blue dog" Democrats, Libertarians, and Independents, as well as traditional conservative Republicans.

The McBerry Campaign team continues to grow with each new week and is the largest volunteer organization in the governor's race among both Republican and Democrat contenders. With the rapid growth of the campaign, the success in numerous recent polls, and the increasing demand for his speaking across the state, Ray McBerry appears to be rising like a meteor in the Republican race for Governor.

For more information or to contact Ray McBerry's campaign about interviews and speaking engagements, please visit the campaign website at www.GeorgiaFirst.org

Here Comes The Attack HK color cartoon wCecil

From: HK Edgerton
Date: Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Subject: Fwd: Emailing: HK color cartoon wCecil/ Here Comes The Attack
To: HK Edgerton



I have been depicted as cartoon in the Mountain Express weekly newspaper before, but it was not until I questioned the seating of it's former Editor to the Asheville City Council because of his professed status as an atheist did this cartoon take on a different characterization. The cartoon depiction of no me no longer carried any resemblance to my person . What I and others now saw was a fat black man dressed in a Confederate uniform holding a Confederate Battle flag standing next to Mr. Cecil Bothwell who looked rather slim and debonair.

The words uttered by the cartoon depicting me, were words that I had not and would not ever utter: ( -not swearin' in on the Bible! Violatin' the State Constitution! What could be crazier?! ). They were just a lead in to attack me for the stand I make in defense of my homeland, the Southland of America and it's glorious banner. I instead would have said, what could have been more illegal ? The carton depicting Mr. Bothwell answer to the supposed words uttered by the cartoon depicting him were: ( Let me see- How 'bout a Black Man Carrying A Confederate Flag? )

I find this cartoon to be offensive, racist, inaccurate and demeaning to the memory of the many Southern Black men who carried this glorious banner in defense of their homeland and to myself for stepping into the characterization of their cause.And as a fact, I happen to know many Black men who are Sons of Confederate Veterans, who like myself carry this Flag and defend the honor of their ancestors who did the same, and would take exception to the statement that a Black man carrying the Confederate Flag to be crazy.

And I know that my dear friend, the late Julian Price, the heir to Jefferson Pilot Insurance Company who saved this weekly from extinction with his funds, and who wrote the very first news article on my stand at the NAACP Office that I chaired while donned in full dress Confederate uniform, would not have approved of this cartoon and it's message. They should have gone back to their archives and read what Mr. Price wrote about my stand with the Flag, and then checked his check book to see the support he provided to me for my run as Mayor and for the children who I taught golf.

And for those who want to continue to make this a personal issue between me and Mr. Bothwell, it is not. I would suggest that they view the live interview recorded by my brother Terry Lee Edgerton of Mr. Bothwell and myself on the Matt Mittan radio program of December 16, 2009. The bottom line is that Mr. Bothwell canot act in behalf of the citizens of Asheville legally until a resolution has been accomplished about Article VI, section 7 & 8 of the North Carolina State Constitution. Shame on the Mountain Express.

ANNUAL ROBERT E. LEE/STONEWALL JACKSON EVENT SET FOR JAN. 23rd

Knoxville -- The Longstreet/Zollicoffer Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans will host their 17th annual celebration of the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at the Foundry Restaurant located at the north end of World’s Fair Park in downtown Knoxville on Saturday January 23. The keynote address will be give by Reverend John Weaver. His topic will be – “Who Were the Rebels?”

Pastor John Weaver is a native of Georgia, and a graduate of Bob Jones University. He has been in Christian ministry for over 44 years and has helped plant several churches and Christian schools around the country. Pastor Weaver travels across America preaching and lecturing in churches, colleges and conferences. He has also authored three books: “The Christian and Civil Government,” The Sovereignty of God and Civil Government,” and “The Biblical Truth Concerning God’s Righteous Vengeance.” He has taught Southern history and American history in numerous conferences, youth camps and churches. Pastor Weaver served two terms as SCV Chaplain-in-Chief, and is a member of the Manse Jolly Camp #6, of Piedmont, SC. His message for the Lee-Jackson Supper, “Who Were the Rebels?” identifies the true rebels, and demonstrates from Northern sources that the North was indeed in rebellion to the Constitution and wanted to destroy the union of the States. The South still glories in the fact that she stood for principle, right, liberty, freedom and the Constitutional Republic as it was given to us by our founding fathers.
Camp 87 is pleased and honored to have Reverend Weaver as our featured speaker this year.

