There is an interesting video at:

http://www.11alive.com/story/news/2015/10/29/young-confederate-flag/74827680/
 
It is a news interview with a former Atlanta mayor who recently told his fellow Alumni at Moorehouse that they should be ashamed of themselves for making an issue of the Confederate flag and using Southern heritage to divide communities.

Mayor Young is a veteran of King's "Civil Rights Movement" and says that at no time during that time did anyone on either side make an issue of the Confederacy or its flag and neither should the current generation of "Civil Rights" leaders.

Young's comments at Morehouse College came partially in response to the following AP report:
JACKSON, Miss. - The University of Mississippi has removed the state flag on its Oxford campus Monday morning because the banner contains the Confederate battle emblem, which some see as a painful reminder of slavery and segregation.
 
Interim Chancellor Morris Stocks ordered the flag lowered and said it was being sent to the university's archives.
 
The action came days after the student senate, the faculty senate and other groups adopted a student-led resolution calling for removal of the banner from campus.
 
"As Mississippi's flagship university, we have a deep love and respect for our state," Stocks said in a statement Monday. "Because the flag remains Mississippi's official banner, this was a hard decision. I understand the flag represents tradition and honor to some. But to others, the flag means that some members of the Ole Miss family are not welcomed or valued."
 
Since 1894, the Mississippi flag has had the Confederate battle emblem in the upper left corner - a blue X with 13 white stars, over a field of red. Residents chose to keep the flag during a 2001 statewide vote.
 
More than 200 people took part in a remove-the-flag rally Oct. 16 on the Oxford campus. It was sponsored by the university chapter of the NAACP.
 
The University of Mississippi has struggled with Old South symbolism for decades. Ole Miss administrators have tried to distance the school from Confederate symbols. Sports teams are still called the Rebels, but the university several years ago retired the Colonel Rebel mascot - a white-haired old man some thought resembled a plantation owner. The university also banned sticks in the football stadium nearly 20 years ago, which eliminated most Confederate battle flags that fans carried.
 
"The University of Mississippi community came to the realization years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others," Stocks said in the statement Monday. "Since that time, we have become a stronger and better university. We join other leaders in our state who are calling for a change in the state flag."
 
Several Mississippi cities and counties have stopped flying the state flag since the Charleston shootings. The state's three historically black universities had stopped flying the flag earlier, and the state's only black U.S. representative, Democrat Bennie Thompson, does not display the state flag in his offices because of the Confederate symbol.

   
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the City of Danville Virginia

The lawsuit was filed to fight the Danville City Council's decision to remove the Confederate flag that had flown outside the Sutherlin Mansion.

The judge said he dismissed the suit because the flag was a monument to the historical status of the building itself, not the Civil War or Civil War veterans.

Because of this, the judge said the marker was not entitled to enhanced protections under state law.

Attorney General Mark Herring praised the judge's decision, calling the confederate flag a symbol of pain, oppression and division for many Virginians.
 
 
ONE MAN'S MODERN DAY SECESSION MOVEMENT

The AP reported on this this week. As far as we can tell the story's subject is neither Southern nor is he Mormon.  But as we all know, Secession is not, nor ever has been an exclusively "southern" issue.

SALT LAKE CITY - A New York man is building his own sovereign nation called Zaqistan on a remote piece of land in Utah.

Zaq Landsberg has created a yellow-and-red flag, official-looking passports and a border patrol gate guarded by a giant robot sentry for the realm, KSL-TV reported
 
 
 
Confederate Graves Discovered

Last week, archaeologist Bill Meacham discovered the graves of nearly 40 Confederate soldiers in the Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Mr. Meacham has been searching for these graves for almost 16 years, and has spent thousands of dollars trying to locate them.

Hopkinsville had an encampment of around 2,000 soldiers primarily from Tennessee and Kentucky. Several hundred died of disease, as was the case with most encampments during the war. However, no one knew where these men were buried.

Historian William Turner said that an old ledger was discovered in a roll top desk drawer at a local bank in 1989. "That was a tremendous find, except you've got to know where to start," said Turner.
After several attempts, no graves were discovered. That is, until recently.

"We found totally about 40, but in the book, even row one has 21 graves in it, and we've only got 3 recorded. Row 2 has 27 or 28 and we got 11," said Meacham.

