The Battle of Frog Town

This is "The Battle of Frog Town" mock battle by members of the 25th NC Infantry Civil War re-enactors as part of the 5th Annual Franklin Folk Festival in Franklin, NC this past Saturday, the 19th of July.

It was tremendous fun.

For more information visit:

Folk Heritage Association of Macon County

Macon County Historical Society

The Battle of Iotla Ford

25th NC Infantry

Kirk's Raiders

COPS Style Ride Along at the Franklin Folk Festival

I shot this video with the idea of making a COPS-style video, and everyone involved were very cooperative, (even the ones who didn't know it played their parts well) and we had great fun doing it Saturday at the Franklin Folk Festival, an event of the Macon County Folk Heritage Association.
The people were being locked up to raise money for the Macon County Historical Society.
It was fun shooting the video, and the people being locked were good sports, and were having fun with it as well, which made for some good video.

All I have left now is to put together a video of odds and ends and of the Battle of Frogtown, and post some photos. There was so more going on that I just did not have time to capture it all, there was music being played in several locations, several local authors were present, demonstrations of local heritage and craft displays.

There was a front porch behind the Burrell Building where Betty Cabe, Danita Stoudemire, and Ralph Preston were recording the memories of people of what it was like growing up in the early 20th century. I was so engrossed by that, I didn't pay attention to my footage, and none of it came out good enough to use, although I used a portion of the audio as background of a slide show for the location.


Previously:

5^th Annual Franklin Folk Festival Part 2

5^th Annual Franklin Folk Festival Part One

Franklin Folk Festival Preview Slide Show

5th Annual Franklin Folk Festival Part 2

Part One is here.

Here are the next three videos in the series. I have just one left for tomorrow, "The Battle of Frogtown" and a short video of a COPS-style ride-along I did during the festival:



Part Two



Part Three



Part Four

I also have a series of photos to post tomorrow or Tuesday.

5th Annual Franklin Folk Festival Part One

This is the first in a series of videos chronicling my experience yesterday at the Franklin Folk Festival.

More Info: Macon County NC Folk Heritage Festival

Franklin Folk Festival Preview Slide Show

I had a lot of fun at this festival, and saw a lot of old friends, old teachers, and saw how people lived in the old days. I heard some good music, people having fun, and a skirmish between Kirk's Raiders (Yankees) and the 25th North Carolina Infantry (Confederates) in Frogtown.

I am really tired, but I wanted to give you a taste of what went on in Franklin, NC today. So here is 20 photos quickly re-sized and put in a slide show:


The Franklin Folk Festival is always the third weekend in July, and is fun for the whole family, with a plethora of things for the kids to do...some of them even educational. (Just don't tell the kids that part).

NC General Assembly Moves To Block Ethics Investigations

A bill that would prohibit the state auditor from investigating violations of the state ethics act passed a key Senate committee Monday afternoon.

The bill would require the state auditor to turn over possible violations of the ethics act to the N.C. State Ethics Commission. The ethics act deals with possible conflicts of interest involving officials and their duties.

A similar bill in the House is scheduled for a committee Tuesday.

Lawmakers took up the change after State Auditor Les Merritt began investigating a senator over his son's business dealings. The N.C. State Ethics Commission sees no problem in the case. Merritt disagrees.

Source: Under The Dome

Photos of Racing Team Equipment:


Photos by: Tim Peck - Powered by BubbleShare



Since Under The Dome did not link to the press release, I will post it here in it's entirety:

