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The left-wing editors at Commercial Appeal seem to think that digging up Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife, banishing his monument to an old cemetery, and renaming the parks is a "compromise" worth seeking. And anyone that opposes the "compromise" is "saber-rattling", a deliberate military metaphor, meaning they are still fighting the Civil War. The fact is, the initiative for provoking this outrage goes to the politicians (especially Walter Bailey) that proposed this politically-correct rewriting of history to begin with. "To the victor go the spoils", the saying goes-- and I'm not just talking about the Yankees winning the war-- this is much more of a racial issue. The now-majority black leadership of Memphis wants to cleanse the history of Memphis to the point of rewriting it through the renaming of historic parks, and through the demeaning of one of the greatest Generals of the Civil War (or perhaps THE greatest according to Robert E. Lee) Nathan Bedford Forrest.

In a related development:

July 23, 2005
International Sons of Confederate Veterans
Columbia, Tennessee

PRESS RELEASE

SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS

TO FUND MEMPHIS PARKS LITIGATION

The Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, at their annual convention held at the Sheraton Music City Hotel, by unanimous resolution of nearly 1000 delegates, have approved an emergency donation of $10,000 to be used to combat efforts to rename the Confederate parks in Memphis, Tennessee, and to assist the Nathan Bedford Forrest Camp #215 of Memphis in defense of the Confederate parks.

The $10,000 represents the first installment of cash from the national organization to the Forrest Camp, is unfettered, and will be used for any and all defense purposes including litigation. Commander-in-Chief Denne Sweeney of Dallas, Texas, stated “this outrageous affront to our Southern heritage will be met with every financial and legal means available to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The park renamings and monument removals are tantamount to an ethnic cleansing.”

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a 35,000 member national organization headquartered in Columbia, Tennessee, and is dedicated to accurate history and the protection of the good name of the Confederate soldier. Great Southern historical figures such as Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis are sacred to not only our membership but to millions of Americans who will object on a large scale should any further attempt be made by the Memphis City Council to revise history and vilify Confederate leaders.

Anyone desiring information concerning this press release should contact Brag Bowling at 804.389.3620.

Brag Bowling
National Press Officer
Sons of Confederate Veterans

Hey, great idea. Also, let's disinter Thomas Jefferson and throw the slaveowning bastard's bones into a landfill. While we're at it, let's exhume the body of Charles Lindbergh and expunge his memory from our national consciousness.. sure, he was an aviation pioneer and an American hero, but he was rabidly isolationist and had sympathies for the Third Reich. Also, let's urinate all over the grave of Martin Luther King, Jr., and remove his moniker from every street which bears his name, because he was an adulterer and had links to the Communists. Because, after all, everybody knows that perfection is the only relevant standard, and to be imperfect is to be loathsome.

...the demeaning of one of the greatest Generals of the Civil War (or perhaps THE greatest according to Robert E. Lee) Nathan Bedford Forrest.

He was an effective general, for sure, but "great" implies more than good, and Forrest was a ruthless slave trader who executed surrendering negro Union soldiers at Fort Pillow. He was a very bad man -- not a "great" general at all, and no one should be surprised that the decendants of the people he treated so brutally should desire to remove any place of honor bestowed on him or his remains.

Moving the graves and statue to Elmwood Cemetery almost guarantees that they will be vandalized. Elmwood is in a very bad area of town, and these sleazy lawyers and politicians know damn well that there would be virtually no security to maintain the gravesites or the statue.

I think that the SCV should move the Forrest graves and statue to the Shiloh battlefield, and have a huge ceremony proclaiming the final surrender of Memphis to political correctness. The SCV can turn the tables on Memphis by letting the city wallow in it's own financial and spiritual bankruptcy.

Memphis is a town undergoing serious urban decay. The SCV can help accelerate the death of this sorry excuse for a city.

Let Memphis rot, and let Nathan Bedford Forrest reside on far more hallowed ground.