A Repeat Performance--After the Battle Flag Again

by Al Benson Jr.

Sounds like something most of us have heard before, many times before. The politically correct (cultural Marxists) want the Confederate battle flag at the State House in South Carolina taken down. Supposedly it was not flown at half staff when all other flags were to commemorate the shooting at the black church in Charleston and for that reason it deserves to be taken down.

But like the good Marxist they are, the people manipulating this situation are trying to kill two birds with one stone--a typical Marxist ploy--if you can push one agenda that hits two critical areas then you've made your day. So they look at this kid who did the shooting in the black church in Charleston. One thing I got off the Internet today said: "The gunman, according to information that's come out today, had a Confederate flag on his ornamental license plate and wore a jacket with the flags of Rhodesia and South Africa in the days of apartheid." I mean, after all, isn't that enough reason to ban all Confederate flags across the country right there? I caught an interesting comment about the flags of Rhodesia and South Africa on the kid's jacket last evening in the email. The man who commented (and he knows more about this kind of thing than I do,) said he wondered, if, looking at the flags on the kid's jacket, they might have been photoshopped. I mean, they wouldn't try to pull something like that on the public would they??? You better believe they would. Look what they did with Obama's "genuine" birth certificate a few years ago. An expert said the whole thing was photoshopped. And we're told the kid had a Confederate flag on his licence plate. Now there's the crime of the century right there! I see lots of Confederate flag license plates here in Louisiana but that doesn't mean all the people that have them on their cars and trucks are potential shooters or terrorists or "racists" or whatever else the politically correct infraction of the day happens to be this week.

So all the leftist outfits like the SPLC and the NAACP can rant about how horrible those nasty Confederate flags are and they can now demand that the one on South Carolina's state house be taken down. I hope the good people in South Carolina stand up to this cultural genocide and tell these cultural Marxists to stuff it! Years ago the NAACP and its leftist friends agreed to have the Battle Flag put in its present place at the State House in South Carolina in return for getting it off the flagpole at the capital. Now we are finding out that this was only step one in their agenda to completely remove it. Some of us knew that back in 2000 and said so, but lots of people who wanted to "be nice" to the leftists didn't want to believe that. They should have because that was their deal from day one and they have never deviated from that goal. I said, years ago, and also recently, that those people wanted our faces, our culture, and our flags in the mud with their jackboots standing atop them. That's their agenda for us, folks, get used to it, and quit giving them the "benefit of the doubt" because all they will do with that is to shove it down your throats with both hands.

So the Marxist crowd wants to be rid of our flags and symbols. They also want to be rid of our guns, and so their political shill in the White House is, yet again, calling for more gun control and will, no doubt, do whatever he thinks he can get away with to negate our Second Amendment rights, which are totally reprehensible to him and his friends. Look at it this way--it's lots easier for them to take down your symbols and flags if they already have your guns!

And so this one event in Charleston, and no one denies that it was a tragedy, will serve two purposes for the Marxist crowd if they can pull it off--gun control and Confederate flag control. These two agendas are what all the fuss is really about.

I've seen several columnists comment that all the kids involved in these shootings have been on some kind of psychotropic drugs. How much you want to bet this this angle of these situations will be completely ignored by our intrepid "news" media? That truth doesn't fit the "gun control/flag control" agenda so it will be ignored.

(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!

It's All Cultural Genocide

by Al Benson Jr.

This may not seem to some folks to have much to do with Southern heritage and the Cultural Genocide agenda that is being perpetrated on the South but actually, the two situations run in tandem with one another.

A friend in the Confederate Society of America sent me this. The title of it is: "Black Student Union Wants Campus Building Renamed After Most-Wanted Cop Killer." And this happened, where else, but the University of California at Berkeley, the Marxist Mecca of the West (left) Coast. The commentary I received continues: "UC Berkeley, the pinnacle of activist colleges, allows for a Black student union--a problem in itself, (can you imagine the fuss is someone wanted a white student union). This so-called 'union' is pressing to rename a campus building after a cop-killing black female, who murdered a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973 and then fled to Cuba.  Assata Shakur, formerly known as Joanne Chesimard, is a former black panther and the first woman on the FBI's 'Most Wanted' terrorists. I'm sure she's quite worthy of such a distinction at such a liberal/progressive college as UC Berkeley."

My friend noted that, for about 25 years, similar groups across the country, most especially in the South,  have been pressing, usually with success, to rename buildings, bridges, streets, parks and all manner of other things that have anything to do with the Confederacy or Confederate Veterans. Groups have been recently involved in removing Confederate flags in Lexington, Virginia at Washington and Lee University which, if some had their way, would probably be renamed Marx and Lenin University! Lee/Jackson Day will soon be only a fond memory in Charlottesville, Virginia, thanks to the efforts of some "community organizers" in that fair city. "Community organizers!" Where have you heard that term before?

