Supporters of the Confederate Flag continue to approach Alabama Governor Robert Bentley to bring the flags back to the Confederate Memorial in Montgomery.
 
Bentley came to his home county in Wilsonville on Thursday for a park dedication where supporters of the Flag greeted him.
 
Jerry Hill of Wilsonville wants Bentley to know that Confederate Flag supporters haven't forget about the flag, its history and vows to never forget it.
 
In reply, "We need to honor the flag in the right way. I agree with that. I want us to continue to honor history. I believe in history. We need to learn from history and we need to honor the flag. But the flag will not be flying over the capitol as long as I'm governor." Bentley said.
 
While the governor continues to say no to the Flag supporters say they will continue to pressure Bentley and whoever runs for governor to bring it back to Montgomery.
 
 
JUDGE REVERSES ORDER PROTECTING MONUMENT
 
In a ruling from the bench, Jefferson Circuit Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman dissolved the order from three weeks ago that had blocked the city and a local university from taking down the monument.
 
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said he would begin work on removing the 70-foot-high monument as soon as his office receives the judge's written order, according to a statement from his office.
 
Three weeks ago we reported that local residents and the SCV sued to keep the monument at its location near the University of Louisville which was the reason for the original order to prevent the statue from being moved while that suit made its way through the courts. A lawyer for the monument's supporters, Thomas McAdam, did not respond to requests for comment on the judge's ruling.
 
Judge McDonald-Burkman, in lifting the order halting its removal, has essentially indicated how she intends to rule when hearing the case.
 
 
Danville group appeals their case
 
The Heritage Preservation Association has argued its appeal against the city of Danville in the Virginia Supreme Court, hoping to convince the court to agree to hear the case involving the Confederate flag.
 
The Danville Register & Bee reports HPA attorney Kevin Martingayle argued Tuesday that the latest version of a state statute protects the flag that flew at Danville's Sutherlin Mansion.
 
In August the Danville City Council approved an ordinance that allows only certain flags to be flown on city-owned property, excluding the Confederate flag. The HPA filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract in Danville Circuit Court.
 
In October a judge ruled in the city's favor and dismissed the case. Martingayle filed the appeal in December.
If the court decides to hear the appeal, both sides will have 15 minutes to argue their cases.
 
 
R. E. LEE ELEMENTARY WILL NOT BE RENAMED FOR ADOLF HITLER
 
In April, we reported on the list of proposed names for the renaming of Robert E. Lee Elementary in Austin, Texas. The name that topped the list was Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, real estate mogul and reality-TV star. Another proposed name topping the list was Adolf Hitler Elementary.
 
The Campus Advisory Council (CAC) would not even consider Trump as a viable option, Austin's KXAN (NBC) reported. They were even less thrilled with the prospect of naming the school after the late German Fuhrer.
 
On Monday, the Austin Independent School District board of trustees voted 8-0, with one abstention, to rename the school Russell Lee Elementary. A change that will not require nearly as much new signage.
 
This "Lee" is the acclaimed Depression Era social-documentarian who founded the UT-Austin photography program. He is best known for his U.S. Farm Security Administration images captured between 1936 and 1943. The university's Briscoe Center for American History houses his extensive photographic catalog.
 
Russell Lee's name actually came in third on that list, behind those in favor of keeping the school named after Robert E. Lee. The advisory council is made up of teachers, staff, parents and other members of the school community.
 
The photographer was not trustees' first choice, either. Bettie Mann, the school's first black teacher, was the sentimental favorite. Mann, 85, taught at the elementary school for 37 years. The Austin American-Statesman reported a community effort arose to rename the campus for the beloved educator.
 
Mann was present at Monday night's board meeting. She told KXAN before the meeting she did not want to see the name Robert E. Lee change. The school's kindergarten wing will be named for her.
 
Trustee Ted Gordon shared that the "problem for me" with rebranding to Russell Lee was the name was chosen to retain the "Lee" name. He said, "It seems to me that the name Russell Lee was chosen precisely because it's reminiscent of the previous name."
 
Robert E. Lee Elementary opened in 1939. It was one of five Austin ISD schools with a Confederate connected name. 
 
 
Republican Governor Hates Robert E. Lee?
 
Arkansas' Republican Governor, Asa Hutchinson, has said he wants lawmakers next year to end Arkansas' practice of commemorating Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Legislation to remove Lee from the holiday failed repeatedly before a House panel last year.

The following appeared as a letter to the editor in a South Carolina newspaper:

Paul Ryan is rubbing it in against the South 
May 20, 2016
Southern Patriot 

House Speakers at both the state and federal level very rarely cast votes in their chambers. The fact that Paul Ryan deviated from that practice to vote against the Confederate flag meant that he was intentionally rubbing it in against the South.

Ryan should know that most Americans, according to polling data, know that the Confederate flag stands for Southern pride, not for any sort of racial thing. So, in major part, Ryan's vote was against Southern pride. But it is worse than that. This was about the display of the flag over war graves. This was about respect for our war dead. This was arrogant disrespect for our ancestors who gave their lives for southern independence or to defend their homes from yankee aggression. Paul Ryan has disrespected out ancestors.

The good thing is that Paul Ryan has a substantial challenger in his primary:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/07/ryan-challenger-paul-nehlen-he-has-betrayed-us-all/

We need to dump Ryan, just like Eric Cantor was dumped. In memory of my great grandfather who fought for southern independence in the War Between the States, I went to the website of Ryan's conservative challenger Paul Nehlen and sent him a contribution online.

If your ancestors have been dishonored by our House Speaker, I urge you to do likewise at: www.paulnehlen.com


  
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CONGRESS BANS CONFEDERATE FLAG
 
Congress voted yesterday to restrict the use of Confederate flags at national veterans cemeteries. There was a heated battle behind the scenes, but the proposal, an amendment to a spending bill for veterans and military construction projects, came with support from 84 Republicans and all but one Democrat.
 
"Over 150 years ago, slavery was abolished," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D) of California, who sponsored the amendment. "Why in the year 2016 are we still condoning displays of this hateful symbol on our sacred national cemeteries?"
 
Representative Huffman's amendment makes it illegal to drape or hoist the flag in national cemeteries, including at mass graves. Those who hope to mark an individual grave with the flag can do so with a small one, but only on Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day.
 
ALL Democrats voted for the action. 158 Republicans voted against the proposal. Some lobbied against it privately but publicly, no one spoke in opposition to the proposal on the House floor.
 
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R) of Georgia, for example, likened the effort to ban the flag to terrorists from the Islamic State destroying cultural landmarks in the Middle East. Later in the day a spokesman for Westmoreland sought to distance the Congressman from the comments.
 
Late Wednesday night, Democrats also attempted to force a procedural vote on a proposal to take down the Confederate flag at the Citadel. That effort ultimately failed, divided along party lines.
 
Huffman also proposed a similar amendment in Congress last year. It initially passed by a voice vote, but was then scuttled after opposition from some Republicans. "This time was different," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after the vote on Thursday.
 
 
OBAMA PETIONED TO DISHONOR CONFEDERATE VETERANS
 
Congress passed a law in 1958 giving Confederate veterans status under law as U.S. veterans. Through the years the Sons of Confederate Veterans has cited the 1958 law to make the case that all Americans should honor Confederate veterans. An undated official history of the Department of Veterans Affairs that covers the period up to 2006 cites the law to justify the VA purchasing headstones for Confederate soldier graves. The VFW Magazine has also referred to the 1958 when justifying their activities to honor Confederate veterans.
 
