Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

[Note: this blog post contains a sensitive and possible offensive issue to some people. Click to read other of the many blogs on this site or click to go elsewhere if expecting political correctness. Thanks for stopping by to visit this website.]

His Words Drove a Nation to Stand and Fight for a Right to Be Free

Patrick Henry, Second Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775

“In March of 1775, the Second Virginia Convention met at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, to discuss the state’s strategy against the British. It was here that Patrick Henry delivered his most famous speech, ending with the quote, ‘Give me liberty, or give me death!’”

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/patrick-henry#section_4

Patrick Henry referred to slavery in his famous speech to unite the movement of men, women, and children to stand and fight for independence from the British. When his peers debated whether to work out peaceful arrangements or to use force against the rule of Great Britian, Patrick Henry spoke words heard today:

“Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? … Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/patrick-henry

The slavery Patrick Henry mentioned concerned enslavement to the British, as he spoke decades before the enslavement of Negro men, women and children, rightfully become a hot topic in America.

Slavery existed in America during Patrick Henry’s speech:

“Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human chattel enslavement, primarily of Africans and African Americans, that existed in the United States of America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Slavery had been practiced in British America from early colonial days, and was legal in all Thirteen Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It lasted in about half the states until 1865, when it was prohibited nationally by the Thirteenth Amendment. As an economic system, slavery was largely replaced by sharecropping.

“By the time of the American Revolution (1775–1783), the status of slave had been institutionalized as a racial caste associated with African ancestry.” [footnote omitted]

Slavery in the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States

The photo of Patrick Henry’s statue came from the Town Square of McDonough, Georgia. Fifty yards from where it stands, a memorialized Confederate Soldier stands tall amongst the trees, the McDonough Soldier.

American Civil War Confederate Memorial

McDonough Soldier [Stood] Tall and Proud in Town Square Before Removal

The McDonough Soldier has a right to stand in the Town Square, as he is a part of History. Though he may represent an unpleasant part of history, it is history, and that statue represents the relative of someone who fought and died in America’s most gruesome war. He deserves to stand where others deemed appropriate many years ago.

Patrick Henry may have waved the Gadsden Flag during battle, another flag that some have claimed represented racism because the designer, Christopher Gadsden, was a slave trader and owner of slaves. 

Personally, I don’t see the relevance of what the designer of the flag did, as making the flag representative of slavery or racism, no more than I see the Confederate Flag representing racism because racists use it in their rallies.  (Read more on that topic in the excerpt to follow.)

If you want to know about racism, watch the news because race-related issues flood the news channels and flourishes in many cities today, all across the World; it’s not just an issue in America.

Gadsden Flag, designed by “Christopher Gadsden (February 16, 1724 – August 28, 1805) was the principal leader of the South Carolina Patriot movement during the American Revolution and a soldier and politician from South Carolina “

An Excerpt from Southern Pride-Waving the Confederate Flag.

CIVIL WAR:  I raise the Confederate Flag in this blog to rebel against all of the politically correct BS in the news about issues surrounding Southern Heritage.  Some politicians want to stop the celebration of the Confederate Memorial holiday, and to remove from state buildings and grounds: Confederate flags, monuments, statues of Confederate heroes, and other remnants of the American Civil War (1861-1865) because some people find those things offensive.  I find it offensive when people lie about history to support their agenda, such lies as the main reason for the Civil War being slavery.

Was it slavery or was it the economic edge Southern plantation owners had over competitors in Cotton markets, due to the slave labor?   Economics.  Was slavery more of an ideology used by the Union to get the poor to fight their battles?  If the Civil War was fought over slavery, wouldn’t President Lincoln have signed the Emancipation of Proclamation to free all slaves before the war began on April 12, 1861, instead of on January 1, 1863?  Weren’t the slaves used by the president to fight off Confederate forces who had proved to be a more formidable force than expected by slaughtering his troops in numerous battles?  Yes, is the most logical answer based upon the facts and history of the rich using the poor to fight their battles.

I find it offensive for politicians to use the Charleston Church Massacres that I wrote about in “Love and Evil Are Color-Blind,” as justification to remove evidence of the bloodiest and most gruesome war fought on American soil.  The war where smaller bands of Southerners held their own against larger troops of Union Soldiers, until the advent of the repeating rifle, which tilted the war in favor of the Northern troops who had more food, guns, ammunition, and other supplies, because of the economic embargoes placed on the South.  The North won the war but never defeated Southern Pride.  The Confederate flag is a reminder of that, rather than slavery, as has been used to manipulate the masses to take down the flag.