A few valiant Confederate heritage groups have protested much of this, but they are small and don't get much help or support from other patriotic groups. Years ago, I recall a flap over Confederate flags in a cemetery where Confederate soldiers were buried and the Sons of Union Veterans spoke up and supported the Confederates. Not much of that going on today. Now there is even a move to remove US flags at certain "progressive" campuses around the country and veterans groups are all up in arms over it. But they weren't too keen on supporting the Confederate groups in a similar situation. I wonder if they expect support now from the Confederate groups in the name of "patriotism."

Years ago, probably about 20 now, some of us said that when these Marxist (and they are Marxist) groups had finished mangling the Confederate flag they would proceed to go after the US flag. Nobody wanted to hear it. Well, folks, the day has arrived and most are still clueless. My friend stated: "This is because too many 'good people' are clueless as to Marxist methodology and therefore are clueless as to how to prosecute a war to stop their aggression/takeover. Eventually, they will show up at your front door."

This is all the result of a century of propaganda against the South first, and then all of America next, by "progressive" (socialist) politicians, college professors, and even some "useful idiot" preachers. This kind of thing is NOT happening by accident and these events are not "coincidental." There is an agenda behind it all and until Southern folks begin to wake up and realize that and to realize they have to help each other combat this sort of thing, it will continue--until all your parks, streets, schools, and whatever else, have undergone name changes and are now named after Marxists and socialists who have been responsible for tearing down the country, beginning with the South.

About now some good Christian folks will speak up and say--"Hey, don't worry about this, the Lord  is in control" and He is, no doubt of that. But maybe, just maybe, He might want to use YOU to exercise some of that control in these situations and you ain't having any. Think about that.

Some Minor Disturbance Over What Stephen Dill Lee Really Said

by Al Benson Jr.

It seems that my most recent article about Stephen Dill Lee's Charge to the Sons of Confederate Veterans stirred up a minor tempest in the proverbial teapot. Within 24 hours of its being posted, replies came from several sources that said that "Remember it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations" was not a part of Lee's original address. Some friends of mine did some checking and it appears they may be correct on that one point, though I took the quote from an SCV web site. So if I got it wrong so did they. It seems that this particular portion of his Charge had the wording changed to this in 1906 and it reflected something other that what Lt. General Lee said, sort of a compromise in semantics, if you will, a slight toning down of the original wording.

At any rate, as I quoted from what was apparently  the 1906 version rather than the original, I stand corrected.

There seems to be, even today, a bit of a fuss over how this terminology was parsed out and what was really said. There are those who will argue for historical correctness, and that's okay. I strive for that myself, even though I don't always get it perfect. However, what we often end up with in disagreements like this is a situation where those who have gotten a particular quote, or whatever, correct will never go any further than their historical argument, and it's usually an armchair argument rather than an active one.

I've followed SCV "politics" like I have the politics of many groups over the years and I know enough to realize that there are factions within the SCV that argue about what the organization should be doing. Some want it to be merely an organization that puts flowers and flags on Confederate graves and keeps the lawns at Confederate cemeteries mowed, with little or nothing beyond that. Others want the SCV to take a much more activist role in presenting historical truth and contending for that truth. I guess, were I able to officially belong to the SCV, I would belong to the latter group rather than the former.

Over the years some have felt I was a bit too much of an activist, and often they were not hesitant to let me know that. Maybe that's why I never quit being one. Seems to me if you believe in something and feel it is worth defending or fighting for then its worth doing at actively as long as you can. My wife and I have supported and acted in behalf of several causes over the years of our married life, and always felt they were connected at the theological level even though the connection might not be apparent at other levels to most people. We can no longer do this as actively as we once did. Age and medical conditions slow one down, but on the other hand we are not ready to lie down and concede defeat either. Helping to prepare another generation to take up the fight is also important. After all, as Christians, we have a multi-generational worldview and where we have, by God's grace sown some seed, others will, also by God's grace, come along to water.

So, in a sense, arguing over Lt. General Lee's exact wording in his Charge over 100 years ago, while it is important to get it right, really begs the question. And the question still is, What should the SCV be doing? 
What was the original intent of the organization? If it was only to decorate graves, then I guess we could paraphrase Scripture and ask "Do not even the Yankee/Marxists do the same?" And some of them don't really have to do anymore, because their grandfathers wrote the "history" books didn't they? Yet they are not content to just let it lie, but rather they turn out a continuous  stream of political correct invective that relentlessly attacks all things Southern and Confederate.