Auditor Believes Legislation is Unnecessary,
but Committee Acted in Good Faith

RALEIGH, NC – July 7, 2008

Today, State Auditor Leslie Merritt responded to the Select Committee on Government and Election Reform’s passing of SB1875. The bill entitled, “Clarify Auditor Hotline Authority/SEC,” seeks to clarify jurisdiction over Ethics Act violations and facilitate an increased flow of information between the Office of the State Auditor and the Ethics Commission.
“Respectfully, I believe that this legislation is unnecessary because two watchdogs, the State Auditor and the Ethics Commission, are better than one when it comes to uncovering abuses in State government,” said State Auditor Leslie Merritt.
Historically, a function of the State Auditor’s Office is to investigate fraud, waste and abuse in State government. Conflicts of interest between a State official’s public duties and private affairs are defined as “abuse” under well accepted government auditing standards. SB1875 may handcuff State Auditors from being able to release the results of investigations of “abuse” in a public report, despite the good faith efforts of this Committee to clarify the jurisdiction of the Ethics Act.
“I believe that any new legislation should allow for a public, transparent review of the facts of a case and not create a climate of strict confidentiality. But, the legislature makes the law and the Office of the State Auditor will respect it while continuing to provide an independent review of anonymous tips sent to our fraud, waste and abuse Hotline,” Auditor Merritt concluded.
###
Source: North Carolina Auditor
Senate Bill: 1875
House Bill: 2544


Commentary

In North Carolina, we have had a long and storied history in corruption in our state government all the way down to the local level that is far worse than what once was in Louisiana.

The Jim Black Scandal is still paying dividends, and his associates are beginning to answer for their crimes.

John Hood discusses the NC General Assembly's inability to act:


If you are unfamiliar with the Jim Black Scandal, Carolina Journal has an excellent starting place to get an overview of how things went down.

The North Carolina General Assembly has shown itself to be unable to act against it's own members, especially those in leadership position. Does anyone need to be reminded of the corruption of Speaker of the NC House Liston Ramsey?

Liston B. Ramsey of Madison County, in the North Carolina mountains, had been speaker for four terms and was seeking a fifth. He was the first speaker of the House in this century to serve so long, and he ran the House in a classically autocratic way. In fact, he and a few cronies in the House and Senate together could be said to have run North Carolina. Laws in that state are enacted after passage by both houses of the legislature; the governor's signature is not required. Nor does the governor have the power to veto -- the only governor in the nation so handicapped.

Mr. Ramsey and his friends used their power with abandon. They held closed-door meetings to determine the state budget and to allocate appropriations. The "Super Sub," a group comprising Democratic legislators, made almost all critically important fiscal decisions. When bills were marked up in open meetings, members of the House leadership even spoke in numerical code and refused to distribute mark-up copies to the public or the press.

Mr. Ramsey's arrogance extended beyond procedural matters, however. He and his "old boys" constantly stood in opposition to the policies of North Carolina's popular and able Republican governor, Jim Martin. On those few occasions when the speaker and the governor agreed on an issue, the speaker merely sought to make Mr. Martin look politically irrelevant and impotent. This in spite of the fact that the governor was elected statewide and the speaker's legislative district has a population of just 100,000.

Source: When a Speaker Fell
By Ted Blanton. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Apr 17, 1989. pg. 1

It was common knowledge that the North Carolina General Assembly was corrupt back then. The Democrats held all the power and were unwilling to act, until it became evident that the tide of public opinion was turning. GOP gains in the General Assembly, and an overwhelming victory on November 8th, 1988 by NC Governor Jim Martin (R) over Robert Jordan (D) [56% to 44%] moved the Democrats to act to preserve their hold on the General Assembly...and North Carolina. They have retained that hold ever since, and realize that an ethics investigator who is not under the influence and control of the General Assembly could upset their apple cart.

They are bringing everything they have to bear against Les Merritt, for they cannot afford to have him investigating their questionable activities...they are circling the wagons to protect District 49 Senator Martin Nesbitt. They know if he can be investigated, they all can.

Previously:

Nesbitt Ethics Problems Surface Again

North Carolina Conservative Disavows Indictment

BREAKING-- NC Senator Nesbitt To Be Indicted?

More on Corruption in North Carolina Politics

The Untold Story of The National Anthem

You will never hear that story told in our public schools these days, and that is a crime in and of itself.


Lyrics On the web:

Lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner






The National Anthem as sung by Sandi Patty:


I am so very thankful to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world.