The law was proposed by Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana. Sen. Lyndon Johnson (D-Texas), the Senate's majority leader and presiding officer, said during floor debate over the measure, according to the Congressional Record, "The bill was unanimously reported by the Committee on Finance. There is much interest in it, and I hope the Senate will act on it unanimously."
 
Now a petition has been presented to the White House asking the Obama administration to take action to change the law.
 
The section of the law that the petitioners want Obama to strike is:
"(e) For the purpose of this section, and section 433, the term 'veteran' includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term 'active, military or naval service' includes active service in such forces."
 
The current opinion of the White House, which was also used in this week's House debate to remove the flag from cemeteries, is that the only thing accomplished by the 1958 legislation was to make Confederate veterans eligible for the same VA benefits as Union soldiers were. It did not make them U.S. veterans, make any other official change in their status, or extend any particular protections to their graves or to other monuments.
 
 
ANOTHER MONUMENT UNDERGOING RELENTLESS ATTACK
 
For more than a century, the soldier has stood before the Talbot County Maryland Courthouse, a half-furled Confederate flag draped over his left shoulder like a cape. The "Talbot Boys" monument, named for the 84 local Confederate veterans whose names are etched into its base, has weathered decades of debate.
 
The county branch of the NAACP asked the Talbot County Council last year to take the monument down. A group called "Save the Talbot Boys" formed and gathered more than 1,200 signatures for a petition supporting the memorial, and the County Council voted to leave it where it is.
 
It didn't end there. The NAACP and the ACLU have challenged the decision process, which included a closed-door administrative meeting, to the state Open Meetings Compliance Board. The board ruled this month that the meeting should have been open to the public and had violated state law. The council acknowledged the board's ruling last week. But council President Corey W. Pack, who is black, said, "We were not going to remove the Talbot Boys statue...We felt it would be disrespectful to the family members of those Confederate relatives still alive in Talbot County."
Its didn't end there either. Richard Potter, president of the county NAACP branch, said a memorial to Confederate veterans doesn't belong on the grounds of a public courthouse. Potter's ongoing legal actions have revived another once thought dead issue from a decade ago, when the county considered placing a statue of Frederick Douglass across the lawn from the Confederate statue. The abolitionist is Talbot County's most famous native son. But veterans groups petitioned to reserve the courthouse lawn for memorials to veterans. (It also holds a monument to Vietnam veterans. Supporters of the Douglass statue accused the Veterans of racism. The Veterans labeled the NAACP unpatriotic. The council has voted 3 to 2 to approve the statue believing it can offset the Talbot Boys memorial.
 
Philip C. Foster, who served on the County Council from 1998 to 2010, said the Talbot Boys memorial is an important commemoration of veterans, including Adm. Franklin Buchanan, the first superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. "The statue is not a statue to slavery," said Foster, an Easton attorney. "It's a recognition of the individuals that are on it."
 
But its still not over! Empowered by the approval of the Frederick Douglas statue, the NAACP has petitioned the county to replace the Talbot Boys statue with a "Civil War" monument that would recognize both Union and Confederate veterans.
 
The council won't budge on the Talbot Boys, Pack said. But he said members are open to suggestions for erecting a second monument to Union veterans. Council President Pack has stated that, "We agree that the Confederate statue alone does not accurately depict Talbot County's role in the Civil War....If the NAACP of Talbot County or any other group wants to file a petition for the erection of a Union statue we will be more than happy to look at that."
 
 
 
HAMPTON VIRGINIA RENAMING SCHOOLS?

The majority of people who addressed the school board on Wednesday night were against renaming two schools.
 
"We need to focus on the children's education, not changing the names of schools," said one.
"Education is about learning the history and teaching it, not eradicating it," said another.
 
The school board is considering renaming Jefferson Davis Middle School and the Campus at Lee, named after Robert E. Lee.
 
Andrew Shannon from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (a political machine that organizes political protests in black churches) proposed renaming the schools. "Students should not be required to attend schools named for those who fought to keep a race of people in bondage," he said.
 
Another man, who supports renaming, called Davis and Lee traitors.
 
Many others say they're worried about how much renaming would cost and contend there are bigger issues to focus on in the school division. "Members of the board, I charge you with this question," said a ninth grade student at Hampton High. "Would you rather focus on the children and their education or changing a school name due to the climate of our nation?"
 
The school board is scheduled to hold a similar hearing on June 1 and then to make a decision later in the month.
 
 
STUDENT EXPELLED FOR FLAG NOW ALLOWED TO GRADUATE
 
A Minnesota high school senior was suspended on Monday of this week because he displayed a Confederate flag in his car. Yesterday it was decided that he will be allowed to graduate with his class this evening.
 
Senior Cody Nelson, of the Crosby-Itornton High School, was suspended on Monday after he refused to take down the Confederate flag from his car window. Nelson's suspension notice was posted on his mother Doreen Nelson's Facebook page. "My son was kicked out of school for his flag and freedom of speech. He is a senior this year. Please show your support," Nelson wrote.
 
School principal Jim Christenson signed Nelson's suspension. He did not respond to an email request for comment.
 
After Tuesday's student rally in support for Cody Nelson several school officials sat down with the student and his mother to discuss the situation. It was decided that Nelson would be allowed to graduate with his class. As for his car, displaying the Confederate flag: "He volunteered to park his car across the street."
   
 
IRELAND ASKED TO BAN CONFEDERATE FLAG AT SPORTING EVENTS
 
It's feared that the Confederate Flag will appear in Semple Stadium for this Sunday's Munster SHC quarter-final clash.
 
Last summer, GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail called for supporters to be vigilant about the brandishing of the flag after it appeared at two Cork games in the space of six days. Sport Against Racism Ireland has recommended the GAA ban the flag from matches.
 
The Munster Council are hoping Sunday's game will attract a crowd of 25,000 to 30,000. They have not enacted the requested ban against the flag.

JEB Stuart Portrait Returns to Display in Patrick County Building
 
Shortly after Patrick County Judge Martin Clark committed the disgraceful  act of having a portrait of Patrick County native and Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart removed from the Patrick County Courthouse, and following a swift and very vocal outcry of disgust with Judge Clark's action by her citizens,  the Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted  to display the portrait on the "Wall of Honor" on the second floor of the Patrick Veterans Memorial Building. The portrait has been restored and encased in special glass, and a new bronze plaque has been installed.
 
Thursday, May 12th, the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust held an official and public unveiling of the portrait, on the anniversary of his death.  The ceremony included Patrick County and town of Stuart officials, Stuart family members, and JEB Stuart re-enactor Wayne Jones, who organized and led a rally to protest the removal on the Courthouse steps shortly after the portrait was removed.
 
Please take a moment to thank the members of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors for their efforts in having the portrait installed on the Wall of Honor, and their courage in going against the popular trend to dishonor our veterans.
 
Contact info here:  http://www.co.patrick.va.us/county-supervisors 
 


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This week I have had two encounters that have encouraged me. The first came when driving northbound on US HWY 441 in Ocala, Florida:

The second came when eating at a Cracker Barrel in Belleview, Florida:

Let me zoom in on the particular item that peaked my interest:

I wonder how many Yankees who stop at Cracker Barrel on their way to Disney have noticed this picture?

I know, Black Confederates are NOT supposed to exist. But Yankees be damned, there were tens of thousands of them. The picture above most likely having been taken years after the war at a Veterans reunion where the old veterans would don their grey kepis and shell jackets and pose for pictures. Would this veteran have believed the photograper had they told him that 100 years later his portrait would be hanging in a restaurant?