If the Confederate Battle Flag was only a flag for grave tenders then why did the NAACP so vehemently attack it several years ago and stir up a firestorm over it? Of course many of us realize the NAACP membership was flagging and they needed a whipping boy to drum up support for the politically correct shock troops and to enrich the coffers, but was that the only reason? Why do the politically correct Marxists (and they are Marxists) continue to attack the flag and Southern heritage even today? It seems to me that the SCV, as well as other Southern and Confederate groups, has an adversary that is determined to stamp out everything they ever stood for. And if that's the case, then just tending your ancestors' graves isn't enough. If that is, indeed, the case, then you better learn how to rise up from tending the graves of your honored dead and learn how to fight back. If you are willing to just sit back and let the Cultural Genocide crowd run all over you while you are trying to be "nice" then you are--well, I can't say what you are--it would probably get my blog tossed off the Internet.

It seems that the SCV, like other groups, has to decide which was it's going to go. Personally, I was never in favor of letting my adversaries stomp all over me if they were Marxists. With other Christians, and other well-meaning folks you can often agree to disagree and let it go at that. You can't do that with Marxists, or with any of the leftist crowd. There is no peaceful co-existence with them except on their terms and anyone with an ounce of sense won't play that game.

All you need to is to check out the political persuasions of those who practice Cultural Genocide on the South and you will see what I mean--all the way from the political left, to the educational left, to the Evangelical left--they are all leftists, and as such, your destruction, culturally and otherwise, is their goal.

So whatever Lt. General Lee's Charge did or didn't say, the SCV has to consider the question of what they are going to do to deal with their Cultural Marxist adversaries. That is the ultimate question for all the various groups that would defend the South, Southern tradition and history, including the Confederate States, or the Southern way of life.

Start by learning who your enemies are. Learn how to expose them.  Then learn how to oppose them, because just tending the graves of your ancestors, as important as that is (and I don't discourage that) is not going to cut the mustard in the days to come and any organization that proposes to do that and nothing else, has got major problems.

A Really Big Confederate Flag In Lexington, Virginia

by Al Benson Jr.

The parochial city of Lexington, Virginia has a new Confederate Battle Flag, on private property, on Route 60, which is just outside of the city limits of Lexington. Thank Heaven for private property, because if the city of Lexington owned all the property then they would be able to drop a large part of their history and heritage right down the memory hole.

You might be curious as to why I labeled Lexington as parochial. Look at it this way. Any city that consciously obliterates part of its history and denies part of its heritage is a city that will not long endure. At some point, its provincialism will become apparent to the point that it will cease to be a place of any importance, and it will eventually be swallowed up in that great nether world of political correctness and "diversity."

This month we celebrate the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson, probably two of the finest Christian patriots this country has ever produced. However, thanks to the perpetual whining of some disaffected minorities, their memories must now be erased in Lexington and their distinguished places in that city must be denied or at least denigrated. A place that denies the great among them is destined for the ash heap of history. To deny great men is to put emphasis on the mediocre and the pedestrian--and that is what Lexington has deemed is the only way to go. No Confederate flags in that august city--they might "offend" someone who does not want to understand their true history and therefore has an agenda for their demise without any opposition  from the local folks.

Ahh, but there IS opposition, darn it,  and those local rednecks just won't shut up and go home to watch their car races or football games, or whatever else the elite has designed to keep them occupied so they don't notice what is going on. They want to see the symbols of their history and heritage flying aloft without shame--and they have a right to that, contrary to the wishes of the offended minority. These minorities are not the only ones with rights, although they doubtless wish to have it so, as so they work to get ordinances passed that will remove the rights of others so they can exercise theirs with no opposition or competition. But it ain't quite working out in Lexington. Hence that big Confederate Battle Flag out on Route 60--long may it wave!

And we should not hesitate to honor Lee and Jackson, not only in Lexington, but all across the South. Fly your Confederate flags, put new bumper stickers with flags on your pickup trucks, and let people know you are thankful for your heritage--not proud and arrogant, but thankful.

Lee and Jackson were both humble Christian men who relied on Jesus Christ for their salvation, unlike many of those who have days or times commemorating them nowadays and who were the friends of communists and other various assorted leftists.

I wonder if, someday this week, over 1,000 people marched down the main street of Lexington carrying Confederate flags, would the City Council try to have them all arrested? I wonder if such an event would be considered the use of the Cloward/Piven strategy going in reverse. Interesting thought.

Reasons To Fly the Confederate Battle Flag

by Al Benson Jr.

