Posted on 02/25/2005 9:25:57 AM PST by Nasty McPhilthy
Background
Maurice Bessinger, owner of the popular (and excellent!) chain of BBQ restaurants in the South Carolina midlands, once flew the largest American flag in the Columbia area. On Tuesday (August 22, 2000), however, he took it down and replaced it with the South Carolina state and Confederate Battle flags. The State newspaper and other local media, who all despise the Confederate flag, have been extremely critical, making this out to be a racist issue, with Maurice as the racist. They apparently didn't read Maurice's press release (see below) or ask Maurice why he did it. Actually, we are sure that they did, but Maurice's logical and Constitutionally based reasons do not go down well with our leftist media.
To make matters worse, the city of Lexington has jumped on the anti-Confederate flag bandwagon and has cited Bessinger for illegally flying the flag in violation of an obscure and, to the best of our knowledge, never enforced sign ordinance.
Maurice Bessinger's Press Release
Maurice Bessinger lowers the American flag and raises the South Carolina and Confederate flag at all his restaurant locations
Maurice Bessinger, who has for years publicly flown the largest American Flag of any businessman in Columbia, has lowered that flag and raised the South Carolina flag in its place. Bessinger said that now that the fight over lowering the Confederate flag from the State House dome is finished that legislators can finally focus on the real problems that the symbolism of flags create. Bessinger pointed out that the proper historic relationship between the states and the federal government in Washington, D.C., has been overlooked for decades and he says that flying the American flag above any state flag is a symbolic error. He is urging South Carolina legislators to open a debate over the proper relationship between the states and the federal government. He is also asking South Carolina legislators to remove the American flag from the State House dome and fly only the South Carolina flag. He hopes that his action will help get the debate started.
"It is especially important that the federal flag be removed from all state property, especially our schools," Bessinger said. "By flying the federal flag on school property we are sending the wrong message to our children. We are sending the message that the federal government is sovereign over the states while the exact opposite is true," he said.
His full statement is below:
Now that the Confederate flag has been taken down from the State House dome there should be some lessening of the heated rhetoric that surrounded its removal. Now we can move on to a genuine discussion of flag symbolism and meaning.
The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787 by Southerners; in particular James Madison of Virginia, (who is called the Father of the Constitution), and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. The Constitution is the product of the Southern mind and the work of Southern political leaders. It was Southerners who first presented to the world a written governmental guarantee of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press in the Constitution's Bill of Rights. That document, now over 210 years old, still embodies the hopes of all the world's subjugated people.
In the Constitution, the proper relationship between the several states and the United States government is clearly spelled out. The U.S. government is clearly a product of the states and the recipient of only a few powers that were delegated to it by the states. Those powers are detailed in that document and in the 9th and 10th Amendments in the Bill of Rights. However, since the end of the War for Southern Independence in 1865, the people who control the U. S. government have slowly, but insidiously, taken power from the states and vested it in a centralized federal government. The fact that this action is strictly forbidden by the Bill of Rights has made no difference to those who seek to centralize all political power under their control. They should reflect that South Carolina was an independent nation long before the federal government existed.
The United States flag is a symbol of the federal government and it has become the symbol of those who wish to continue to increase its centralized power. It should not fly over any state property at all. It should fly only over federal property. As long as it flies over any state property the wrong impression is given to the people and the incorrect conclusion is drawn; that is, that the federal government is sovereign over state governments. States are the sovereign power in the United States and the federal government is the child of the states, not their master. The insistence by our federal masters that all powers should be transferred to their hands has already lead us a long way down the road to tyranny, and this centralization of power continues, unabated, every day.
Since the South Carolina Legislature seems to have forgotten this simple principle of separation of sovereignty and shows its forgetfulness by allowing the federal flag to fly at the top of their flagpole, it is time for the people to remind them of the proper relationship between the states and the centralized federal government. I have taken this first step in an effort to remind them of not only the proper relationship of the states to the centralized federal government, but also of the history of the Constitution and the role it plays in human betterment and as a guarantee against a growing centralized tyranny.