SPEAKING OF BLACK CONFEDERATES

Our friend, H.K. Edgarton, former NAACP president and proud descendant of black Confederate Veterans, has been busy this week traveling throughout Florida. He sends the following report of his activities on behalf of our heritage:

On Monday May 9, 2016, Ms. Jenna and I would make our way into downtown Jacksonville, Florida, where we would be greeted by the Honorable James Shillinglaw when another gentleman who walked up beside James, and unfurled a Confederate Naval Jack.
 
I would greet them both with open arms; thinking of course that the other gentleman was part of the contingent of Jim's who would host our visit in Jacksonville.
 
We would walk around to the Confederate soldiers monument that was in the central part of a square filled with people of whom were mostly Black folks eating, playing chess, or checkers, holding conversations, or just plain walking back and forth. It was our plan to just pose for a photo or two at the monument.
 
However, with the Southern Crosss in hand, and don in a Dixie OutFitters shirt with the Honorable General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his Black Confederate soldiers with the caption that read..." "these men stayed with me to the end, and no better Confederates ever lived"; would spark a heated debate between myself and many of them, of whom one, "Rock" would be the most adamant to speak against the nerve of me showing up with the Southern Cross. He would ask of me several questions, never allowing me to answer one.
 
Suddenly several other white men would walk up and stand next to me, and getting very cozy with them was the young man I had previously hugged.  One had on a shirt that read:  "Life member of the Ku Klux Klan". I would ask of them pointing at the shirt; "whats up with that?" I would be told that the Klan had come to protest my presence with the Southern Cross.

Before I could retort , Rock (my now Black friend) would say to them: "y'all got a lot of nerve to come here to protest HK carrying the Confederate Battle Flag. He has every right to carry it, just like all the other Black Confederate soldiers did."

All of a sudden the Klan found themselves having to deal with a lot of Black and White folks supporting Rock's statement. For me the worm had turned.  "Why do you  hate us another Black man would ask the Klan?"  The response from the Klan would be; " we don't hate you or anybody".
 
For the first time in my memory, to their credit the Klan was holding a dialogue with a group of Black folks without using a lot of explicitaves.
 
I want to make it clear to all the drama writers that not just because the mighty honorable Jacksonville Sheriff's office had a contingent present, but to be clear I at no time felt threatened by anyone.  After a time I would say goodby to all, thanked them profusely for allowing all to engage in a peaceful and fiery dialogue, and make my way to the Honorable House of Represenative Member, Lake.
 
Later in the evening I would speak to a packed house at the Museum of Southern History and accept a Medal of High Honor. 

FROM ONE OF OUR READERS

• Peter is an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland

America's economy is a mess, and its social fabric is fraying.

Powerful computers, handheld devices, robots, and artificial intelligence make our lives easier and workers more productive but destroy jobs at an alarming pace. The new opportunities created require a better education than most Americans receive.

These pressures are exacerbated by competition from Germany and other northern European countries where job training is better and Asia where labor is much cheaper. This is multiplied yet again by Washington's failure to negotiate good international trade agreements and adequately defend Americans from foreign cheating on those agreements.

Politicians at all levels-obsessed with political correctness, victimhood, and identity politics-have dumped billions into failing public schools and universities, financed an increasing array of entitlements instead of adequate public investments in R&D and the infrastructure needed to support a technology-based economy, and sowed divisions and suspicion among ethnic groups, between men and women, and the successful and those deserving a genuine hand up.

No surprise, high schools churn out students unprepared for college or vocational programs, and many university graduates lack the critical thinking and technical skills needed to prosper in a technology-intensive workplace. Businesses constantly complain about the shortage of adequately skilled job applicants.  

Since 2000, annual GDP growth has slowed to 1.7 percent, new business startups and the percentage of adults working are down, and average annual family incomes have slipped $4000. During the Reagan-Clinton years, the economy grew at twice the rate and otherwise performed much better.

The middle class is shrinking, suicides and drug abuse are up, fertility has dropped precipitously, millions of college graduates are stuck at places like Starbucks, and home ownership is at a 48 year low.

The Obama Administration has doubled down on the policies that manufactured these conditions. It intensified pressures on businesses and universities on racial and gender quotas, and imposed political indoctrination of employees and students through mandatory diversity and sexual harassment training and the like.

It has expanded Medicaid, food stamps, the earned income tax credit and other income support programs, and increased loans and grants to students ill-prepared to acquire much of anything at college except burdensome debt and an impulse to vote for more government handouts.
 
Now, Hillary Clinton wants to further expand these initiatives, for example, by generalizing to the national level the California Fair Pay Act, which would require businesses of all sizes to justify virtually every hiring and salary decision to the Labor Department, jacking up the minimum wage to unstainable levels, extending Medicare to Americans over 50, establishing broad federal funding for child care, and making tuition, room and board virtually free to students at state universities. All this funded by further raising what are among the highest taxes on business in the industrialized world.
 
Donald Trump indicts the tyranny and destructive consequences of political correctness and identity politics, but no politician can run and win the presidency by promising to cut social programs. He does promise to do something about bad trade agreements and high taxes smothering new business startups and investment.
 
Trump's language may be crude, but after 40 plus years in the trenches of academia, managing bureaucrats and in policy battles of Washington and advising corporate leaders, I can attest he is absolutely right.
 
The big problem he or any Republican faces running for president is that too many poorly-educated Americans, minorities, and women have become dependent on government largess and preferences for employment opportunities, and none can speak honestly without being branded a racist, sexist, homophobe, and otherwise ridiculed to their demise in the New York Times, Washington Post, and major network newscasts.
 
Simply, there are more Americans on the dole and in government mandated sinecures than engaged in productive activities.
 
The takers can outvote the makers to block any effort to end the madness.
 
This is the kind of dysfunction that brought down Rome.
 

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The Confederate Flag no longer flies on South Carolina's Statehouse grounds, but that didn't dampen the spirits of those gathered Tuesday to commemorate the state's first Confederate Memorial Day since its removal.
 
Clad in the gray wool uniform of the Confederacy, with a black ribbon on his chest, Rusty Rentz of the Sons of Confederate Veterans stood guard at a monument to Confederate war dead at the front of the Statehouse complex in Columbia - the very spot where the Flag was flying a year ago.
 
"The fact that the governor brought the flag down doesn't change the fact that some 25,000 Confederate soldiers lost their life in defense of their state, so we will continue to be here," he said.
 
State government offices were closed Tuesday to mark the holiday, which is held annually on May 10. That's the day when Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson died in 1863 in Chancellorsville, Virginia. It's also the day when Union troops captured President Jefferson Davis in Georgia in 1865.
 
For more than 50 years, some version of the Confederacy's most recognizable emblem flew at South Carolina's capitol complex. In 1961, it was raised over the Statehouse dome - along with the U.S. and South Carolina flags - to commemorate the Civil War Centennial, and State officials kept it flying.
 
In 2000, after a lengthy debate, a compromise was reached to remove the flag from the dome and run up a smaller version, the South Carolina Infantry Battle Flag, on a 30-foot flagpole at the Confederate Soldier Monument directly in front of the Statehouse, along a busy street.
It wasn't until last summer that the symbol left the grounds entirely. Gov. Nikki Haley called for the flag's removal, which came in July.
 
A handful of southern states hold annual observances honoring Confederate war dead, most in April and May.
 
Last year, Georgia removed listings for Confederate Memorial Day and Gen. Robert E. Lee's birthdays on its official holiday calendar list, renaming both as "state holiday." That move came as many states grappled with how to placate an anti-Confederate movement sweeping the country.
 
Alabama also removed a Confederate battle flag from its Capitol grounds. Other flags and Confederate emblems in states like Mississippi and Texas were moved or taken down altogether.
 