During the dig, one metal coffin with a nameplate was discovered. "It says William H Pate, found him in the census. He was 16-years-old when he died. He was from the 3rd regiment, Tippah County Mississippi," said Meacham.

An old gunpowder storage building was also discovered.

The remains will be reburied and given a special marker. And the area within the cemetery will be added to the National Register of Historic Places. 

 
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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
 

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The State of Florida was a part of the Confederate States of America from the beginning of the War Between the States. Following Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, the state of Florida joined other Southern states in declaring secession from the Union. Florida was the third of the original seven states to do so. (The first state to secede was South Carolina, the second Mississippi.)
 
With a small population, Florida would contribute more goods to the Confederate cause than manpower. It produced large amounts of sustenance and its large coastline made it difficult for Union Navy efforts to curb blockade runners bringing in supplies and material from foreign markets to support the Confederate war effort.
 
As Florida was an important supply route for the Confederate Army, Union forces operated a blockade around the entire state. Union troops occupied major ports such as Cedar Key, Jacksonville, Key West, and Pensacola early in the war. Confederate forces moved quickly to seize control of many of Florida's U.S. Army forts, succeeding in most cases, with the significant exceptions of Fort Jefferson, Fort Pickens and Fort Zachary Taylor, which stayed firmly in Federal control throughout the war.
 
Governor John Milton, an ardent secessionist, throughout the war stressed the importance of Florida as a supplier of goods. Florida was a large provider of food (particularly beef cattle) and salt for the Confederate Army. The 8,436-mile coastline and 11,000 miles of rivers, streams, and waterways proved a haven for blockade runners and a daunting task for patrols by Federal warships.
 
The state's small population (140,000 residents making it last in size in the Confederacy) and relatively remote location, proved both a blessing and a curse to both sides throughout the war.
 
Overall, the state raised some 15,000 troops (more than 10% of its population) for the Confederacy, which were organized into twelve regiments of infantry and two of cavalry, as well as several artillery batteries and supporting units. Most of these troops were sent to serve in the Army of Northern Virginia under Brig. Gen. Edward A. Perry and Col. David Lang. The "Florida Brigade" fought in many of Robert E. Lee's campaigns, and twice charged Cemetery Ridge during the Battle of Gettysburg, including supporting Pickett's Charge.
 
In early 1862, the Confederate government pulled General Braxton Bragg's small army from Pensacola following successive Confederate defeats in Tennessee at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry and the fall of New Orleans. It sent them to the Western Theater for the remainder of the war. The only Confederate forces remaining in Florida at that time were a variety of independent companies, several infantry battalions, and the 2nd Florida Cavalry. They were reinforced in 1864 by troops from neighboring Georgia.
 
Numerous small skirmishes occurred in Florida -- including the battles of Natural Bridge, Gainesville, Marianna, Vernon and Fort Brooke. The major engagement was at Olustee near Lake City. Union forces under General Truman Seymour were repulsed by Florida and Georgia troops and retreated to their fortifications around Jacksonville. Seymour's relatively high losses caused Northern lawmakers and citizens to question the necessity of any further Union actions in Florida. Many of the Federal troops were withdrawn and sent elsewhere. Throughout the balance of 1864 and into the following spring, the 2nd Florida Cavalry repeatedly thwarted Federal raiding parties into the Confederate-held northern and central portions of the state.
 
In early May 1865, Edward M. McCook's Union division was assigned to re-establish Federal control and authority in Florida. Governor Milton committed suicide rather than submit to Union occupation. On May 13, Col. George Washington Scott surrendered the last active Confederate troops in the state to McCook. On May 20, Tallahassee was the next to last Confederate state capital to fall to the Union army. Austin, Texas fell the next month.
 
Florida would not "rejoin" the Union or be "readmitted" to the United States until July 25, 1868.

   
Several years ago, when Texas issued its first SCV specialty license plate, I never envisioned the day that those plates would be rescinded. But presently, three Southern states - Maryland, Virginia, and Texas - have moved to ban the sale of "specialty" license plates emblazoned with the Confederate flag.
The bans follow a June US Supreme Court ruling that Confederate-flag plates are a form of government speech, and as a result can be rejected by states that choose to do so.
 