Six-hundred thousand Confederate Soldiers fought against 2,213,363 Union Soldiers.*  The southeastern states were the last to fall.  When the war ended with the surrender of the last Confederate troop on May 26, 1865, there were 646,392 Union casualties, with 140,414 of those casualties being battle deaths, compared to the 133,821 Confederate casualties, 75,524 of which were battle deaths.  After their imprisonment for their part in the war, another 26,000-31,000 Confederate personnel died in Union prisons.  With my long history as a prisoner of such forces, I suspect that most of those died due to disease, lack of medical care, mistreatment, and overall poor living conditions.

REBELS WITH A CAUSE:  Rebels, those Confederate Southern Soldiers were called, the proud label worn by those who refused to conform to ways established by a government not of their choosing.  Rebels, a  part of Southern history and Southern Pride for those who died fighting for a cause; not because of slavery or why the politicians decided to fight the Civil War.  It was about fighting to keep what was theirs, fighting those damned Yankees who come down to take their land, who raped their women, murdered their children, and burned their homes in the name of Justice–the same as had been done to Native Americans by several Union troops.

Most Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War never owned a slave and most likely never knew why they had to go out and fight, other than to defend their land and heritage.  Firing a gun, running through the woods, and working hard to survive came more natural to the Southern man who grew up hunting and fishing to survive, than it did to the Union troops. You can believe that when Union forces heard the rebel yell and saw those southern soldiers waving the Confederate Flag and charging like bulls, that it made adrenaline and cortisol levels soar, instilling fear in everyone’s heart before the battle began with a brutality not known to the men and boys who stood fighting for their lives.  Early into battle, Union troops learned to retreat or die when overran by Confederates who fought with a passion to defend their land against the invaders.

Read the complete blog at https://straightfromthepen.com/2015/07/06/southern-pride-waving-a-confederate-flag/

BOOK REVIEW – The Last Confederate Coin

BOOK REVIEW by Wayne T. Dowdy:  THE LAST CONFEDERATE COIN, S.G. Garwood and Dr. Jonathan M. Jackson

Horace Lawson Hunley designed a murderous device during the American Civil War: the H.L. Hunley, one of the first hand-cranked submarines, the very craft that took his life.  The South led the race to create the first hunter-killer submarine.

Authors S.G. Garwood and Dr. Jonathan M. Jackson, capture the reader’s attention with graphic details of America’s bloodiest and most gruesome war, the War Between the States, as they take you into the confines of the H.L. Hunley during its missions.

Historically, on February 17, 1864, the brave men of the H.L. Hunley sunk the U.S.S. Housatonic off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.  Something went wrong during the process and Lt. Dixon went to the bottom of the ocean with the Hunley and its crew, to lay at rest for 136-years; the vessel did not resurface until August 8, 2000.

The submarine took the lives of thirteen other men before its final voyage in 1864, where it took the lives of its last eight brave men, claiming a total of twenty-one men throughout its brief history; five on its first voyage and eight each on the last two.

Reading the novel and seeing the numerous photos, assists the authors at telling a story about the lives of its main characters and the story behind the H.L. Hunley, most all based on historical facts, with a love story woven into its fabric.

The Last Confederate Coin falls within the historical-fiction category, but there is a lot of truth in this fiction:  A Confederate coin discovered inside the H.L. Hunley tells a story in itself and helped to identify its owner.  That is a fact!

The plot and scenes create a vivid image of what life was like for many of those trapped in the American Civil War, and of those heroic men who lost their lives fighting for a cause, but the authors take the readers deeper than that, below the surface and into the depths of the ocean with those last eight men on the final voyage of the murderous device.

TO ORDER:  Online for $22.95 plus S&H

https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=The+Last+Confederate+Coin&type=

ORDER DIRECT:  send email to Alexius Rex Publications:  alexius@sc.rr.com (Corrlinks friendly)

Mothers & Memorial Days by Wayne T. Dowdy

TO THE MOTHERS OF THE WORLD:  Two years ago on May 8, 2015, I sent out a message to have posted on FaceBook.  My publisher read and liked it so much that she decided to post it as a blog for me.  This is what I wrote:

“Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful women out there who gave your blood and suffered unbearable amounts of pain to give life to the children you brought forth into this thing we call life.  Not to mention all you gave of yourself to raise your children the best way you could by giving them what you had been given.  May those close to you show the same amount of love on your special day.”