The only Confederate flags present Tuesday were those brought by Rentz and about a half a dozen other faithful, some clad in period clothing, and placed around the base of the monument. As cars drove by, some honked support and some yelled "Go home!"
Rentz said he's not bothered by the criticism and actually has seen more interest in Southern Heritage this past year. "I think there are those who want it to be stigmatized. Certainly there are groups in the past that have misused this flag, but just because they've misused it does not mean that it's an evil flag or a flag of oppression."

It was 1913, and the WBTS had been over for 48 years. The United Daughters of the Confederacy raised a monument in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

The bronze statue, a soldier standing with folded arms, was constructed by a local granite company for the sum of $3,600. A plaque at the bottom read, "To Our Heroes of Montgomery Co., Maryland, That We Through Life May Not Forget To Love The Thin Gray Line." It was dedicated in a June ceremony in front of the courthouse, with 3,000 spectators listening to a band play "Dixie" and the "Star-Spangled Banner," according to the account of a local historian.

Supporters of the statue saw it, and continue to see it, as a historic symbol of heritage. Now, over 100 years after the statue was installed, some residents have lobbied to take it down.
 
The argument is that Maryland remained in the Union during the WBTS. Forget that Maryland was a border state, with Southern leanings. A State that likely would have seceded had Abraham Lincoln not jailed the majority of the elected officials in the State's government to prevent them from voting in favor of secession. Forget the thousands of Marylanders who fought for the South during the war.

Every week we read of yet another monument, another image of our past, being attacked. The problem is not going away. America has a lot of statues.

A few years ago, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, launched a research project whose goal was to determine how many statues and memorials his state had. There were no comparable national databases, and Brundage hoped his could become a model for other states. He assumed there would be a few hundred representing all wars and conflicts; instead, his team found nearly 200 for the WBTS alone, mostly Confederate.

The sheer number of Confederate monuments made Professor Brundage realize that Southern heritage, Southern pride, or whatever you wish to call it, was a part of the daily warp and woof of people's lives.

Still, the liberals, aided by the media, are calling for ALL monuments to be taken down. The government, North and South, would happily comply. The only reason we havn't already seen a massive teardown of monuments is that doing so could cost millions per statue, billions nation-wide. As would another common solution: building an equal number of pro-Union statues.

"We live in a landscape that is cluttered with monuments," Brundage says. "Even if the Confederate past could be erased" - which it can't, he says; removing monuments wouldn't do that - "the actual mechanics of that would take decades."

Building them, to begin with, took decades, too. In the early days of Reconstruction, federally funded veterans' cemeteries were reserved for only Union soldiers. Southern women founded the United Daughters of the Confederacy to raise money for Confederate soldiers to have their own modest cemetery memorials.

Over time, though, these markers got larger and more specific, says Jane Censer, a George Mason University professor who studies Southern women of the 19th century. Rather than the memorials appearing just in cemeteries, the UDC began putting them in public spaces: parks, legislative buildings, courthouse lawns. Many of the statues that cause conflict today weren't built in the years following the War but in the decades following it, and not by widows or daughters of Confederate veterans, but by proud descendants.

"You can really see this progression in the three major statues of Robert E. Lee," says Gaines Foster, a historian at Louisiana State University and author of "Ghosts of the Confederacy." In Lee's earliest post-Civil War statue, placed on the campus of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, in 1875, Lee is lying in repose. In the second, dedicated in New Orleans in 1884, Lee, the top Confederate general, is standing erect. "By 1890 in Richmond," Foster says, "Lee is riding his horse again." The South had re-risen, at least in the stone representations of its leaders.

Like the statues, the narrative of America's history has been constantly changing.
 
An entrance to the U.S. Capitol used to be flanked by a pair of statues depicting American Indians. Both statues were removed in 1958, an early and unnoticed submission to an infant political correctness. 55 years later, the Confederate monuments, like those statues of the Indians, would begin to fall victim to the same political correctness totally run amuck.

When some people see a solitary Confederate soldier standing on a pedestal in a public area, they see historic and important artwork. Many rightfully argue that the monuments should not be taken down because of the risk of history-washing.

When some other people look at the same statue, they claim to see a mass-produced symbol of racism for which an industrious sales clerk received a commission.

When I see a monument to someone like say Michael King (better known by his pseudonym "Martin Luther" King) I see the image of a card carrying member of the Communist Party who plagiarized his doctoral dissertation and, according to the FBI, was a suspect in the murders and deaths of numerous prostitutes. Others look at the same statue and see a champion for civil rights. I do not demand that King's Statue be torn down or relocated. So why do his admirers insist that I must remove the statues of my heroes?

The newly dethroned Andrew Jackson was both a talented strategist in the War of 1812 and later a very controversial president. He also happened to own a few slaves. But that did not define who he was. Nor did it diminish all the good he did for the country. Yet that would seem to be the only thing that anyone wants to judge his entire military career and presidency by.

Few would argue that likenesses of American forefather George Washington should be removed from public spaces, although he, too, owned slaves - hundreds of slaves more than Jackson. No doubt his statues will one day too come under attack.

Now imagine how hard it is for we Southerners to defend a statue of, say, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Of course the Klan of the 1870's was NOT the Klan of today. Under Forrest's leadership the Knights would ride to the defense of their black neighbors just as quickly as they would their white ones - and lets just say that not everyone under those sheets had white faces. General Forrest after all had 45 personal armed body guards - ALL BLACK.

Many people, especially liberals, know what they believe - how dare we confuse them with facts!
Unreported by the mainstream media, at this year's annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Atlanta, the organization's attendees debated the "problem" of Confederate monuments and statues during a plenary session and proposed the relocation of publicly placed monuments into private cemeteries.

The Atlanta History Center offers an entire page on its website with suggestions to help local historians, including adding placards with detailed information about the monuments' original intent. As a template, the History Center offers the following wording: "This monument was created to recognize the dedication and sacrifice of Americans who fought to establish the Confederate slaveholding republic. Yet this monument must now remind us that their loss actually meant liberty, justice and freedom for millions of people."

A monument to a cause ends up criticizing that cause.

Meanwhile, in Rockville, the County Executive has asked the city to take possession of the statue, removing it. The city council has declined. They do want to deal with the statue, either. That said, the possibility of removing it remains on the table to be re-debated at a future meeting. For now, it still stands outside the courthouse. Recently, it has suffered a serious graffiti attack. The bottom half is encased in a wooden box. Someone who was not local would see it in its current condition and probably have no idea what they are looking at.

This week I fully intended to resist the temptation of commenting on national politics. Particularly Ted Cruz. But then I saw an obituary in an Indiana Newspaper.
 
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/indystar/obituary.aspx?n=gary-r-welsh&pid=179874811&fhid=30360

Remember the story that broke right before the Indiana primary claiming that Ted Cruz' father was linked to Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of JFK?

A crazy conspiracy theory published in a tabloid. Right?

I would have thought so to. EXCEPT, the gentleman, a prominent attorney, blogger, and part-time investigative reporter, whose obituary you can read by clicking the link above was found DEAD under suspicious circumstances on the day the story broke nationally. And the police immediately ruled it a "suicide" refusing to actually investigate.

Dead in a stairwell. The police, without any investigation, claim he was a failed depressed blogger who killed himself because of financial difficulty. In reality he was a prominent lawyer and a political activist who did not care about money from a blog. One of the rare good lawyers. This isn't the first scandal he's uncovered in his career. But based on where his corpse is at the moment, maybe it was his biggest?

Is it also coincidence that Ted suspended his campaign BEFORE the vote results of Indiana were announced?

Now does that mean that I believe that Ted Cruz' father played a part in the assassination of  our nation's 35th President? Maybe? Probably not. But Gary Welsh was definitely getting too close to something and whatever it was may just be the reason why he is DEAD!