In that 5-to-4 decision, which focused on whether or not Texas had a right to refuse to issue such specialty plates, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority that "The fact that private parties take part in the design and propagation of a message does not extinguish the governmental nature of the message or transform the government's role into that of a mere forum-provider."
 
Maryland attempted to recall license plates that featured small images of the flag beginning in the 1990s, but at the time a federal judge ruled that those plates were protected by the First Amendment.
On Thursday, District Judge Marvin J. Garbis issued an order permitting Attorney General Brian Fosh to lift that ruling, with the order going into full effect mid-November.
 
Virginia has told the owners of Confederate-flag plates to obtain new ones without that symbol, but it has received considerable pushback from owners of those plates who say that the Confederate flag is a symbol of their heritage, not racism.
 
"I have a great-great-great grandfather who fought and died with the 5th Georgia Infantry. And his four brothers all died with him in the name of that flag," Kevin Collier, a man from Suffolk, Virginia, told local Virginia news outlet 13NewsNow. Mr. Collier is refusing to turn in his plates.
 
In September, the Virginia DMV sent out 1600 new plates, asking owners of Confederate-flag plates to turn in their old license plates within 30 days. However, only 163 people have complied. According to the Virginia DMV, it is a Class 2 misdemeanor to drive with inactive plates.
 
Georgia, on the other hand, has recently begun selling license plates that bear the Confederate flag logo again. The state issued a temporary halt on sales after the June attack on a black church in Charleston, in which nine churchgoers were killed. Georgia's newly redesigned plates feature a smaller image of the Confederate flag, and the flag is no longer used as a background image on the plates.
 
"The changes reflect an agreement [we] reached with the Georgia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which sponsors the specialty plate," William Gaston, a spokesman for Georgia's Department of Revenue, told Reuters.
 
"We were just as mortified as anyone over the events in South Carolina but that doesn't have anything to do with the Confederate flag," Ray McBerry, spokesman for the state's Sons of Confederate Veterans group, added.
 
Even scarier, is the possibility that white southerners may be their own worst enemy. According to a Winthrop Poll released Wednesday, a little over half of white South Carolina residents supported the removal of the flag. Either the poll was skewed? Or the wind no longer blows southward in South Carolina?

Ben Carson: NASCAR Fans Should Keep Flying The Confederate Flag
 
The GOP presidential hopeful just nabbed the support of retired NASCAR driver Richard Petty.
 
RANDLEMAN, N.C. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Monday said NASCAR fans should continue flying the Confederate Flag, so long as it's on private property, as he received the informal endorsement of racing legend Richard Petty.
 
Petty's support marks a significant step for Carson, the only African-American in the crowded 2016 Republican field, as he navigates delicate political issues in a region that could play prominently in the selection of the next Republican presidential nominee.
 
Carson has toured the country extensively in recent years, but in some ways, the Detroit native is still learning about the South.
 
He was cautious when asked to weigh in on Petty's recent comments on the Confederate Flag, a symbol of slavery for many African-Americans and southern pride for whites. The flag is often flown prominently by NASCAR fans before and after races around the country. Petty this summer called the flag debate "a passing fancy."
 
Carson told the AP that NASCAR fans should continue flying the flag "if it's private property and that's what they want to do."
 
He also acknowledged the flag remains "a symbol of hate" for many black people and compared it to the Nazi swastika.
 
"Swastikas are a symbol of hate for some people, too. And yet they still exist in museums and places like that," Carson said, describing the decision about flying the flag "a local issue." ''If it's a majority of people in that area who want it to fly, I certainly wouldn't take it down."
 
Meanwhile, his lack of experience in the South was apparent over lunch.
 
"What are these?" he asked his wife, pointing to a small fried morsel as they began to eat. "Hush puppies," she responded.
 
A spokesman later confirmed that Monday was Carson's first time eating hush puppies, a popular southern side dish.

 
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

One of my favorite places to eat is Bob Evans. So this story really upset me:
 
HILLSDALE, MI - When presented with the choice between complying with management or displaying his Confederate flag, Wesley Rogers went with the latter.
 