Each year we gather to honor the births of Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan Jackson who were born Jan. 19, 1807 and Jan. 21, 1824 respectively. In Tennessee, Lee’s birthday is an official State Day of Special Observance.

The Lee/Jackson dinner, as always, is open to and the public is welcomed.

”This is always a dignified, family friendly event with a dress code,” Jones said. Men are encouraged to wear jackets and ties. Business or period attire are also acceptable. The dinner will open with a brief drill and flag presentation ceremony by uniformed Confederate re-enactors.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for a social hour. The buffet-style dinner is at 7 p.m. Cost is $30 per adult, $15 per child 12 and under. Several door prizes will be awarded. Advance reservations with full payment are required, and must be received no later than January 21 as the Seating is limited.

Mail reservation requests with payments to Lee/Jackson Day Dinner, c/o SCV Camp 87, P.O. Box 943, Knoxville, Tenn. 37901. Make checks payable to Lee/Jackson Dinner.
For additional information, call Jones at 865-947-3394; John Hitt at 865-689-4592; Lynn Hammond at 865-687-5027; Arthur Harris at 865-742-8755 or John Ellis at 865-951-1606.

A Soldier’s Christmas Gift

By Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., A Freelance Writer, Author of book ‘When America Stood for God, Family and Country’ and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net

This is a True Christmas Story.

Christmas is a wonderful time to celebrate with family, friends and supper at Grandma's house. Grandpa will gather the children around the fire place and tell them the story of Jesus Christ who was born on Christmas Day while Grandma makes ginger bread cookies and Daddy brings the Christmas tree in the family room for decorating. Mamma as always will lead us in the singing of ‘Silent Night—Holy Night’ as the Star of Bethlehem is placed on top of the tree.
90 years ago….

during the year 1919, one year after the end of World War I, the people of Atlanta, Georgia were celebrating the Christmas Season. Many people attended Church or Synagogue and gave thanks to God for his many blessings. Folks, while shopping, were uplifted by sweet sounds of Christmas music played by the Salvation Army Band. There was a friendly and charitable atmosphere during this time of the year.

There were, however, some who were not as fortunate!

The aging veterans, in the Confederate Soldier’s Home, were proud men who had braved many a battle in the 1860s. One of these men was former Captain Thomas Yopp who saw such battles as that of Fredericksburg where a cannon shell burst knocked him unconscious.

The man who stayed with him until he recovered was his servant who had also joined the 14th Georgia Regiment, Company H. Bill Yopp was more then a servant; he and Thomas Yopp were friends who hunted and fished together.

Bill Yopp, a Black Confederate, was sympathetic to the men of Atlanta’s soldiers home who had been his compatriots in arms over fifty years earlier.

During the War Between the States, 1861-1865, Bill Yopp was nicknamed "Ten Cent Bill" because of the money he made shining shoes. He did this for the soldiers at a dime a shine and ended up with more money than most of his comrades. These men, also, cared for him when he was sick.

During the Christmas of 1919, Bill wanted to pay back the kindness that was shown to him. He caught a train from Atlanta to Macon, where he was offered help from the editor of a local newspaper [The Macon Telegraph]. He then caught a train to Savannah to raise Christmas money for the old veterans. Bill met many generous people on his trip.

Just weeks before the Christmas of 1919, he had raised the money and Georgia’s Governor Hugh Dorsey helped him distribute envelopes of three dollars to each veteran. That was a lot of money in those days.

The old Confederates were speechless. Tears were shed because of Bill Yopp's good heart and kind deed. Many of these men had little or nothing. Bill was invited to come into the home's Chapel and say a few words.

Bill Yopp was later presented a medal of appreciation for his support of the old soldiers and also voted in as a resident of the Confederate Soldier's Home.

Bill died on June 3, 1936, the 128th birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He was buried at Marietta, Georgia’s Confederate Cemetery with his compatriots.