I can say this. I have spoken with pastors and missionaries in Cuba who have told me that the old Cubans in Matanzas, Cruz' home village in Cuba, who remember Cruz remember him as a traitor to his country. The news that his son was running for US president disturbed them. The Cubans did not dislike Cruz for having left Cuba. They too would have happily left Cuba if they could. But in their mind leaving is one thing - TREASON another. They disliked Cruz for having been a traitor. Certainly not the same story that Ted and his Dad were telling on the campaign trail.

When Cruz "escaped from prison" and then the island coming to the good old USA he was given a job in a Texas oil company that relocated him to Canada (where his son Ted was born).

Many CIA operatives in the 1950's and 1960's were paid through Texas oil companies. George H.W. Bush, our 41st president, father of our 43rd president, was a CIA Director prior to becoming Vice-President and then President. He has stated that his Texas oil company was actually a CIA front operation. Off shore platforms were actually bases, oil tankers were used to move assets around the globe, and most of the executives were actually CIA operatives whose business trips to oil producing nations hid their clandestine work in middle-eastern nations. 

So was Ted's father a CIA collaborator? It would explain why his countrymen believed him to be a traitor. It would also explain why he needed to be extracted from Cuba (In other words he didn't "escape"). It would explain how a dishwasher from Cuba lands a cushy job with an oil company looking for oil that was never found in of all places Canada. It could also explain why he would be photographed with Lee Harvey Oswald.

It also explains how his son was able to attend Ivy League schools and receive appointments to clerk for Supreme Court justices and Presidents of the United States (Bush 43). Maybe the payoff to Cruz the father was a future for his children? It might even explain how Ted ended up winning his Senate seat in a very questionable run-off election. Or maybe not.

At any rate, we know that the CIA had collaborators and inside Bautista's government, in Castro's revolution, and in Castro's regime. If Cruz was one of them it explains a lot. And it potentially puts him in contact with Lee Harvey Oswald. It also puts him touch with countless other people who we are not supposed to know about.

Or maybe my mind is just running crazy with conspiracy theories. None of which I could prove anyway. Nor does it matter I guess since I can not prove them, they are admiTEDly fanciful,and Ted Cruz has dropped out of the race anyway.

The facts that remain are of course that Gary Welsh is DEAD. The timing and circumstances of his death are very interesting.  

Below is a link to a book selling on Amazon that was brought to my attention this week by one of our readers. I have not read the book and supply the link for informational purposes only:

Link to AMAZON Book - LIAR LIAR CRUZ ON FIRE



Objections Sustained! Alabama Suspends Chief Justice
 
Alabama's Chief Justice, Roy Moore, is probably one of the few judges who's been cross-examined as much as his witnesses. The unapologetic constitutionalist has been under the microscope plenty of times in his long career -- including a 2003 showdown over a Ten Commandments monument that he refused to remove from the court grounds. Now, the Left's judicial target is back in their crosshairs, with another politically-motivated smear campaign.
 
What we know about the complaint is this: Southern Poverty Law Center is behind it.
 
After the U.S. Supreme Court forced a radical redefinition of marriage on the entire country last summer, Justice Moore fought it with every legitimate judicial tool at his disposal. And while some have accused him of defying the Supreme Court's decision to redefine marriage, the reality is that Moore was simply holding out until an official decision was reached in his state.
 
Didn't the Supreme Court already make that determination for Alabama in Obergefell? The answer is yes and no.
 
Last spring, before five justices decided to rewrite thousands of years of natural law, the Alabama Supreme Court had upheld the state's marriage amendment. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, there's some confusion as to what the State's decision means in light of that, and Chief Justice Moore has merely pointed out this lack of clarity. Until it rules, Chief Justice Moore has told probate judges to continue to follow his administrative order from last March: "Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court that Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act remain in full force and effect."
 
Of course, the Left is spinning that to mean that Moore is defying the Supreme Court -- and now, they've gotten their SPLC cronies to help level ethics charges at the Justice because of it.
 
Last Friday, the Judicial Inquiry Commission decided to suspend Justice Moore without pay until he himself is tried. "Chief Justice Moore flagrantly disregarded and abused his authority," the Commission insisted. "Moore knowingly ordered probate judges to commit violations... knowingly subjecting them to potential prosecution and removal from office."
 
The record will show Chief Justice Moore has done no such thing. What he has done is defend and represent the actual state of the law. His opponents just don't like the policy implications of his legal arguments!



Milwaukee's Black Sheriff Makes Confederate Heritage a Campaign Issue
 
Milwaukee County Sheriff, David A. Clarke Jr., has been sharply criticized over the years for any number of causes and people, ranging from Beyoncé to Black Lives Matter.
 
But here is a completely new target for the outspoken sheriff:
 
Clarke - who is black - posted a tweet this week questioning Kentucky officials who decided to remove a Confederate monument adjacent to the University of Louisville campus. A Kentucky judge has issued an order temporarily blocking the monument's movement.
 
Clarke continues to oppose the removal of the statue and his unexpected defense of Southern Heritage has become a campaign issue for this Yankee Sheriff. And he refuses to back down. He seems to be standing firm that everyone should have the right to promote and advance their heritage. God bless you Sheriff Clarke, we are praying for your re-election. Our country needs more good Sheriffs like yourself!

HERO WILL GET HIS DAY AFTER ALL
 
We have a reader / subscriber / and occasional contributor to Dixie Heritage from Georgia. He is also the editor of an excellent monthly called the Howling Dawg - a magazine many of us here in Florida subscribe to under a different name - "Gator Chow" (LOL). I really like the Howling Dawg and as I've gotten to know the editor I really like him too. But the thing that drew me to him and his work on behalf of our Heritage was his name. Wanna guess?
 
John Wayne.
 
Whats not to respect about the name John Wayne? John Wayne, or as we called him, "The Duke," won the WBTS for the Confederacy - or the Union - Depending on what movies you watched. I think every American boy, North or South, who lived in the latter half of the 20th century counted John Wayne as one of his heroes. 
 
Recently, the California State Assembly attempted to pass a holiday in John Wayne's honor and a few minority members raised such unholy hell over it. Their main objections were that Wayne was a white man who used his publicity to strongly oppose communism. The rest of the State Assembly collapsed and the idea was abandoned. Still, it looks as though The Duke may get his holiday after all.
 
Less than a month after a resolution to honor John Wayne failed to gain traction with state officials, a Newport Beach city councilman is asking his colleagues to designate May 26 as a holiday to the late actor.
 
Mayor pro tem Kevin Muldoon asked city staff Tuesday to place a resolution honoring Wayne on the May 24 City Council agenda for his colleagues' consideration. At that time, council members will be able to decide whether to designate Wayne's birthday, May 26, in his name.
 
"John Wayne is an iconic figure and beloved in his adopted hometown of Newport Beach," Muldoon said.
 
Wayne is remembered for his rugged cowboy roles in films including "The Alamo," and "True Grit," for which he won an Academy Award in 1970. He eventually moved to Newport Beach, where he lived until he succumbed to complications from cancer in 1979 at age 72.
 
John Wayne's legacy is still present in many ways in Newport Beach. He's buried at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar, his beloved yacht, Wild Goose, is still anchored in the harbor, and the Orange County airport bears his name and a 9-foot-tall statue of him in one of its terminals.
 
"He symbolized all that is great in America and our city - strength, freedom and love of country and family," Muldoon said. "It is only fitting that we should honor such a great man."
 
In late April, Assemblyman Matthew Harper, a Huntington Beach Republican who also represents sections of Newport Beach, introduced a resolution that sought to declare May 26 as John Wayne Day statewide.
 