Rogers told the Hillsdale Daily News that management at the Bob Evans factory confronted him about the flag after an anonymous call was placed to the office regarding the flag flying from the back of his truck. After failing to iron out a deal Friday, Oct. 2, he said management presented him with an ultimatum Tuesday.
 
"They said they were doing their best to follow up on a complaint,"
 
"I said it wasn't coming down, no way. Then they showed me my way out."
 
Rogers claims he was fired while Angela Payne, a Bob Evans spokeswoman, said he resigned, the Associated Press reports.
 
Payne told AP that the Confederate flag is "offensive to many of our customers and employees."
 
Rogers told the Hillsdale Daily News he feels he has the right to express himself and that he's not hanging it because he's a racist, but because he is just proud of his Southern heritage. 
 
 
THE US IS NOT THE ONLY PLACE WHERE THE FLAG IS CONTROVERSIAL
 
The following is from today's Canadian Broadcasting Company news feed:
 
Calgary police are investigating whether a hate crime occurred after arresting a man who disrupted a Calgary candidates debate while wearing a Confederate flag over his face in an apparent protest of the niqab.

The man remains in custody, police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said Friday, following the incident at a public forum in the riding of Calgary Rocky Ridge on Thursday night.

Calgary police are investigating whether a hate crime occurred after arresting a man who disrupted a Calgary candidates debate while wearing a Confederate flag over his face in an apparent protest of the niqab.

The man remains in custody, police spokesman Kevin Brookwell said Friday, following the incident at a public forum in the riding of Calgary Rocky Ridge on Thursday night.

Brookwell said the man showed up at the forum wearing "a handkerchief over his face that was the Confederate flag" and immediately caused a stir.

"When challenged as to why he was dressed like that, he indicated that he wanted to make a point," Brookwell said.

Things then got "heated" and the man was escorted out of the building and the doors locked behind him.
Police were called and found the man in a vehicle parked nearby.

Hate crime consideration
Brookwell said the man was arrested and police are considering charges of wearing a disguise and uttering threats, although no charges have yet been laid.

"Given the nature of these allegations, our hate crime co-ordinator will be having a look at this file," he said.

Jeff Clemens was attending the debate with wife when their baby got fussy and she left. When he went to find her, he said he saw a man wearing a hat and a Confederate flag over his face who was "being hostile" toward the women at the front door.

"I didn't want to be that guy that just stands there, so I got in between and asked, 'Why are you doing this?'" Clemens said.

He said the man replied: "I'm against the niqab."

Someone with the venue then showed up and took over, Clemens said.

'Polarizing issues'
Liberal candidate Nirmala Naidoo, who is running against Conservative Pat Kelly, Green Party candidate Catriona Wright and Stephanie Kot of the NDP in the Calgary Rocky Ridge riding, said she was disappointed and alarmed by the incident.

She said the man has a right to wear the flag and voice his concerns, but it's the alleged threats that worry her, as well as the tone of the political discourse at this point in the election campaign.
"We need to stop these polarizing issues," Naidoo said. "It's whipping people up into a frenzy. It's making people think they have to choose a side."

Brookwell said the man was not previously known to police and there was no violence at any point during the incident.
​
The investigation continues.

Independence County (Arkansas) Judge Robert Griffin confirms that he had a Confederate flag taken down last night at the Independence County Courthouse.

This action has been confirmed by Griffin this morning, who recently announced a party switch to seek re-election next year as a Republican. His response:

• I worked to get the consent of the SCV and it took a week to achieve that end. The pole was put up years ago and had various flags over time. In the current atmosphere, I convinced them of the political realities and told them how the endgame would play out. They were agreeable and sensitive to that request. With their consent, I took it down last night.

For those of you who missed it, according to Judge Griffin, the local SCV approved the removal of the flag? I've been unable to reach anyone in the local SCV camp for comment. If you are a member of the SCV camp in Independence County you are invited to issue a statement that we can publish in an upcoming issue.


Florida's Senators Consider Removing Confederate Flag From State Senate Seal

State senators are scheduled next week to begin considering whether to keep the Confederate flag on the Senate's official seal, another sign of a growing national tide against icons of the South's rebellion in the 1860s.

