Posted on 03/24/2003 10:35:02 AM PST by jgrubbs
Letter to the Editor: Southern heritage suffered from neglect
Carolina Morning News
Jennifer Moore's recent article about Confederate flag protests at two Beaufort County high schools is humiliating.
The story is humiliating because we, their parents and grandparents, are not doing the protesting. It is we, their elders, who have allowed others to chip away at our Southern culture and heritage for over 20 years. It is we, the older generations, that have allowed the memory of our ancestors to be tarnished. It is we who have permitted the erosion of our freedoms.
Freedom is an intangible word that has many definitions. In the 1860s many of our ancestors believed they were fighting for their homes, some even believed they were defending their freedom.
Today, much of our military is taking part in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Meanwhile, here at home some of us are being deprived of our freedoms.
Freedom to wear clothing that displays Confederate battle flags is really just one of many issues. In one state, Missouri, the governor will not allow the battle flag to be flown over a Confederate veterans' cemetery.
During the past year one community was building a monument that would consist of bricks with the names of local veterans that fought in America's wars from the Revolution to the present, but no brick was to be allowed if the soldier happened to be a Confederate.
In other communities, efforts to remove monuments dedicated to Confederate soldiers have been and are being made. An example is found in nearby Walterboro, where at least one of my great-grandparents took part in the dedication of the Confederate monument in 1911.
Anything to do with the Confederacy is not all that hate groups are attacking. A school that was named after the father of our country had its name changed because he had been a white Southerner and therefore a white supremacist.
Unfortunately, many do not consider those that vilify our Southern culture as members of hate groups; however, those of us who attempt to defend our culture and heritage are labeled racists and bigots.
We have regressed back to the 1870s and Reconstruction.
Reconstruction was a period of occupation of the South by Federal troops. It was an era in which the rights of white Southerners, scalawags excluded, were trampled upon.
Reconstruction generated more hate than any other period in our nation's history. Yet, here in Beaufort County, some people want to add salt to the wounds and have a national Reconstruction monument created here.
Jennifer Moore closed her article by quoting John Williams, (no relation) the Beaufort County School District's director of communications, who stated, " ...what are we talking about here in Beaufort County, South Carolina? Something that happened 150 years ago."
We are not talking about something that took place 150 years ago. We are talking about having pride in our past. Not just what took place 150 years ago but 200 years ago, 300 years ago and even 400 years ago.
We want to be able to pass our rich heritage on to future generations. We want them to be able to have a heritage.
In closing, it was a white Southern slaveowner, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote our nation's greatest document, the Declaration of Independence. What next, erase that document from our nation's history?
Reinventing history seems to be the proper thing to do these days. Give us our pride back. Give us our freedom to express ourselves without being labeled.
Robert Williams
Beaufort
If you weren't born into it and raised around it, you'll never know. All we're asking is that those of you who weren't born into it not try to deny it to us.
It has nothing to do with slavery, but the gallantry with which our ancestors fought to defend their homes (which were occupied, looted, and burned by an invading army). The gritty, hardscrabble way which they rebuilt their devastated homes and lives with no help from and often tremendous barriers placed by the Federal government. The sacrifice of an entire generation of young men like the First Tennessee Infantry which marched off to Virginia in 1861 with 1250 officers and men, added another 2000 men during the course of the four year war, and mustered out on April 26, 1865 in North Carolina a total of sixty-five men to return to their homes.
Additionally, you'll find that those of us who wave the St. Andrew's Cross are also often at the front of groups waving the Stars & Stripes, leading the charge in defending our Constitution, our country, and our troops.
Of course, judging from the reflexive anti-South screeds you spew forth on threads regarding the War Of Northern Agression, the fact that you don't care comes as no surprise.
I was born into it, I was raised around it, and I do know.
That's why I ask the question.
Beverly Hillbillies, anyone?
"We have regressed back to the 1870s and Reconstruction."
I agree. However, instead of just disenfranchising Southern voters, all United States citizens are having their votes nullified by the illegals coming from the Mexican border. Many in the United States are determined to allow them free rein into our country...
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