Our Flag

By Bud Cranford
HawgRyder@windstream.net

Once again, a despicable crime has been committed by a troubled young man who appears to have a reverence to some symbols of the Confederate States of America; notably the flag known as the Confederate Battle Flag.

Space does not permit me to print an informative and educational article concerning the symbols of the Confederacy, but I would be surprised if Dylann Roof could recognize any of the other Confederate symbols, including the three National Confederate Flags.

For decades the flag I refer to as the Battle Flag has been degraded and vilified.  It is usually mentioned in the media as representing hate and racism, though, in fairness to the media this is often prefaced by the statement “Thought by some to be . . “

When the media brands something as representing racism and hatred, is it any wonder that a violent, angry young man would venerate this symbol?  The news media has constantly told him that this is what this flag means, so he chooses a symbol that he feels represents his beliefs.

I know literally, thousands of Georgians who do indeed venerate this flag, but not a single one of them has ever thought it was a good idea to open fire in a predominantly Black church killing as many as possible.  I’m referring, of course to the many Sons of Confederate Veterans I know personally, who honor their Confederate ancestors and are proud of their determination to separate from a Country they considered to be becoming tyrannical.  To the best of my knowledge no SCV member has ever committed such a heinous act, but a troubled youth who has been misled by what he has read, brings upon us more vitriol and hatred for our cause.  With all the sensationalism assigned to this flag, is it any wonder Dylann Foot chose a symbol the media had told him stood for what he mistakenly believed?

I lay the blame for his act upon the individual who committed the act and the media sources who stoked his anger by creating a mistaken belief that this flag represents Racism.   Without all its negative publicity this flag would once again be quietly honored by The SCV and not be hijacked by racists and bigots.

Updated flag defense essay I wrote years ago to incorporate tragedy in Charleston

For the average non-Southerner the continued affection residents of Dixie display toward the controversial Battle Flag can be baffling. If African-Americans are so incensed by the banner, why not just fold it up and put it away? Greta Van Susteren of Fox News called for just that and defined the issue a “no-brainer”. Why indeed? The war has been over for 143 years. Certain unsavory groups of a racist stripe seem unduly attached to the symbol as well. No one in the print or electronic media seems willing to come forward and offer a counterpoint. Is there another point of view after all?

Newspapers however, have developed the habit of concluding all flag related stories the same way. The throwaway line for the other point of view is usually something like “flag defenders say the banner stands for heritage”. But what does that mean? If such an understanding can be developed is it still not overshadowed by prevailing negative opinions? Can a symbol so emotionally charged ever be mutually understood?

Therein lies the problem. The very same symbol means completely different things to different people. Perhaps the best place to start is there. Many hate groups have gravitated toward the historical flag. But it is also true these very same groups also use other symbols that are loved and cherished by millions of people. The pinnacle of the Ku Klux Klan was in the 1920s. They boasted over a million members with national leadership in Ohio and Illinois. Yet the most careful photographic scrutiny of the era will fail to reveal a single Confederate flag. One will however find the American flag and the Christian cross in profusion. These symbols are mainstays even today for hate groups. The difference is that patriotic Americans and Christians already have a context for these symbols. The icons cannot be co-opted because they already mean something else. This is also precisely why Southerners continue to love the Battle flag in the face of so much bad publicity. The flag already has meaning and context.

In fact, what the shamrock is to the Irish or the Star of David is to Jews, the Battle Flag is to most Southerners. There is enough historical baggage to encumber any of these symbols, but there is more to admire. The Confederate flag embodies religion, ethnic heritage, early-American revolutionary ideology and ultimately familial sacrifice on the battlefield. The circumstances that gave it birth are the touchstone of the regions identity, no different than the potato famine for the Irish or the holocaust for the Jew. To examine the flag, in historical and ethnic context should permit all but the most rabid flag-haters an opportunity to understand what is behind the vague explanation of “heritage”.

While the Battle flag did not make its appearance in its recognizable form until 1862, some of the design elements date to antiquity. The “X” is the cross of St. Andrew. It was the fisherman Andrew who introduced his brother Simon Peter to Jesus in Galilee 2000 years ago. When the disciple Andrew was himself martyred years later he asked not to be crucified on the same type of cross Christ died upon. His last request was honored and he was put to death on a cross on the shape of the “X”. Andrew later became the patron saint of Scotland and the Scottish flag today is the white St. Andrews cross on a blue field. When Scottish immigrants settled in Northern Ireland in the 1600s the cross was retained on their new flag, albeit a red St. Andrews cross on a white field. When the New World opened up landless Scots and Ulster-Scots lefts their homes and most of them settled in the South, preserving their old culture in the isolated rural and frontier environment.

Grady McWhiney explains in his book Cracker Culture, that fully 75% of the early South was populated by these Celts. Most sold themselves into indentured servitude (the earliest form of American slavery) because they could not afford the cost of passage. This explains why only 6% of the African slaves brought to the New World ended up in the American colonies. The lowland English of Saxon descent by contrast settled the Northeastern colonies. This imbued those colonies with such an English character they are still known as New England. Urban, commercial and materialistic by nature these Yankee descendants could not have been more different than their Southern countrymen. Many historians believe the longstanding historical animosities between Saxon and Celt did not bode well for the new country. With this historical perspective the St. Andrews cross seems almost destined to be raised again as ancient rivals clashed on new battlefields.