To all you Mother’s out there who do or do not follow my blogs, I resubmit to you the same feelings wrapped in words.  Each of you deserve praise for the sacrifices you make for your offspring and loved ones.  I decided to repost it when a friend of mine let me know he planned to plagiarize it last week, after having read a collection of my blogs.

In “Women Rule the World” (March 27, 2017), I used a bear to illustrate that women are the stronger and more intelligent of the human species.  We owe our lives to our mothers, whether she was the best or the worst, she chose not to “abort” the mission of bringing us into this world.  For those who did not read it, I will share a version of my favorite parts that caused the audience to erupt into laughter when I presented it at a special to celebrate Women’s History Month.

“I am Wayne T. Dowdy, a son, father, grandfather, brother, and an uncle, all the products of a woman, my Mother.

“The strength I saw in her and many other women has convinced me that the biggest deception in life began when an intelligent woman convinced man that he was the strongest.

“Yeah, right!  She says, go fight that bear to protect me, honey.  Bring me his meat and we will eat.  The man risks his life to please and feed her. …..

[Men do insane things to please women, some rob banks, write bad checks or worse to win them over.]

“The birth process is evidence of a woman’s strength.  Most men would not dare to suffer so much pain to give life, if given the option.  No, he is too weak for that kind of pain.

“Our species would not have survived if man carried the burden of birth.  He may go fight a bear to please her and to feed their children, but he dare not to endure such pain for nine months.

[Of course, there are those “males” who would love to get pregnant and become rich, but most men I know would mandate prophylactics (rubbers), not because of the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, but because of the risk of pregnancy.]

“Additional evidence lies in the fact that in long-term marriages, if the woman dies first, the man is soon to follow.  If the man dies first, the woman keeps on going to nurture her offspring for generations.

“My mother outlived and buried three husbands.  …..

“Yes, maybe most men are physically stronger than most women are; however, the facts show women rule the world.  Evidence also suggests that she is more intelligent.  If she wasn’t, she’d be the one to go fight that darn bear to feed her family while the man stayed home with their children.”

It made me happy to be able to help others have a pleasant day.  A Psychologist who was present thanked me as I was leaving.  She said, “You had us laughing so hard we had to hold our sides.”  🙂

MOTHERS & GOD GIVE LIFE:  Both parents may have enjoyed the process of putting us children into our mother’s belly, but it was she who suffered the pain of childbirth that allowed us to grow into the person we became in life.  The formation of our life was under her and God’s control.

HIT & RUN:  Some fathers hit and run and left the mothers to bear the pain all alone.  Single parent mothers made even more personal sacrifices to get us the life we now have.

If you know any single parents (male or female), who has children at home, give them a hug and offer to help care for their children long enough for them to go out and get some time alone or time with friends.  Everyone needs a break, sometimes!

*****

REMEMBERING REBELS:  Confederate Memorial Day is April 25, 1866, that is, depending on who you chose to believe.  Various dates and places exists as to where Memorial Day originated.  The same is true about which group of people began the day of remembrance for the soldiers who died during America’s most gruesome war.  Civil War history is convoluted.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy kept memories alive of the Civil War, by raising funds to have monuments constructed to honor soldiers who died during a period of American history that America’s government wishes to forget.

No government likes rebels.  Those darn rebels had the nerve to create their own government, and even worse, to make their own money.  How dare those darn Rebels!  Disgusting Rebels!

ERASING HISTORY:  In New Orleans, Louisiana, local government is in the process of trying to remove memories of the Civil War by removing various Civil War monuments.

On April 24, 2017, “Workers dismantled an obelisk, which was erected in 1891 to honor members of the Crescent City White League who in 1874 fought in the Reconstruction-era Battle of Liberty Place against the racially integrated New Orleans police and state militia, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in a statement.”  The New York Times, “New Orleans Begins Removing Confederate Monuments, Under Police Guard” by Christopher Mele (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/us/new-orleans-confederate-statute.html?_r=0).

Plans exist to remove other statutes/monuments.  The list includes a bronze statute of General Robert E. Lee, an equestrian statute of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate General, and a statute of Jefferson Davis, who was the president of the Confederacy.  Even the monument of President Andrew Jackson is at risk.

Removing the obelisk is more understandable than removing the other monuments; especially, statutes of real men whose family linage and heritage is rooted; e.g., Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, and President Andrew Jackson.

More of those darn rebels protested when workers and officials attempted the removal of Jefferson Davis’ monument on May 1, 2017.  Five people were arrested; the removal process put on hold.