All Day D Day Tribute on Thunder Pig

I will be posting audio all day long of radio reports issued on June 6, 1944 in tribute to those men who stormed Fortress Europe, and liberated a continent.

May we never forget them, and may we never lack for such men.

Letter From HK Edgerton: An Open Report/ Confederate Memorial Day

The latest Letter From HK Edgerton:

Memorial is defined by Webster as something serving to preserve or keep remembrance alive. Confederate is define by Webster as an alliance or uniting. The month of April in the Southland of America marks the observance of Confederate Heritage, and soon after in the month of May celebrations of Confederate Memorial Day began. These two months mark a period when the honorable people of the South came together to defend their homeland from an unconstitutional invasion steer headed by a President who would be later martyred by the victors who would write the history of the events that led up to his death instead of the actual crimes that he and the men whom he commanded committed against the Southern people. It was the perspicacity( acuteness of mental vision or discernment)of Southern women that led to these celebrations. Having witnessed the success of the scandalmonger Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel; they knew that the true history of the Southern people, the causes that warranted their actions would be forever tainted if left to the northern revisionist historians or northern academicians sent to the South to teach in the newly established public school system instituted by the federal government with the expressed charge of inculcating into the thinking processes of a nation the evils and rebellious nature of the Southern people and its own virtuosity.



On February 18, 1861, the Honorable President Jefferson Davis would give his Inaugural Address on the then Capitol steps of Montgomery, Alabama. Some 87 years later in city of Asheville, North Carolina, on February 18, 1948, I would be born to the Honorable Reverend Roland and Anna Belle Edgerton. Never in my wildest imagination would I ever have believe that as the son of former slaves that I would be given the honor not once but on several occasions ; to give the keynote speech in memory of the Confederate soldier and those who looked like me who were his family and friends and who stood by his side.



It would began for me on April 26, 2008 in the city of Ringgold, Georgia where the day before the Honorable Roger McCredie and the Honorable Kirk D. Lyons of the Southern Legal Resource Center would process a law suit against the City of Ringgold for the desecration of the Confederate Memorial at the Depot there. I would arrive in Ringgold at 8:30 AM, position myself at the front entrance of the Depot, brandishing the Southern Cross, and be joined by Pop and other Southern Compatriots later who had come to hear me deliver the keynote speech at a planned rally at the Ringgold courthouse at noon. It was reported to me that more Africans had lived in this very county and that more of them had gone off to war in support of the Southland than any other county in Georgia. I was somewhat baffled that those who remained here and were descendants of those honorable Africans would stand idly by and watch as the honor of their ancestors would be placed asunder by a few. Yet I would also learn that it was Southerners who sat on this very Council with the exception of just two who would lead this unholy charge against the Southern Cross. General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, for sure would have been disappointed at the actions of the descendants of the Africans who he had praised and put his reputation on the line for when he asked in a circular letter to President Davis , and his peers , that the Africans be brought into the Confederate ranks legally. Now they used his flag against the Confederate soldiers and the Southland that he and their ancestors loved so dearly. I would leave Ringgold and travel back two hours down Interstate 75 where I would attend the Tennessee Sons of Confederate Veterans State Re-union. After listening to a great keynote speech and having been treated like royalty by State Commander Dr. Bradley, Commander Ron Jones, past commander Ed Butler, past Commander Skip Earle, the ladies of the Tennessee Order of the Confederate Rose and their new President Ms. Jan Hensley and the many guest gathered, I would speak briefly, receive a rousing ovation that brought me near tears, and began the 6 hour drive to Marion, Alabama.