From this Celtic stock, the ingredients that made the unique Southern stew were gradually introduced. The American Revolution unleashed Celtic hatred of the redcoat. Southerners penned the Declaration of Independence, chased the British through the Carolina’s and defeated them at Yorktown. But they were dismayed when New England immediately sought renewed trade with England and failed to support the French in their own revolution. Another Virginian later crafted the Constitution, a document as sacred to Southerners as their Bibles. Tyranny, they believed, had finally been checkmated by law. The red, white and blue 13-starred banner was their new cherished flag. These same features would later become a permanent part of the Battle flag.

But all was not well with the new republic. Mistrust between the regions manifested even before the revolution was over. The unwieldy Articles of Confederation preceded the constitution. Two of the former colonies (N.C and R.I.) had to be coerced into approving the latter document after wrangling that included northern insistence they be allowed to continue the slave trade another 20 years. Virginia and Kentucky passed resolutions in 1796 asserting their belief that political divorce was an explicit right. Massachusetts threatened on three separate occasions to secede, a right affirmed by all the New England states at the Hartford convention. The abolitionists were champions of secession and would burn copies of the constitution at their rallies. Their vicious attacks upon all things Southern occurring as it did in the midst of Northern political and economic ascendancy animated Southern secessionists years before the average Southerner could consider such a possibility.

Meanwhile Low Church Protestantism had taken root in the South in the early 1800’s and like kudzu has flourished until the present day. Sociological studies conducted by John Shelton Reed of the University of North Carolina scientifically prove that the South is still the nations most religious region. Southerners are more likely to belong, attend and contribute to their churches than Americans from any other section. Calvinism is the main strain of religious thought and this connection to Scotland and the St. Andrews cross is no coincidence. The religious revivals that swept the Confederate armies during the war further ingrained faith as a fixture of Southern character. During the same era north of the Mason-Dixon transcendentalism, as expounded by Thoreau and Emerson, the taproot of modern secular humanism, was displacing puritanical religion as the dominant philosophical belief. The nation was also fracturing along spiritual lines.

By 1860 the United States was in reality two countries living miserably under one flag. When war broke out, Dixie's' original banner so resembled the old American forebear that a new flag was needed to prevent confusion on the field of battle. William Porcher Miles, an aide to General Beauregaurd took a blue St. Andrews cross, trimmed in white and placed it on a red field above the defending Confederate army. Thirteen stars appeared on those bars representing the eleven seceding states and revolutionary precedent. These fighting units were all recruited from the same communities, with lifelong friends and close relatives among the casualties of every battle. As they buried their dead friends and relatives the names of those battles were painted or stitched on their flags. At Appomattox a Union observer wrote, they were stoic as they stacked their arms but wept bitterly when they had to furl their flags.

Then, as now the flag symbolizes for Southerners not hate but love, love of heritage, love of faith, love of constitutional protections, love of family and community. If the 1860 census is to be believed 95% of the slaves were owned by just 5% of the population. The modern insistence that the conflict was to resolve the issue of slavery is at best overstated and at worst revisionist. But the current argument does deserve one more look.

The vitriolic, almost irrational antipathy toward the flag is a recent phenomenon. Credible research reveals its origins to be in the 1980's revived by a financially strained and scandal plagued NAACP. Past President, Kwaise Mfume turned the issue into a fundraising juggernaut. Egged on by a liberal media irritated at the lingering conservatism in the South, the flag fight has generated much heat but little light. South Carolina relocated the flag from its capital dome to a place of historical significance after they decided it flew in a position of false sovereignty. Former Governor Barnes of Georgia finessed a backroom flag deal that changed the flag but derailed his own reelection bid. Sonny Perdue became the first Republican since Reconstruction elected to the governor’s mansion by voter outrage over the flag change and the promise of a referendum, a promise that turned out to be a lie. But in Mississippi the thing was put to an old fashioned democratic vote. By a 2 to 1 margin and outspent 10 to 1 they voted to keep the state flag, which features the Battle flag. In fact, three times more African-Americans voted to keep the flag than voted for President Bush. Mississippians speak for all Southerners when they say "It's our symbol, its our heritage and therefore our choice".

Recent events in Charleston SC have resurrected the argument yet again not coincidentally in an early presidential cycle. A drug-addled ninth grade dropout from a broken home with a with no promise and no hope senselessly slaughters nine in a church during a Bible study. Before the bodies are even cold the spin machine comes  out blaming Fox, Drudge, guns and the battle flag. We seem paralyzed in disbelief and impotence so we understandably want to do something, anything. While an easy target this flag is not responsible and its removal will accomplish nothing but the further alienation of those who cherish both their fellow Christians, their heritage and are as horrified and sickened by eveyone else.