MEMORIAL DAY:  The celebrated federal Memorial Day is the last Monday of each May.  Supposedly, Memorial Day got its start when a group of women put flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers.  Regardless of whether they fought for the North or the South, those Civil War soldiers gave their lives fighting for their country, as has all other soldiers before and after the Civil War.

It is a disgrace for those in power to attempt to eradicate a part of history.

IMPORTANT DATES:  A misconception pumped into today’s society is that the primary “cause” of the American Civil War was to free the slaves.  Don’t mistake what I write.  I do not like what happened in America during the days of slavery.  No human being deserved to be mistreated the way some slaves were, not even terrorists.

I write that to stress my point:  I do not like Terrorist cowards or predators who kill or injure innocent people because of their ideological belief.  Terrorist deserve to experience extreme amounts of pain for repayment of their acts.  But to treat them the way they deserve to be treated, would make us no better than them.  In my opinion, it would be more humane to execute them rather than torture them to death, as they deserve.

PROOF OF HISTORICAL DECEPTION:  “On July 20, 1862, John Hay, Lincoln’s private secretary, predicted in a letter that the president ‘will not conserve slavery much longer.’  Two days later, Lincoln, wearing his familiar dark frock coat and speaking in measured tones, convened his cabinet in his cramped White House office, upstairs in the East Wing.  He had said, ‘dwelt much and long on the subject’ of slavery.  Lincoln then read aloud a 325-word first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, intended to free slaves in Confederate areas not under United States authority.”  Louis P. Masur, “Forever Free.”

After writing the draft, President Lincoln was faced with another problem:  “One of the weightiest questions was whether significant numbers of Union soldiers would refuse to fight in a war whose purpose was not only to preserve the Union but also to end slavery.  ‘How Will the Army Like the Proclamation?’ trumpeted a headline in the New York Tribune.'”  Smithsonian magazine, January 2013, “Forever Free” by Louis P. Masur.

If the Civil War was about freeing the slaves, President Lincoln would not have had that concern and the article would not have appeared in the New York Tribune.

Lincoln later “[o]pened the ranks of the Army to blacks, who until then had served only in the Navy.”  He had to do that to get slaves to help the Union fight the Confederate rebels who were kicking their ass on the battle field.

Lincoln did not write the draft of the Emancipation Proclamation until 464-days after the Civil War began on April 12, 1861.  That proves that the American Civil War was not fought to free the slaves.  At least, it did not begin with freeing the slaves on the agenda, only later was it added.

Slave labor allowed the Southern plantation owners to undercut the Northerners in the Cotton market, the same argument presented today by politicians about the Federal Prison Industries, Inc. using inmate labor to produce goods and services, which raises a question of whether the practice violates the Federal Fair Trade and Practice Act (?).  (I will write a blog to cover that issue in the future.)

The Emancipation Proclamation was not signed until January 1, 1863; 165-days after Lincoln wrote the draft on July 20, 1862, which gave freedom to slaves across America, including those in the North.  In other words, wealthy Northerners still had slaves when the war began in the South.

The most liked blog of mine is “Southern Pride-Waving a Confederate Flag” (July 6, 2015).  As stated, “If the Civil War was fought over slavery, wouldn’t President Lincoln have signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves before the war began on April 12, 1861, instead of on January 1, 1863?  Weren’t the slaves used by the president to fight off Confederate forces who had proved to be a more formidable force than expected by slaughtering his troops in numerous battles?  Yes, is the most logical answer based upon the facts and history of the rich using the poor to fight their battles.”

What would the Mothers of Civil War soldiers think if they could see what is going on today about the war that claimed the lives of their sons?   We should, as a society, honor those who gave their lives to defend our country, even if their lives were lost fighting a war within the United States of America.

Feel free to share this post.  For more on the Civil War, and excerpts from THE LAST CONFEDERATE COIN by S.G. Garwood and Dr. Jonathan Jackson, visit thelastcharlestonconfederate.weebly.com.

_________________________________________

Wayne T. Dowdy writes at StraightFromthePen.com.  Post comments on this site or email them to waynedowdy@straightfromthepen.com or wtdowdy57@gmail.com

SOUTHERN PRIDE-WAVING A CONFEDERATE FLAG

July 4, 2015, Independence Day by Wayne T. Dowdy

This blog may contain issues sensitive to some.  I am sorry if you are one of them.  If so, I do thank you for stopping by but maybe it is best for you to scroll on to read my many other blogs available for your pleasure, or otherwise find something else to read.  My words Straight From the Pen are not written to please everyone because I know that is an impossible task. A lot of people enjoy politically correct, sugarcoated BS.  That is not my style.  I fly a different flag called Truth.  My intent is not to offend anyone but some things are unavoidable.  So be it!

CIVIL WAR:  I raise the Confederate Flag in this blog to rebel against all of the politically correct BS in the news about issues surrounding Southern Heritage.  Some politicians want to stop the celebration of the Confederate Memorial holiday, and to remove from state buildings and grounds: Confederate flags, monuments, statues of Confederate heroes, and other remnants of the American Civil War (1861-1865) because some people find those things offensive.  I find it offensive when people lie about history to support their agenda, such lies as the main reason for the Civil War being slavery.

Was it slavery or was it the economic edge Southern plantation owners had over competitors in Cotton markets, due to the slave labor?   Economics.  Was slavery more of an ideology used by the Union to get the poor to fight their battles?  If the Civil War was fought over slavery, wouldn’t President Lincoln have signed the Emancipation of Proclamation to free all slaves before the war began on April 12, 1861, instead of on January 1, 1863?  Weren’t the slaves used by the president to fight off Confederate forces who had proved to be a more formidable force than expected by slaughtering his troops in numerous battles?  Yes, is the most logical answer based upon the facts and history of the rich using the poor to fight their battles.

I find it offensive for politicians to use the Charleston Church Massacres that I wrote about in “Love and Evil Are Color-Blind,” as justification to remove evidence of the bloodiest and most gruesome war fought on American soil.  The war where smaller bands of Southerners held their own against larger troops of Union Soldiers, until the advent of the repeating rifle, which tilted the war in favor of the Northern troops who had more food, guns, ammunition, and other supplies, because of the economic embargoes placed on the South.  The North won the war but never defeated Southern Pride.  The Confederate flag is a reminder of that, rather than slavery, as has been used to manipulate the masses to take down the flag.

Six-hundred thousand Confederate Soldiers fought against 2,213,363 Union Soldiers.*  The southeastern states were the last to fall.  When the war ended with the surrender of the last Confederate troop on May 26, 1865, there were 646,392 Union casualties, with 140,414 of those casualties being battle deaths, compared to the 133,821 Confederate casualties, 75,524 of which were battle deaths.  After their imprisonment for their part in the war, another 26,000-31,000 Confederate personnel died in Union prisons.  With my long history as a prisoner of such forces, I suspect that most of those died due to disease, lack of medical care, mistreatment, and overall poor living conditions.

REBELS WITH A CAUSE:  Rebels, those Confederate Southern Soldiers were called, the proud label worn by those who refused to conform to ways established by a government not of their choosing.  Rebels, a  part of Southern history and Southern Pride for those who died fighting for a cause; not because of slavery or why the politicians decided to fight the Civil War.  It was about fighting to keep what was theirs, fighting those damned Yankees who come down to take their land, who raped their women, murdered their children, and burned their homes in the name of Justice–the same as had been done to Native Americans by several Union troops.

Most Confederate soldiers who fought in the Civil War never owned a slave and most likely never knew why they had to go out and fight, other than to defend their land and heritage.  Firing a gun, running through the woods, and working hard to survive came more natural to the Southern man who grew up hunting and fishing to survive, than it did to the Union troops. You can believe that when Union forces heard the rebel yell and saw those southern soldiers waving the Confederate Flag and charging like bulls, that it made adrenaline and cortisol levels soar, instilling fear in everyone’s heart before the battle began with a brutality not known to the men and boys who stood fighting for their lives.  Early into battle, Union troops learned to retreat or die when overran by Confederates who fought with a passion to defend their land against the invaders.

No wonder politicians want to remove remnants of the Civil War.  The real reason for wanting to remove the Confederate Flag and other historical relics, probably does not concern the murders of nine innocent people by a gunman who waved a Confederate flag.  Governments do not like Rebels.  The Confederate Flag reminds them of those who refused to conform to their laws and relinquish control of their southern land.

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA:  Forty-two delegates from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida gathered in Birmingham, Alabama and formed the government for the Confederate States of America in February of 1861, by electing a provisional president, vice president, and adopting a provisional constitution to secede from the Union.  Other states followed and the Civil War began two months later in South Carolina.