Sunday morning April, 27, 2008 I would deliver the first of two speeches for Confederate Memorial Day in the City of Marion Alabama. The first I would deliver on the grounds of the Episcopal Church, the Church of the Honorable Robert E. Lee, but not before being told by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander, the Honorable Gary Johnson that the Episcopalians had forewarned the Sons that no Confederate flag could be brought to the area of the cemetery so named Confederate Rest where the many Confederate soldiers lie in their final resting place. Two empty flag poles stood in the center of the grounds over the soldiers graves where the 1st national and Alabama secession flag had already been removed in dishonor. Commander Johnson would tell the many gathered that I was not a member of the Sons Camp there in Marion; therefore he could not admonish me for defying the request of the Episcopalians. I stood ready with the Battle Flag and delivered the keynote speech, and anxiously awaited any action the Episcopalians might bring. Here I stood on the grounds where the Bishop of the Episcopalian Churches of Alabama was also the President of the School of the South, a school so designated in its conception was to fight the very things that it now so willingly adheres to ; dishonoring the memory of the Confederate soldier and the people who united together to fight a man who had invaded their homeland and the constitutionality of their right to sovereign governance. After delivering the keynote speech, alongside the many Sons and ladies of the United daughters of the Confederacy and members of the public , we would leave Confederate Rest in a parade formation and march the some 3 miles through downtown Marion to Elmwood cemetery where once again I would deliver the keynote speech.



On Friday May 2, 2008, I would arrive in Columbia, South Carolina where I would join the ladies of the Order of the Confederate Rose, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and others in the reading of the Muster Role of the Confederate soldiers. On Saturday morning after gathering in Elmwood cemetery and listening to a rousing speech by Rev.Bob Slimp and others, we would all march back to the State House Capitol grounds where I, the Son of former slaves in the State of my mother would be given once again the great honor of delivering the keynote speech for Confederate Memorial Day. I know that she and my father looked down on this day with great pride as once again I would receive a rousing ovation from those who had gathered to listen.



On Monday, May 26, 2008, I would once again adorn the uniform of the Southern soldier and pick up the Southern Cross. I would station myself at the Zebulon Vance and General Robert E. Lee monuments as I awaited the Memorial Day Ceremony that was to take place in two hours. I would pose for many pictures and answer many questions from the many citizens and visitor who would stop and was so impressed by the young black woman who stopped with her husband and young daughter who not only wanted to take pictures, but wanted her child to understand the honorable role that black folks had played alongside their Southern White family in the War for Southern independence. I had earlier been joined by Rocky D., a prominent Radio talk show host from Charleston, South Carolina and his lady friend Becky. Rocky would comment on the many pictures I would take and the warm reception I was receiving. He and Becky would soon leave to visit the North Carolina Arboretum and tell me that they would return for the Veterans Day Ceremony at City County Plaza. Upon arriving at the Plaza, I would be warmly greeted by many who had gathered, take pictures with the Boy Scouts, the gentleman whose picture who appear on the front page of the Mountain section of the local newspaper that reported on the activities of the day, chide a woman from the North who asked of me how I could appear in a Confederate uniform carrying a Confederate flag. I told her that it was the actions of a Southern woman(MS. Nora Fontaine Davidson) that had spearheaded this event, and that furthermore Americans should never forget the Southern soldier. I received a thunderous ovation from the many other ladies who were listening to the conversation. Soon I would be greeted warmly by the Honorable Bob Caldwell, a local TV news celebrity who present the Welcome and Closing comments for the days program and the local Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. They would both express their gratitude in my presence. Mr. Caldwell would began his opening comments by talking about how Union General Logan, First Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic after being influenced by his wife upon her visits to Blanford Cemetery had recommended a National Decoration Day. “National Memorial Day.” Chaplain Candidate (2LT) Shumpert was called upon to deliver the Closing Comments after Guest Speaker Congressman Heath Shuler gave the keynote, and I must say that I was somewhat surprise to hear Sgt. Joshua Peyton O’Connor and Major Michelle Bretz read a letter from a Confederate soldier. Chaplain Candidate (2Lt) Shumpert just couldn’t leave well enough along. He came to the podium with everyone including myself expecting him to deliver the Benediction. I removed my cap, and the officer began his comments by saying that he wanted to continue the dialogue that Mr. Caldwell had started about Union general Logan. He started talking about the generals comments on the recent unpleasantness committed by the rebellious Southerners and how the efforts of the union soldier would never allow such a rebellion to happen again. On and on he went sticking it to the South, until I replaced my hat upon my head, took four steps backward and placed my flag at half staff. After Mr. Caldwell finished the closing remarks, I went directly to the stage where Chaplain Candidate(2LT) was seat and told him in no uncertain terms that I did not appreciate his comments. With a dumb look on his face, he asked another soldier and others seated on the stage, what did I say ? Mr. Caldwell must have understood my rage for he would approach me moments later and once again comment on how much he appreciated seeing me there.