However, the Assembly voted down the resolution, 35-20, after several legislators took issue with statements Wayne had made in support for the anti-communist House Un-American Activities Committee and the John Birch Society.
 
Several public figures throughout California supported the resolution, calling Wayne an American hero whose family created the John Wayne Cancer Foundation after his death.
 
Madeleine Cooper, Assemblyman Harper's legislative director, said the Assemblyman is pleased that Newport Beach is considering the idea. "We were so disappointed that we couldn't do this at the state level, but we're happy to see it done at a local level," Cooper said.
 
Texas has also enacted a holiday for John Wayne.
 
 
GEORGIA PASTOR PERSECUTED
 
This isn't happening in Massachusetts folks! All over the country we are seeing Christians socially, financially, and legally affected by the attacks from the anti-Christian left. Sadly, the attacks occur in the once-Christian South as much or more than they do in the North. In Georgia the latest (and most egregious) example is playing out as one Pastor fights back against the state after being unjustly fired from his government job.
 
Dr. Eric Walsh is a public health expert who also happens to work as a lay minister in his church.
 
Recently, he ran afoul of his government employers when the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) began investigating him for his own personal, moral, and religious beliefs. His lawyers at First Liberty argue that the State chose to fire him because of his Christian beliefs.
 
First Liberty spokesman Jeremy Dys told Fox News that, "He was fired for something he said in a sermon. If the government is allowed to fire someone over what he said in his sermons, they can come after any of us for our beliefs on anything... No one in this country should be fired from their job for something that was said in a church or from a pulpit during a sermon."
 
First Liberty argues that the State explicitly set out to persecute Dr. Walsh after learning of his faith and they argue that there is definitive proof that the State acted unjustly. First Liberty argues that the Georgia Department of Public Health assigned several people to investigate the sermons that Dr. Walsh was delivering at church - sermons that touched on his views of marriage, sexuality, and creationism.
 
It was these sermons that cost Dr. Walsh his job with the DPH. Georgia liberal LGBT activists caught wind of his beliefs and began pushing on the State to end their connection to him. However, at least two different sources from within the DPH warned the department that firing him would mean breaking federal law and risking a major lawsuit. The DPH's own lawyers warned them twice that the department could not use Dr. Walsh's religious beliefs as a reason for termination. Sadly (for the DPH), they had no reason to fire him without focusing on his religious beliefs. An internal memo makes this clear:
 
One unnamed staffer wrote a memo warning that the entire controversy had been blown "impossibly out of proportion."
 
"Not only is there no smoking gun, there is every reason to believe, even from his detractors own words, that he is the excellent health director we believed he would be," the staffer wrote in a document obtained by First Liberty through a FOIA request.
 

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
 
As we reported last week DIXIE HERITAGE is now on Facebook. The page has been improved a LOT since last week.

Use this link to go to the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Dixie-Heritage-929972860434090

If you have not already please like us. When we have 25 likes we can upgrade the page giving it more exposure.


LINK TO HERITAGE BOOKSTORE ON AMAZON



VISIT OUR WEBSITE:

YES, we are still giving a FREE eBook (PDF) copy of the book The Truth About the Confederate Flag  to everyone who visits the website - so tell your friends - and your enemies!  
   
www.dixieheritage.weebly.com
Until next week,
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed

Dixie Heritage subscribers in nearby Hillsborough County have filed a lawsuit to correct a heritage violation in the Tampa area. The lawsuit, filed last week in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, seeks re-instatement of a handful of SCV members and Southern heritage advocates on a subcommittee that had come up with a design for an exhibit at the Veterans Memorial Park off U.S. 301. They also want reinstatement of the original design, which had been dumped.

With that design, which originally had been approved by a Veterans Memorial Park general committee, members of Southern Heritage groups began soliciting donations for the display, promising etched names on bricks. The group had raised about $6,000 and had begun work on creating the War Between the States display.

In mid-process, the lawsuit says, unidentified people at the park and the county nixed the design, which included a Maltese cross, a symbol associated with the Confederacy, and summarily tossed the four members off the War Between the States subcommittee and dissolved the committee.

The memorial design was unveiled in 2013. It was to be named the War Between the States Memorial instead of the Civil War Memorial. The concept included a ship sitting atop a concrete structure surrounded by concrete slabs, forming a pattern resembling the Maltese cross.

The memorial's concrete walls and red bricks were designed to hold engravings dedicated to Confederate veterans from Hillsborough County, said David McCallister, commander of a Tampa camp of Sons of Confederate Veterans and head of the defunct subcommittee for the original War Between the States Memorial. He and three other ousted subcommittee members are named as plaintiffs.

McCallister said the suit was filed to make sure the park and the county "keep the promises made to the public and the subscribers by building the monument with the original name and design - which will honor the Hillsborough veterans and be a credit to a world-class park - and keep faith with the volunteers who stepped up and did the work. "If it takes an objective judge to see this and order it to be done," he said, " so be it."

Phil Walters, also a member of the dissolved subcommittee also is a plaintiff.

"We feel politics has entered into this solemn effort to accurately and honestly memorialize these American veterans," he said. "This subcommittee was very diverse and knowledgeable and had worked diligently on this project, donating hundreds of hours of time, all to be abruptly 'dumped' without any plausible explanation. Very sad and not good for community relations."

Work on a War Between the States design began in 2009 and in 2013, the design was approved by the general committee of the Veterans Memorial Park and Museum Committee.

The subcommittee "began raising subscriptions from the public for the inclusion of certain bricks and benches to be included in the final design, which were to be inscribed as directed by the subscribers," the lawsuit says.

About $6,000 was raised, the suit said, and the money was accepted into the coffers of the Veterans Memorial Park and Museum.

In April 2013, a groundbreaking ceremony was held with some members of the general committee attending.

"No objection to the design, name or process was raised by any member of the general committee or by county officers, administration or staff, or the public," the lawsuit says. Fundraising continued and bricks with names etched into them began coming in, the lawsuit says.

Then in July 2014, questions arose about the Maltese cross, the lawsuit says, emanating from a highly placed county official who remained unidentified. Alternate designs were submitted, not by the subcommittee, but by the design group that builds exhibits within the park. The name was changed from the War Between the States Memorial to the Civil War Memorial.

And in April 2015, the subcommittee was dissolved and the design initially approved was abandoned.

The suit seeks to reinstate the subcommittee with the original members and order the original design of the memorial to be adopted and built.

Veterans Memorial Park and Museum committee co-chairman David Braun had not seen a copy of the lawsuit Monday and declined to address the complaint's specific points. "If there's going to be litigation," he said, "I can't comment much."

He said a subsequent design has been submitted and work is underway to complete the memorial by the end of this year.

Judge blocks Kentucky Confederate monument's removal

A Jefferson County Circuit judge on Monday issued a restraining order to block removal of the controversial Confederate monument near the University of Louisville.

Judge Judith McDonald-Burkman issued the order Monday morning against Mayor Greg Fischer and metro government, barring them from moving, disassembling or otherwise tampering with the 70-foot-tall monument.

Congressional hopeful Everett Corley filed the restraining order in Jefferson Circuit Court to stop Fischer and U of L President James Ramsey from removing the monument from the school's campus. Also listed as plaintiffs are the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Kentucky Division, and its "Chief of Heritage Defense," and political activist Ed Springston.

"This restraining order is about respecting veterans," said Corley, a real estate agent, who argued it was the "equivalent of a book burning" and smacked of political correctness gone awry.

Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell said he would fight the restraining order, which he said took him by surprise. He said no one from his office was at the hearing, and his office is seeking a continuance so that lawyers have more time to prepare for the hearing on the full injunction set for Tuesday morning. "We'll obviously comply with whatever those orders are ... but we will move to immediately set this aside," he said.