In the end what people choose to believe about the flag is just that, a choice. One can accept the interpretation of entire states, Southern rock and country bands, NASCAR fans, Kappa Alpha fraternities, thousands of reenactors and a century of thoughtful historians. People can also embrace the interpretation of a few pathetic racists, an insane mass murderer, or an opportunistic civil rights lobby, well amplified by a sympathetic media. Like all choices its says less about the object than it does about the person Perhaps only the Irishman can define the shamrock, or a Jew explain the Star of David. Are not Southerners entitled to the same latitude?

Steve Quick
Land of Lincoln
rebsailor8@sbcglobal.net

Understanding the Real Reason for America's 'Civil War'

In the aftermath of Lincoln’s concocted Civil War, the Original Federal Republic created by our Founding Fathers ceased to exist.

Designed and Intended to be Limited & Subservient to the Sovereign States of the Republic, it was Transformed into the Central-National government & behemoth it has become through various Acts of Legislation that supported its new & nefarious basis.

This was that War’s Real Purpose- ALTERATION of the Original Republic in order for the Dis-Placement of our former Sovereign States, that protected and served the General Welfare of their Independent Peoples, allowing for the eventual Extortion of our Money to be realized from which the Disciples of Power & Greed would benefit.

Over the next 150 years, these various Legislative Acts, supported by those ‘Amendments’ that were added to the Constitution AFTER Lincoln’s War concluded, served as the bridgework for the Alteration of America.

The very FIRST of these Amendments, which did NOT by the way have the approval of the required 2/3 of the States for ratification, was ‘Those Peoples’ 14th Amendment.

The 14th was the ‘Foundational Marquee’ for ALL things moving forward as it was the ‘Initial Building Block’ that allowed for the Political RECONSTRUCTION of the Republic through their Acts of RECONSTRUCTION contained within it.

Mr. Mike Scruggs’ 4-part series speaks to this in detail and can be viewed on The Confederate Society’s website (to be posted shortly) at www.deovindice.org

In the years and decades following, and as a result of the continued and ever advancing/evolving RECONSTRUCTION, America was transformed into the Socialist country it has indeed become.

Each ensuing Generation became further removed from their Origin thanks to the RECONSTRUCTIVE HISTORY being spewed by the Marxist Professors who have steadily advanced their position through a controlled National Education Department.

As a result, Most Americans do NOT even understand the basic difference between a Republic and a Democracy.

Most, thanks to the proliferation of the Political Hegemony of those in charge of US today, would believe they are one of the same.

Nothing could be any further from the TRUTH.

To further underscore this TRUTH, MOST Americans are NOT remotely aware that the word DEMOCRACY does NOT appear a SINGLE TIME in either the Declaration of Independence nor the U.S. Constitution.

Omission of ‘Error’ by the Founding Fathers?

NO- Omission by Intention!

Thus the Political RECONSTRUCTION of America became the FIRST LEG OF RECONSTRUCTION.

What was to follow was its TWO Supportive Legs necessary to fulfill the Vision of Lincoln’s Marxist’s:

Ø  The Economic Leg (1913 & the Federal Reserve ‘System’),  followed by the Cultural Leg- the 1960’s in which the Civil Rights Movement was used to cloak & advance the ENTITLEMENT STATE under the guise of Humanitarianism that served LBJ’s ‘Great American Society (Socialist) Agenda that was further supported by Those Peoples’  REVISED IMMIGRATION ACT of 1965 that UNLEASHED IT ALL!

Today, the Legitimate Black Leaders are finally coming to terms with what has been done to them as evidenced by the conditions that NOW EXIST, as a result of what was done in the 60’s, within most inner-cities today.

The Politburo on the Potomac has played whites off against blacks with regularity and what is sad, is that Those People have been largely successful in their endeavors.

Most of today’s so-called Federal government Departments of Entitlement were ALL CREATED back in the 1960’s but the ‘Shiny Object in the room’ was once again blurred from being realized thanks again to another War that should have never been fought- VietNam.

And by the time that War ended in 1975, a tired American Electorate was in the full throes of what is now known as Political Correctness.

‘Connect the Dots’ folks and it ALL COMES TOGETHER!

What most cannot fathom nor accept is that this ALL was planned by the Beast of the 19th Century that has given birth to its many ‘Heirs’ hence in the ensuing decades as noted.

Ask yourself this:  Who stood to BENEFIT the most from that concocted War they still call ‘Civil’- the Sovereign States that wanted for NOTHING or…..the CENTRAL government that wanted EVERYTHING?

Y’all don’t need to be a rocket scientist or a phi beta kappa to figure that out.

All y’all ever needed was GOD’S Common Sense to understand that is has never been ‘Rain coming down from Those People on the Potomac but…..a Cascade of Urine whose stench can NO longer be ignored!’

Understand YOUR History and YOU will understand the LIES that have existed and been advanced that have allowed for the Usurpation of this Republic by a 2-Party Duopoly whose only intentions was to grow their Babylon on the Potomac bigger and larger at everyone’s expense…. using the same Divide & Conquer technique that has been used the world over for the last several thousand years.

Respectfully & Confederately,

Craig Maus, President, The Confederate Society of America

Deo Vindice!