Rocky D and his friend would existed from the audience soon after and ask of me if Mr. Shuler was the Mayor ? I pointed to Ms. Bellamy and asked if they wanted to meet her ? They both said yes. I approached the Mayor who was in a conversation with a member of the Statehouse. After some time I begged her apology to get her attention. Very gruffly, she said just a moment and turned her back on us. We stood patiently for several minutes waiting for the mayor to finish her conversation with the lady. Finally she turned to her left with her back still to us and asked a group of Boy Scouts and young ladies had on what appeared to be Boy Scout shirts if they wanted to attend a City Council meeting and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and gave them a number to call to do so. The Scouts looked somewhat dumbfounded by the dialogue because they had not even solicited the request. She then turn around and I introduced Rocky D and his friend. Rocky began a conversation about the Mayor of Charleston, and Mary a photographer who had been taking pictures asked the mayor if she would take a picture with me. Ms Bellamy’s reply was no, I’m not going to take a picture with him. Everyone gathered seem somewhat surprised by the Mayors response and the way she responded to Mary whose father had been a veteran in WWI and had fought in many famous battles. Mary like many people gathered who have followed my exploits with the Confederate cause knew that I had posed with many Mayors, Senators, Governors, and a host of celebrities all across this nation taking pictures with the Southern Cross adorned in the uniform of the Southern soldier , and had even posed with the young scouts who now looked somewhat more perplexed by the actions of the Mayor. All in all it had been a great day in Dixie, but I don’t think that I shall ever again attend the Asheville –Buncombe Memorial Day Ceremony.

Nikwasi Celebration Slide Shows

I have posted a couple of Slide Shows from photos I took Saturday at the Nikwasi Celebration over at Thunder Pig.

Dedication of Cherokee Heritage Trail Marker

I attended the Nikwasi Celebration in Franklin, NC today, and it was a good event.
Gordon Mercer, of the Public Policy Institute, was the Master of Ceremonies and Cherokee Chief Michell Hicks the Featured Speaker.

There were more speakers, songs, dances, craft demonstrations, Cherokee food, and a stickball exhibition game that was quite intense.

I have a lot of video to edit my way through, and since I lost my MP3 player, my options are limited, as I was using it to catch audio when I had to change memory cards in my camera and when I changed batteries. I plan on having an hour and a half to two hour show out of it by Tuesday afternoon.


Here is what is inscribed on the main marker beside the mound:

NIKWASI MOUND

You are standing on land that has been part of a town for about three thousand years. This mound was the spiritual, political, and physical center of the Cherokee town of Nikwasi. A council house or town house on top of the mound held the sacred fire, and everyone gathered there to hear news, make decisions, dance, and participate in ceremonies. Surrounding the mound were about one hundred houses, a field for playing stickball, and a dance ground, as well as hundreds of acres of crops, orhards, and gardens.

The Cherokee dominated the southern Appalachians for thousands of years. When Alexander Cuming visited Nikwasi in 1730, the Cherokees had men and women leaders in autonomous towns that functioned democratically. Cuming called a council here that was attended by more than two thousand representatives from Cherokee towns. Cuming chose an Emperor, and took a Cherokee delegation to London. In 1761 the British, former allies of the Cherokee, destroyed Nikwasi. After theCherokees rebuilt, the Americans destroyed it in 1776. The Cherokees rebuilt again and lived here until this area was taken by the Treaty of 1819.

A Cherokee legend tells that spirit warriors came out of the mound to help defend the Cherokee against an attack when the Cherokee men were away hunting. The legend goes on to say thst the spirit warriors also saved the town of Franklin from destruction during the Civil War.