Thomas McAdam, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the suit is based on several arguments in hopes of turning the order into a permanent injunction to keep the monument in place.

He said the basis of the lawsuit is that the mayor violated several laws, including not going through proper local, state and federal laws including historic preservation procedures. Because of the monument's placement on the national register of historic places, he said, notifications and hearings are required. The suit argues the move also violates the Kentucky Military Heritage Act and other state laws.
"We expect our elected officials to follow the law. The mayor has not followed the law," he said. "All we want is a fair hearing, all we want is to let the people know that this is part of our heritage, and you can't just erase history by tearing down monuments. That's what the Taliban does, that's what ISIS does. We don't do that in America."

Reacting to the judge's decision, Mayor Fischer said the county attorney will handle the matter in the courts. "We believe we made the right decision," Fischer said.

Fischer has previously said the monument should be moved from its location between Second and Third streets because it represents a painful chapter in history.

Asked if his administration followed proper procedure to move the memorial, the mayor said it was "kind of a unique situation" and "We wanted to make sure that the state, the university and city were lined up on it and decided to make the decision," Fischer said. "We feel good about that."

Keith Runyon, co-chair of the mayor's panel, said Monday that unlike historic markers that remind residents about the horrors of the past, the Confederate memorial is one that honors those who wanted to maintain slavery. "The old South, and the antebellum shtick that Louisville has sometimes attached to is not constructive," he said.

The granite monument, completed in 1895, was built with funding from the Kentucky Women's Confederate Monument Association for $12,000, according to the suit.
 
 
 
Montana School Bans Battle Flag

Park High School recently banned Confederate flags from school property. Vice Principal Tom Gauthier said disciplinary action was taken against one student.
 
Kentucky School Expells Student with Battle Flag on Truck
Parents of a Shelby County teen are outraged after their son was asked to leave school for refusing to remove the Confederate flag from his truck.

Joseph Garrett claims he's driven to school over the last few months with both a Confederate Flag, and American flag flying in the back of his truck, and not had any issues.

However that changed on Tuesday, and his parents say they feel the tension created by the removal of the Confederate Memorial near the University of Louisville is to blame.

Joseph Garrett is a typical student at Collins High in Shelby County.

"I get A's and B's," Joseph Garrett said.

Like your average 16 year old, he loves driving his truck.

However on Tuesday he says administrators at Collins High took issue with the way he decorates it.
"I decided to put my Confederate flag with my American flag on my truck for my uncle," Garrett said. "The first day there were complaints and they told me to take it down. They told me to take it down, or they were going to have to."

After he refused, Garrett said he was sent home and told he couldn't drive his truck to school the rest of the year.

"It's my right to have it up, and for it to stay up," Garrett said.

A district spokesman said it is school policy not to comment on student disciplinary matters.
Joseph's mother Christal said she feels he's done no wrong.

As support pours in for her son, Christal said she feels as if school administrators looking at this situation out of context.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the monument coming down," Christal Garrett said. "I feel like before it wasn't an issue with him flying his flag."

After staying home from school on Wednesday Joseph was back in class on Thursday without any issues.
To be clear Shelby County School's do not have a policy directly banning the flag.
 
 
Warren, Michigan School Expells Student

A senior at Warren Mott High School was suspended Thursday morning after flying the Confederate flag on the back of his truck and parking on school property.

Ryan Delcato, 17, was sent home for the day.

The superintendent said this is the third time Delicato brought the flag to school. On Wednesday, Delicato was warned he would be suspended if he did it again.

"They said I was harming other kid's education and everything because it's a distraction," Delicato said.
Delicato said the Confederate flag is not racist, but a symbol of his family's history.

"It's for our southern heritage," Delicato said. "Not for race. Nothing like that."

Others disagree. The superintendent said a few students complained about the flag and staged a protest. At one point, someone even cut down Delicato's confederate flag.

Ryan Delicato's father Gary Delicato disagrees with his son's suspension.

The superintendent said that if Ryan Delicato brings the flag to school again he will be suspended again followed by a more progressive discipline.
 
 
 
Rapper Protests Confederate Heritage Month

A rapper draped herself in a Confederate Battle Flag and hung a noose around her neck during a performance to protest Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant's proclamation of April as Confederate Heritage Month.

Genesis Be grew up in Biloxi, Mississippi, and she said her April 26 performance was at a music venue called SOB's in New York.

The 27-year-old Be said Thursday that Bryant's proclamation, which did not mention slavery, was a "slap in the face not only to my ancestors but everyone's ancestors who fought against the Confederacy." "In my eyes, it is an anti-American heritage," Be said in a phone interview.

The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

When Governor Bryant issued the proclamation in February to name April as Confederate Heritage Month, his spokesman Clay Chandler said that previous Democratic and Republican governors of Mississippi had issued similar proclamations.

Be moved from Mississippi to New York several years ago to study music and politics at New York University, and she describes the songs she writes as "political satire, parody hip-hop." Be said she ordered the noose, as a prop, online.
 
 
 
Confederate Flags Stolen from Texas Cemetary

One hundred and sixty Confederate Flags were stolen from the Bryan City Cemetery in Texas. Now authorities are on the lookout for those responsible.

KBTX spoke with the commander of the local Sons of Confederate Veterans, William Boyd. He said the group placed 160 flags in April, but found them missing later that month.

Robert Holms at the Bryan City Cemetery said in his 33 years watching over the site, he has never seen something like this happen.

After the flags went missing over a weekend late last month, Holms said those responsible may be in more trouble than they originally expected.

"I'm sure that these individuals in their mind didn't think they were committing a crime, looks like they did," said Holmes.

While the flags cost $300, which is technically a misdemeanor, the charge has been upgraded to a felony, because the flags were taken from graves at the cemetery.

Bryan police say this is an ongoing investigation.
 
 
 
To Fund - or Not to Fund? Confederate Monument

In making his determination on whether or not to vote in favor of giving public funds to support a veterans memorial in Georgetown that would feature, among others, the names of Confederate soldiers, Mayor Jack Scoville asked for the public's input.

Dozens of people turned out at City Hall last night for a meeting concerning the allocation of $15,000 worth of public funds to be donated to American Legion Post 114 for the construction of the memorial, which is slated for construction between the Legion post, 715 Church St., and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6444, 711 Church St. Among those in attendance were City Council members Brendon Barber, Sheldon Butts, Carol Jayroe, Al Joseph and Ed Kimbrough, along with several officers from the Low Country Veterans Group.

The proposed memorial would feature the names of any and all Georgetown County veterans who died in military service. What has proven to be controversial, Scoville said, is that some of those veterans fought against the U.S. under the banner of the Confederacy.

"I don't want to vote against providing funds to honor everybody who died in all these other wars," Scoville said. "At the same time, I think there are very serious, realistic and valid concerns."

At Scoville's request, American Legion Adjutant Martin Alfonsi spoke to the gathering to introduce the ideas behind the monument. In addition to educating people on the effects the wars had on the county, Alfonsi said the Legion and VFW also wanted to salute every Georgetown County veteran who died in military service.

"One (purpose) is to recognize those people who lived in Georgetown County and answered the call - for whatever reason - served their country and they died," Alfonsi said. "We have memorials for each individual war in different places, but nowhere is everything brought all together. We wanted to bring it together."

Black people at the meeting, however, objected to the idea of including Confederate soldiers' names on the monument. Councilman Barber was the first to speak out against the proposed monument. Barber, said he objected to the notion based on the practice and defense of slavery by the Confederacy.