The Senate Rules Committee will meet Oct. 8 to begin re-examining the current emblem of the chamber. Under Senate rules, the seal includes "a fan of the five flags which have flown over Florida" - those of the United States, Confederate States of America, France, Great Britain and Spain.

But there has been a growing backlash against Confederate symbols since June, when a man with white supremacist views opened fire at a church in Charleston, killing nine people. Since then, Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, requested in June that the committee consider whether the seal should be changed.

In a memo, Gardiner did not specifically point to the Confederate flag, but wrote about how views on symbols can transform over time:

"The current Senate seal and coat of arms were first adopted in rule in 1973," Gardiner wrote. "Florida has certainly changed a great deal since the early seventies. Just as our state seal has been revised over time, I believe a periodic review of our legislative insignia would be beneficial."

In a separate letter to Rules Chairman David Simmons, Joyner called explicitly for "the removal of the Confederate flag from the official Senate seal."

Gardiner asked Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, to have a recommendation ready when the next regular legislative session begins in January. Any change to the Senate seal would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

Other legislative efforts dealing with the flag are also underway. A pair of bills (SB 154 and HB 243) - sponsored by Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, and Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg - would seek to ban government buildings or properties from displaying any flag used by the Confederacy. .

Lawmakers could also consider legislation to replace a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, whose likeness is one of two sculptures that represent the state in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

n Tuesday, more than 150 years after his death, Pvt. Preston C. Wall has finally gotten a proper funeral.  
Wall, a Confederate soldier from Company C of the Missouri Infantry, died June 29, 1863, during the Siege of Vicksburg. He was 23, but was already a seasoned combat veteran. Wall was never married and left behind no descendants.

John C. Pemberton Camp of Sons of Confederate Veterans recently put up a stone in Cedar Hill Cemetery in his honor and formally unveiled the white granite stone Tuesday during a private ceremony with a family member that finally has a marker and some way of memorializing him.

"We're celebrating the life Preston had," said John Wall of Washington, a descendant of one of Preston Wall's brothers.

Preston Walls fought in Missouri and at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, before coming to Mississippi where he fought at Iuka, Port Gibson, Champion Hill, Big Black River and Vicksburg before his death toward the end of the 47-day siege.



DOES SOUTHERN HERITAGE HAVE A NEW ENEMY?

The most unusual group has just jumped onto the anti-southern bandwagon. Joining the SPLC, ACLU, NAACP, Democrats, Republicans, SCV "Grannies," Scallywags, Carpetbaggers, Fox News, CNN and political correctness in their assault on all things Southern is CAIR, The Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The story below is so tabloidish I would not reprint it if it did not represent a real threat to our heritage. CAIR has money, a large organization, and they have the ear of fearful politicians. 

FROM YAHOO NEWS

A "Muslim-free" gun store in Florida is selling prints of the Confederate battle flag painted by the U.S.'s most controversial former neighborhood-watch member.

George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012, decided to paint the polarizing flag to raise legal fees for himself and Florida Gun Supply in Inverness.

The store's owner, Andy Hallinan, and Zimmerman are raffling off the latter's latest painting. For $50, each participant will receive a copy of the original.

Hallinan was heavily criticized after releasing a video in which he announced that Muslims were not welcome at his store.

"I will not arm and train those who wish to do harm to my fellow patriots," he said while standing in front of a Confederate flag.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) responded by calling upon the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the gun store for violating federal laws that prohibit discrimination.

 "I think it is a clear and concrete demonstration of the overlap of racism and Islamophobia. It's a clear indication that those who support the racist symbol of the Confederate flag also support bigotry targeting American Muslims," Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for CAIR, said in an interview with Yahoo News.

"Labeling everyone and anyone that has a Confederate flag as a racist is just not right," Zimmerman said to Hallinan. "That's one of the reasons I chose to reach out to you and see what I can do to help."

According to Zimmerman, the phrase has a double meaning: It refers to both the Second Amendment protecting the First Amendment and the Confederate battle flag protecting the American flag.

In July 2013, Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder charges in the black teenager's death. But he has periodically reappeared in the national press for his subsequent run-ins with the law.

​Zimmerman's latest painting brings together three highly controversial topics with which the nation is grappling: the deaths of young black men, the Confederate flag and discrimination against American Muslims.