You will note that on federal government property, such as military bases and even the post office, that there are no state flags flying. The federal government flies only its own flag on its own property. The state of South Carolina should follow suit and fly only its own state flag on its property. It is important for the people of South Carolina to know that the states are sovereign over the federal government. It is especially important that federal flags be removed from all schools in South Carolina. By flying the federal flag we are sending the wrong message to our students. Our young people should be correctly informed of the proper, constitutional, political relationship between the states and Washington and they should not be taught that the federal government is dominant to the state governments.
Our people should be able to tell at a glance whether a court is a state court or a federal court - they should be able to tell by the flag that flies on the pole outside the building. Our people should know if a park is a state part or a federal park - they should be able to tell at a glance at the flag on the pole outside the gate. This simple example should follow for all state and federal institutions.
I am lowering the federal flag on my properties in an effort to open this discussion. I would hope that members of the S.C. Legislature would open a dialogue among themselves that would lead to the proper understanding of the states as still sovereign over the federal government. I am sure that that a proper, reasonable and intelligent discussion will lead to the removal of the federal flag from all state property.
As I am lowering the federal flag on my properties and raising the state flag I'm also raising the Confederate flag as a companion flag, but in a subordinate position. The state flag is the flag that represents our highest sovereignty. The Confederate flag is to both remind people that Southerners wrote the Constitution and that Southerners continue to be its most loyal defenders, plus the Confederate flag is recognized as the universal symbol of resistance to centralized tyranny.
I call on the South Carolina Legislature to reassert the proper, historic relationship of state sovereignty and I suggest that their first step be the removal of the federal flag from the State House dome and from all state property. I call on the South Carolina Legislature to raise the flag of the sovereign state of South Carolina in every proper place.
If you've never eaten a "Big Joe", you don't know what you're missing!
A threat to secede over tariffs in the 1830s....Fort Sumter in 1861....and now this??? Is it something in the water in South Carolina?
Is it wrong to believe that the Power should reside in the states?
Well, whatever is in their water, they oughta bottle and sell it.
We could use some more backbone among the citizenry in this Republic.
Maurice is absolutely right.
The individual states "Secretaries of State" were not established to issue driver and vehicle licenses. But with many years the malignant federalism, we now suffer from the illusion/scam that they were......
I believe it was on a 60 Minutes segment that it was revealed that the company that makes The Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia is owned by African-Americans.
The guy has a good point. I like it.
He'd probably get his point across with less hostility aimed at him without the Confederate Flag. But, I suspect without the statement of the Confederate Flag his state flag statement might be ignorred by most.
South Carolina must have good water. Sounds a bit like Texas water.
No, but South Carolina has had a tendency to go a bit too far on that point historically. Remember, it was a Southron, Andrew Jackson, who when faced with South Carolina's first secession threat said he would send in troops to prevent that, and also said, "Our Federal Union: It must, and SHALL be preserved!" Just don't let the mistakes of the past be made again is what I'm saying.
He made a great sauce. I miss it.
Back in 1984 I got my Handle (smug) from one of the waitress' from his West Columbia restaurant.
great food.
Maurice and Dixie BTTT
Remember, it was a Southron, Andrew Jackson, who when faced with South Carolina's first secession threat said he would send in troops to prevent that"
If the people of South Carolina wanted to secede, did the feds have a right to stop them?
Yes. We live in a union, not a confederation. Under a confederation, a state could withdraw if it's in that state's best interests to do so, and the federal government is subordinated domestically to the states. In a union, the states surrender secession rights, the federal government has more domestic power (more oversight of interstate commerce, sole power to mint money, powers to build roads across state borders), but the states retain internal sovereignty (Nebraska can have the death penalty, Iowa can reject it, as an example). Jackson understood that a state cannot just leave a union.....that would threaten the integrity of the whole country, and indeed, could be seen as treasonous (placing political loyalty to an entity other than the nation as primary being one definition of treason) in some contexts. Bluntly, if Jackson had been forced to use troops in the 1830s, we might have had cooler heads prevail in the 1860s.
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