"I have no objection to honoring any U.S. veteran that fought in any conflict, any war, that died for the U.S.," Barber said. "But I, personally, along with some other folks, have a problem with the Confederates. Barber added he was offended the Legion and VFW were proposing to erect a dedication to Confederate soldiers.

In addition to those concerns, some at the meeting questioned whether Confederate veterans should be considered in the same category as veterans from other wars. In an address to the assembly, LCVG Public Relations Chair Ernest Cole asked Alfonsi why Confederate soldiers, who fought against the U.S., should be memorialized.

"The Confederate States of America fought a war against the U.S. and lost," Cole said. "... A person that is in the Confederate States of America (military) ... was considered a veteran of the Confederate states, which is a separate entity from the United States of America."

Alfonsi argued that point, saying that Congress declared Confederate veterans were to be treated as U.S. veterans. Public Law 85-425.

Additionally, there was some confusion as to whether or not a veteran's branch of service would be featured on the memorial wall. Alfonsi told the gathering that only the veterans' names would be listed under the corresponding conflict, a claim that was later corroborated by Joseph. But information on the memorial website lists all the submitted honorees' names, as well as the branches in which they served.
After the meeting, Scoville said he hoped to clarify that topic before making his decision.
 

I GUESS WE WILL NEVER KNOW   
 
The Supreme Court website updated the status of Montgomery Blair Sibley, Applicant   v.  United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

This means that the high Court will not intervene to allow release of phone records from the late "D.C. madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey, despite one of her former attorneys claiming the records are "very relevant" to the presidential election.

No explanation was given as to why Attorney Sibley's petition was denied.

~~~Date~~~ 
~~~~~~~Proceedings  and  Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mar 28 2016
Application (15A1016) for a stay, submitted to The Chief Justice.

Apr 4 2016
Application (15A1016) denied by The Chief Justice.

Apr 6 2016
Application (15A1016) refiled and submitted to Justice Thomas.

Apr 13 2016
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of April 29, 2016.

Apr 13 2016
Application (15A1016) referred to the Court.

May 2 2016
Application (15A1016) denied by the Court.

Sibley, who had promised to release the documents regardless of the outcome has now decided that he will NOT release the documents because he fears that if he does so that he will be jailed for contempt. The reason, he claims, that he fears the contempt charge, is because Sibley has filed a suit in Federal Court against House Speaker Ryan for failure to execute his duties as outlined in the Constitution.

While everyone was salivating over the potential scandal, I guess we will never know if Lyin' Ted was also Cheatin' Ted? But I do not know that it matters since Senator Cruz suspended his campaign on Tuesday shortly before the announcement of Donald Trump's landslide victory in the Indiana primary.

John Kasich dropped out on Wednesday.

Donald Trump is now the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

I grew up in the late 70's and came of age during the 1980's. The first president to have truly made an impression upon me was of course Ronald Reagan.In the 1980's there was a conservatism in social, economic and political life, characterized by the policies of President Ronald Reagan that I grew up thinking were the way life was supposed to be. Bacon and eggs, peanut butter and jelly, cheese and macaroni, pancakes and maple syrup... some things just go together. And so it was, with America and the 1980s.

America was dominant. Big and Bold and strong. Positive and proud. Confident and a force of nature. The President was superb and reassuring. Cultural walls fell down - Americans were united. The movies were terrific. The patriotism unquestioned. It was a simpler time. Rambo was kicking butt (while Reagan watched on in the White House). Rocky was defying odds. John McLane was killing terrorists. Maverick and Goose were buzzing the tower in Top Gun.

America was at her zenith.

So it is only fitting and logical the man that we prominently associate with that decade wants to make America great again.

The Donald Trump campaign has a distinctly 80s feel to it. Not to mention the very 1980 sentiment of the electorate. Dissatisfied with a feeble and feckless President, and liberal, Democratic big government, voters feel down on their luck and deeply concerned about the future. It was in this climate that while many people considered Reagan too extreme and simplistic, opposition to the status quo ran so deep that the American people decided to give him a chance.
  
In an era remembered for its movies, the 2016 election is playing out as a 1980s movie, with Donald Trump starring as the ultimate action hero, against several 'villains.'

The script is clear: America is struggling. Stuck in a downward slide, teetering on the precipice of debt-riddled mediocrity, things look glim. Suddenly, the last action hero remaining of an earlier era has heard his siren call. He's all alone, and can't rely on anyone else. But he's arrived on the scene and is coming for all enemies - foreign and domestic - the system, political correctness, the 'villains', and any authority providing them refuge - to save America, all just in the nick of time.

USA! USA! USA!

Trump is in many ways the 1980's retro-renaissance man who has come back to save America and restore it to its greatness, by killing political correctness and resurrecting 1980s sentiments and values. Might is right, and America is always right.

And he's bringing out all of the 1980's hotshots out of hibernation to Make America Great Again with their last breath. Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, Kirstie Alley, Jean Claude Van Damme, Gary Busey, and countless others. It seems they are all coming out of their collective hibernation to support the man who can make America what it once was: great again, just like it was in the 80's.

But the 80s references don't end there...

Trump is bringing in the Al Bundy vote. The A-Team love him. Alf thinks he's great. As Long As We've Got Each Other is playing...

OK, I'll stop now.

But it is undeniable. Trump appears to live by the action hero script. That script is clear. The stage is set. A diverse assortment of Americans are watching the movie, once more awaiting a new populist conservative movement, similar to the one of the 1980s.

Come November, I look forward to hearing The Donald tell Obama and Hillary, "You're Fired!"

While my ultimate desire would be to roll back the calendar to say 1865 - with the Confederacy winning her independence this time - we all know that is not possible. But if Donald Trump can take us back to the 1980's Reagan America - well, that would be the next best thing.  

This week's book offer is the Life Story of Jack Smith.

Jack is a Dixie Heritage subscriber who sent me a manuscript last year of an autobiography that he had written. He wanted my opinion of it. As I read the typed manuscript I couldn't put it down.

Some books tell war stories. Others, tell sex stories. Still others tell of rags to riches, overcoming great obstacles, or beating the odds. While others still are filled with the misadventures of drunken or drug inspired "carryings on." Christian books give testimonies of how men went from "deep sin" to finding new lives through God's grace. This book does all of those things and then some. It is not a typical biography - or even the typical autobiography!

A few weeks ago I was privileged to help Jack in having the book published. He would like to offer our readers the opportunity to purchase a copy, direct from the publisher, at COST plus postage.

To check out Jack's book - and maybe even order a copy - click this link:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/jack-smith/my-life-story/paperback/product-22661234.html 

 
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DIXIE HERITAGE is now on Facebook. The page literally launched today. So the videos and other goodies have not yet been uploaded.  

Those of you who know me know that my opinion of Facebook is about the same as John Boehner's opinion of Ted Cruz. Lucifer incarnate! I have avoided Facebook like the plague. I am still not using it personally. But the reality is that if we are going to reach people and impact our culture for what we know is right then we need to be putting our message out there where the people are.

Jesus said that it was the sick who needed the physician. Sinners who needed to hear his message. So where did he go to preach it? Why he went to the places where the sinner hung out. One particular story, in John 4, stands out in my mind as I type.

So Dixie Heritage is going to the place where people hang out (Facebook) hoping to encounter some Samaritans to whom we can impact with our message!

Use this link to go to the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Dixie-Heritage-929972860434090


VISIT OUR WEBSITE:

YES, we are still giving a FREE eBook (PDF) copy of the book The Truth About the Confederate Flag  to everyone who visits the website - so tell your friends - and your enemies!  
   
www.dixieheritage.weebly.com
Until next week,
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed