(Confederate) Flags Across the Ouachita

by Al Benson Jr.

One Friday afternoon each year in the middle of April the Lea Joyner Bridge across the Ouachita River that separates the cities of Monroe and West Monroe, Louisiana plays host to an unusual event.

On this day, members from many of the Sons of Confederate Veterans camps in the Monroe/West Monroe area gather on the bridge and display Confederate flags, all kinds of Confederate flags, to the public driving over the bridge and they usually do this during rush hour so there is lots of traffic. Some come dressed in Confederate uniforms, some don't, but everyone on the bridge for this gathering has some sort of Confederate flag to wave at the passing crowd. This event usually lasts through rush hour, so lots of folks get the chance to see all manner of Confederate flags waving as they drive on by.

This is a visible commemoration of the Confederate heritage of the area and these folks are not bashful about waving Confederate flags at people. They are not trying to "offend" anyone but they are thankful for their area's Confederate heritage and they are not about to hide their Confederate flags under the bed or in the basement as the politically correct leftist crowd fervently wishes they would.

The Confederate flag is a living symbol of their heritage. None of them looks upon it as a "racist" symbol. It has never meant that to them, but they have grown tired of seeing everyone else's  heritage being celebrated while theirs is denigrated. They have grown tired of observing strident Cultural Marxism being practiced upon the South by socialists and Marxists from Washington, D.C. on down, and folks, let me tell you, there are lots of socialists and Marxists in Washington and, unfortunately in many of our state capitols. Many of these SCV folks in this area have read Donnie Kennedy's and my book Lincoln's Marxists and they know what the deal really is.

I have been privileged to stand with them on two different occasions for this event, waving a Confederate flag (no I am not ashamed for having done so) and it is interesting to watch the folks driving by and see the different reactions you get from them. Some folks drive by and toot their horns and wave enthusiastically. Even though they've been brainwashed in government schools there is enough of the memory of their heritage left that a Confederate flag is a positive reminder of that heritage and they react positively to it. Interestingly enough, a lot of those who respond this way are younger folks. I take that as a good sign.

There are some older folks that respond positively and there are many others that look as though they'd like to, but can't quite bring themselves, in this politically correct environment, to go through with it. There are always a handful that, naturally, don't like it, and their responses vary all the way from the proverbial "middle finger" to things more verbally intense, but they are a minority, thank the Lord. One flag-waver I talked to today said he had had half a dozen or so black folks that had waived at him and his flag. Some black people, it seems, are waking up to the fact that some of the"racist" hogwash they have been fed is just that--hogwash. This is the kind of event that the local "news" media wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. If three people with Malcolm X flags showed up, they'd be there in droves, but Confederate flags are to be ignored as much as possible--even when they are patently visible.

I'd like to encourage other Confederate groups around the country to do something like this once or twice a year. I've noticed that there are "Confederate Flaggers" groups around, though mostly in the East, that come out to demonstrate against egregious  heritage violations, and that's good. Maybe we need more of them in other areas.

At any rate, the SCV camps in the Monroe/West Monroe, Louisiana area (and there are several) have come up with a unique way of displaying their Confederate heritage and it does get noticed, even if the "news" media can't be bothered reporting on it. You could say that these SCV camps do reach the public with their efforts--not because of the "news" media, but in spite of it!

Appomattox Wasn't Really the End (Especially for the North)!

by Al Benson Jr.

On April 6th I read an article by a thoroughly politically correct gentleman named Charles J. Dean on the website www.al.com dealing with the so-called "end" of the "Civil War." I don't know where Mr. Dean learned his history, but Lenin could not have taught him any better.

Mr. Dean noted in his article: "On April 9, 1865  General Robert E. Lee surrendered his sword and his Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses Simpson Grant marking the end of the Civil War." Mr. Dean has swallowed the fiction most of us were programmed with in government schools--namely that Appomattox was the end of the War and that was it.

Actually, all General Lee surrendered at Appomattox was the Army of Northern Virginia and no more. He could have surrendered all the Southern armies in the field but he did not do that. And there were other Confederate armies in the field. Joe Johnston in North Carolina did not surrender until April 26th and there were others after that. And the Confederate Government never did officially surrender. Jeff Davis and his cabinet fled Richmond and continued to try to govern on the road. Some were eventually captured and some were not. But no official surrender. And I think the last battle of the War, officially, was fought at Palmito Ranch in Texas in either late May or sometime in June, I can't recall which right now.

But Mr. Dean, in his verbal assault on the South says: "But all these many years later I sometimes wonder if that bloody war for some of you has ever ended. Or if some of you have ever accepted the defeat the South was dealt." He then went on to write about how the Confederate Flag was "racist" from its inception and how the South fought to maintain slavery. You've seen and heard it all before. Most of it can best be described as the usual Cultural Genocide perpetrated by Yankee/Marxist propagandists since the end of the War--and the fact that it is still being propagated shows that, for the Yankees, the War never really ended. Oh, the shooting part ended alright, but the Cultural part has continued for 150 years now, thanks to Northern vitriol--and shows no signs of diminishing.

Thankfully, quite a number of folks contacted Mr. Dean to disabuse him of the Yankee/Marxist propaganda he was pushing and I guess, from his comments, some of them were rather less than polite. Although from reading his comments, I don't think it would have made any difference if all the replies had been the epitome of politeness and correctness. They would not have been able to confuse him with the facts.

I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. I know a preacher who is also a historian and one time he talked with someone that told him, quite bluntly "You lost the War, get over it." To which he replied that the South could accept having lost the War but what they couldn't accept was the fact that the North tried to destroy their culture (and is still trying). That's what they could not accept. In regard to the South and her culture, Cultural Genocide (Cultural Marxism) has reigned in this country almost since the War ended. "Reconstruction" and Yankee public schools were the start of it and it has gone on, to one degree or another, for decades now. It still continues. The present-day "reconstruction" crowd is bound and determined to remove any and all memories of Southern culture--flags, statues, place names, street and park names, all of it. It must all be annihilated--except for the memory of slavery (which the North also had, but that fact has been conveniently swept under the rug). The memory of slavery will, they hope, produced "white guilt" in the South and maybe from that the reparations crowd can accrue a little of the long green from the guilt-ridden. In other words, much of it is a scam.

And they have made lots of Southern folks feel guilty when the should not have. And as far as "racism" there was every bit as much of that in the North (still is) as there was in the South. It just doesn't get talked about because the real agenda is to prostrate the old, Christian South. That's what it's all about. So, in reality, the North has been fighting a culture war against the South since Appomattox--and before. Southern folks should quit buying into the guilt trip, start doing some homework and pointing out the sins of the North--and there are many to be pointed out.

I speak as someone who was born in the North, but I've lived in the South for over twelve years now, and I've watch how Northern Marxists play this Alinskyite  game against the South and most Southern folks seem too polite to resist. Folks, start resisting! Do the homework, find out where your accusers are really coming from (the hard left) and start exposing them as the Scripture commands in Ephesians 5:11.