The Confederate Soldier’s Home was located at 401 Confederate Ave., in Atlanta, Georgia.

Christmas is about love, forgiveness, old friends, family and the Child who became a savior.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

The source of information for this story came from the book, entitled: Bill Yopp "Ten Cent Bill" Narrative of a Slave! This book was written in 1969 by Charles W. Hampton.

Confederate Flag in danger

Discuss the endangerment that is being shown on the Confederate flag and Confederate heritage today.
by Levi S.
Nolan Chart LLC
READ IT HERE

Why I Fly The Confederate Flag

By John P. Mann IV
Harrisonburg Daily News Record
READ IT HERE

"Pray, Excuse Me"

President Jefferson Davis, Died 6 December 1889.

“The lamp of life waned low as the hour of midnight arrived; nor did it flicker into the brightness of consciousness at any time. Eagerly, yet tenderly, the watchers gazed at the face of the dying chieftain. His face, always calm and pale, gained additional pallor, and at a quarter to 1 o’clock of the morning of the 6th day of December death came to the venerable leader.

There was nothing remarkable about the death-bed scene. The departure of the spirit was gentle and utterly painless. There were no dry eyes in the little assembly about the bed, and every heart bled with the anguish which found vent in Mrs. Davis’s sobs and cries.”

The Times-Democrat gave the following account of the closing scene: At 12:45 o’clock this morning Hon. Jefferson Davis, ex-President of the Confederate States, passed away at the residence of Associate Justice Charles E. Fenner. Only once did he waver in his belief that his case showed no improvement, and that was at an early hour yesterday morning, when he playfully remarked to Mr. Payne: “I am afraid that I shall be compelled to agree with the doctors for once, and admit that I am a little better.” At 7 o’clock Mrs. Davis administered some medicine, but the ex-President declined to receive the whole dose. She urged upon his the necessity of taking the remainder, but putting it aside, with the gentlest of gestures whispered,

“Pray, excuse me.” These were his last words.”


The Daily States said in its editorial:

“Throughout all the South there are lamentations and tears; in every country on the globe where there are lovers of liberty there is mourning; wherever there are men who admire heroic patriotism, dauntless resolution, fortitude, or intellectual power and supremacy, there is sincere sorrowing. The beloved of our land, the unfaltering upholder of constitutional liberty…is no more…” “Jefferson Davis is dead; but the principles for which he struggled, for the vindication of which he devoted his life, for which he suffered defeat, and unto which he clung unto death, still live. The fanatical howlings of the abolitionists, the tumult and thunders of civil war, the fierce mouthings of the organizers of reconstruction, and reconstruction itself, that black and foul disgrace of humanity, are all departed, sunk into silence like a tavern brawl, but the constitutional principles upon which the Confederacy was founded and for which Jefferson Davis spoke and struggled, for which he gave life and fortune, still survive in all their living power; and when they shall have been, if ever, really destroyed, this Republic will be transformed into one of the most oppressive and offensive oligarchies that has ever arisen amongst the civilized nations of the earth.”

The Times-Democrat of the 10th had this editorial:

“If there was ever the shadow of doubt in the minds of the people of the United States of the hold of Jefferson Davis upon the hearts of the Southern people that doubt has been removed. From city and country, from every nook and hamlet, have come expressions of profoundest sorrow over his death; of grief at the passing away of the great Confederate chieftain. They turned to him as the Mussulman to his Mecca---the shrine at which all true Southern-born should worship. There has never been any division of sentiment as to the greatness of Jefferson Davis. He has always been the hero of his people---their best beloved. From the day that Lee laid down his arms at Appomattox to the hour of Jefferson Davis’s death the Southern people look upon the ex-President of the Confederacy as the embodiment of all that was grand and glorious in the Lost Cause. Standing alone as a citizen without the power to exercise his citizenship, the last surviving victim of sectional hate and malevolence, he was an exile while on the soil of his native land and in the midst of his own people. Jefferson Davis will go to the grave bathed in a people’s tears.”

(The Memorial Volume of Jefferson Davis, J.W. Jones, 1889, pp.473-509)

Thanks to Bernhard Thuersam