CONFEDERATE FLAG:  The flag adopted by their Congress in 1861 consisted of a “[r]ed field with a white stripe and blue jack with a circle of white stars. Later the more popular flag was the red field with blue diagonal crossbars that held 13 white stars for the 11 states in the Confederacy plus Kentucky and Missouri.”  [THE WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS, page 507, 2009]  That is the flag in the news that some want to remove from history.  Since the Civil War began at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, where rebel forces took the fort after two days of fighting, it seems absurd that politicians want to remove the flag from state grounds, as if that will somehow cover the history of a town that attracts tourists who come see where it all began.  If removing the flag would stop hate and racism, then I’d say take it down and burn it, but hate and racism comes from a dark place in the minds of humans, usually from the minds of those who point their fingers at others to call them racists.  The true racist stands behind the pointed finger.

As a child who grew up in the southern state of Georgia, most of us considered the Confederate flag as the Rebel Flag.  I never knew of any peers who waved a Confederate flag in association with slavery or racism; some may have, but most of whom I knew liked the Rebel Flag because of just that, it showed that we were Rebels who refused to conform to the rules of the government, which is why many of us ended up in their prisons.  We fought the law and the law won.

AMERICAN FLAG:  Should we take down the American flag in the name of political correctness because it offends people?  No.  History is just that: history.  We can’t change the past, we can only use it to better the future.  If we are concerned about offending people with our national history, how about all of the evils done in the name of justice by people who waved the American flag?  Do we take down the flag because it reminds them of the evil done by the villains who waved it?  Of course not!  How about those Native Americans who the American flag reminds of the murders of their ancestors and the desecration of their sacred land and places of worship?  How about all of the promises made to their people by government representatives during negotiations that the United States reneged on, repeatedly?  How about those who waved the American flag and put a bounty on a primary food source of many tribes–American buffalos–by claiming to need buffalo hides, but really wanted to starve Native Americans while buffalo carcasses rotted on the plains?  Do we return their land to make amends for our transgressions?

FLAGS:  The above facts are a terrible part of American history that I am a part of by being American, which I am ashamed of in one sense, but proud of in another–being American that is.  I am not proud of the atrocities committed by those before me.  I am proud to be an American and feel we have the best country in the world.  I am equally as proud of being a Southerner who will always wave the Confederate flag on an emotional level, but not physically.

Personally, I don’t care if they take down and burn all flags.  But oh, that would offend someone.  Okay, let’s take down the American flag and put up the Rainbow flag in its place to show the evolution of equal protection rights.  But, oh, that will offend someone, too.  My solution:  Fly all flags with pride that people fought and died for to protect their interests.  Cut the politically correct BS.  Let whiners grow up and deal with their emotions to learn that life doesn’t revolve around feelings.  It takes strength to survive.

My level of political correctness shows when I use BS in place of bullshit and in minimizing the use of profanity in my writings to avoid offending readers.  I feel that the Politically Correct agenda breeds passivity that causes some people to not fight because they have been taught not to offend, sometimes with troubling results when faced with predators who prey on weakness and innocent victims.  I am reminded of the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech Massacre when college students waited in a line inside of a classroom for a killer to systematically shoot each of them, rather than to fight for their lives by throwing desks or doing what they could to avoid the inevitable.  I did not fault the young adult victims.  I wept for them and their families.  I fault the system that taught them to be passive.  I do not promote violence.  I do promote standing up to fight to protect what is yours.  After all, I am a rebel waving the Confederate flag with Southern pride.  Rebels fight against the odds.

CONCLUSION:  Well, where do we go from here?  Regardless of what one does someone will find a flaw or be offended; someone will complain and want it “their way”; others will give praise over the same action, while some will never be satisfied no matter how hard you try to appease them.  How about diverting our energy and resources towards trying to find and eliminate the root cause in our society that cause people to commit horrendous crimes, like those committed by Dylann Roof who murdered those nine people at the Emanuel AME Church.  People who want to kill will always find a way to carry out their plan.  Politicians would best serve the people by focusing on a solution to eliminate evil minds.  The worse lies are told in silence, not by those waving a Confederate flag.  Taking down the flag will not accomplish anything other than creating more turmoil.  Telling the truth about the real reason the Civil War was fought and what the Confederate flag represents might ease tensions as much as removing it.

I wave the Confederate Flag to honor those brave men and women who died defending their land, the same as I wave the American flag to honor the same type of men and women who defend this country, not to honor those who have committed evil acts in the name of justice.  I apologize if that offends someone but I stand behind all I have written in the name of Southern Pride, straight from the pen.

Wayne T. Dowdy, (waynedowdy@straightfromthepen.com)

_______________

*statistics as reported in the 2009 WORLD ALMANAC AND BOOK OF FACTS.

For other Civil War related readings, go to thelastcharlestonconfederate.weebly.com