A friend in Southwest Virginia recently sent me an article posted by The Virginia Flaggers back in December of last year. It listed 12 reasons to fly the Confederate Battle Flag. I can't list all of them here, but there were some pretty good ones among them so I'd like to comment a bit on them.

 They started off with: It is one of the oldest Christian symbols on Earth (The St. Andrews Cross) and silently but eloquently lets the world know that a Christian family resides at the residence where it is flown. Although many don't comment on it, this is one of the major reasons the Battle Flag is so hated among the communists, socialists, and various other bottom-feeding leftists around the country. The Battle Flag is, indeed, a Christian flag and the leftists hate it because they hate Jesus Christ. To them, He is competing for the Kingdom of God with them and they'd love to dethrone Him, as Satan wanted to do in Matthew 4 but was unable to. His disciples, however, have not given up yet and they still keep trying. Sorry guys, you're not going to make it. If you couldn't keep Him in the tomb on that first Easter morning you won't be able to remove Him from God's right hand now. But you have to keep trying, I guess. After all, when you're beaten you have to do something to keep others from knowing.

Another good reason: It, (the Battle Flag) is a universal symbol of resistance to tyranny, having been sighted flying in nearly every modern day conflict where people were, or are fighting an oppressive and despotic governance. And the leftists and ultra-liberals realize that, and since they are the Fathers of all tyranny in the world today they must automatically hate any symbol that represents resistance to tyranny.

Yet another good one: It is a reminder that Liberty is a God-given right, not a commodity to be controlled by greedy politicians, left-wing liberal teachers, and power-crazed activist judges. And it's also a reminder that Liberty is worth fighting for. You can bet the theological and political Left grits its collectivist teeth when reminded that it is God that bestows liberty, not some socialist regime that tells you that you are free when they toss you a few political crumbs. "If you like your health insurance then you can keep your health insurance." Even their "freedom" is built upon lies!

And another important reason: It lets those who would oppress us, and steal our Liberty know, they have not yet succeeded, and will not have succeeded, until they have killed every last one of us, and destroyed every last Battle Flag. This has seldom happened in any oppressed country throughout history and will not happen here, unless we fail to educate our children about the real meaning of the Flag. And here, we have our work cut out for us. We not only have to educate our children about the meaning of the Battle Flag, but we have to educate them as to what the War of Northern Aggression was really all about and how a Unitarian/socialist Northern government sought to destroy the Christian culture of the South both before and after the shooting was all over. "Reconstruction" was a Marxist program--the term even came from Marx. The hard truth is, unless we start giving our children a Christian education and start doing it seriously, we will lose not only our children but the country as well.

That's a somber thought, but we'd better begin to dwell on it and get those kids out of public  schools that are under the control of our adversaries. You are only one generation away from losing your Christian culture, your heritage and your liberty. What you do with your kids will determine your (and their) future.

Politically Correct Professors

by Al Benson Jr.

On my blog spot http://revisedhistory.wordpress.com  I have been working on a series of articles about secession and all the reasons for it and why it was, and is, legal. So far the reception of these articles has been pretty good and quite a few folks have been reading them. I've done 6 or 7 in a row up to this point.

Most of the commentary I have gotten back from folks has been positive, but then, with my pro-Southern audience I sort of expected that most folks would tend to agree with me.

However, after the writing of these last 2 articles, I have come across a history professor (or rather he's come across me, I don't know which) from a community college on the West (Left) Coast and he is busily emailing me replies to my articles trying to show me how far off I am--that secession is not legal, that the Constitution was not a compact between the States, which I believe it was, but was, rather, a situation that, once a state got into it they could never get out unless all the states agreed to let them go.

To me this is the usual politically correct version of history, and also, to me, political correctness is really nothing more than Cultural Marxism, which is nothing more than Marxism taken to a new level. No doubt there are many folks who have bought into political correctness that have no idea of what it really is or where it came from, but unfortunately, they do as much damage with it as those Marxists that do realize where it came from and what its goal (the destruction of Western culture, particularly Christianity) really is.

Since secession can be practiced on many levels, I would advocate, for folks who have not bought into the political correctness permeating the culture around them, that they secede culturally from the politically correct culture around them. One way to do this would be to remove your children from the government school system, which spreads political correctness around as much, if not more, than many other government institutions. Take your kids and secede from the public school system. Find a good Christian school for them or if you are not able to afford to do that, then teach them at home. It is something that can be done, not all that expensively, and there are lots of home schooling resources out there now that didn't exist when my wife and I home schooled our kids back in the late 1980s.

Private Christian education would be a major step away from political correctness in the area of education and I would recommend it to all that are able to do it.