The Nikwasi mound is one of the largest surviving mounds in the original Cherokee territory of 140,000 square miles. In 1946, the schoolchildren of Macon County saved their pennies and bought the mound through the Macon County Historical Society to save it from development. It is now owned by the Town of Franklin.

And here are some pictures to look at until tomorrow:

Campbell's Covered Bridge, and A Maple in the Wind

Video Ralph, of URTV, has captured Campbell's Bridge, the last covered bridge in South Carolina. Watch it at the URTV forums.

Yesterday, I caught a Maple in the wind, and due to connectivity problems, am only now able to upload the video:

Letter from HK Edgerton: An Open Answer for University of Wyoming Student

In this installment, H.K. answers a letter from a student at the University of Wyoming inquiring about the connection between the Confederacy and the Institution of Slavery:

Dear Jacob,

While I have taken the field with re-enactors on several occasions, I don’t consider myself a re-enactor. I would direct you to my web site( www.southernheritage411.com ). I believe you will find answers to your questions there. I don’t understand your question about how I reconcile the connection between the Confederacy and the institution of slavery. The economic institution of slavery had many world wide players. However, when it comes to taking the blame for it, and it’s purported evils, it is only the Southland of America and the Christian White folks from the South that are laid to blame. It would be hard to disprove that in the body politic that during the epoch in which we speak that the standards for racial superiority set forth that the white man in the South was not superior to the Africans on this continent , but also because of his chivalrous nature towards his women, his manners, his religious ethics, and tenacity in combat; he probably was racially superior to most men on God’s earth. This does not mean that I am defending the economic institution of slavery . However, in an institution that the whole world was complicit in, Africans who were lucky enough to find themselves in the Southland of America were on a path of social vertical mobility unparalleled in the annals of mankind; only to have that journey derailed by greedy Northern protagonist who were jealous of the Southern wealth. These protagonist came from many circles; religion, industrialist, politicians and so forth.



It does not take a Rocket Scientist to understand or to prove that Abraham Lincoln was in the pocket of Northern industrialist , who were hell bent on building the infrastructure of the North and maintaining some semblance of industrial superiority . The criminal behavior of Lincoln and far too many of his soldiers have been swept under the carpet of history for too long. The old game of using the African people against the only man who ever cared about him or his well being ; the Southern White man is an old ploy . It is one that has been taught well since the establishment of the public school system in the South in 1865. I can only hope that your studies at the University of Wyoming will lead you to a more truthful understanding of why an honorable people went to war against their brother who invaded their homeland and on more than one occasion almost bankrupted it . Furthermore, I hope that you can come to understand that right down here in the South, a love was formed between a man called Master and a man called slave. It is unfortunate that there are those who continue with their Reconstruction modus operandi to destroy that love .



HK Edgerton

As always, you can visit Southern Heritage 411 to find out more on this subject, and help H.K. educate people learn the truth of our shared heritage.

H.K. Edgerton to visit Ringgold Depot

I just got this Press Release:

H. K. Edgerton, noted Southern heritage activist, will visit the historic Ringgold, Georgia, and its historic railway depot on Wednesday, March 12, officials at Southern Heritage 411 announced.



Edgerton, who is black, is the President of Southern Heritage 411, a Southern heritage watchdog organization, and is the former President of the Asheville, NC, chapter of the NAACP. His purpose in coming to Ringgold is to focus public awareness on the refusal of Ringgold City Council to replace a Confederate Battle Flag that was removed from the depot’s Confederate memorial area in 2005, after members of the NAACP complained about its being flown there.



Three other flags fly on separate poles at the depot memorial site: the present-day U.S. and Georgia flags and an 1863-pattern U.S. flag. The Confederate battle flag was removed from its pole shortly after the city put it up, and was replaced by a so-called Cleburne pattern unit flag, a blue flag with a white circle that is virtually unknown to all except Civil War scholars. The city said the Cleburne flag was historically accurate because Cleburne’s division fought at the Battle of Ringgold Gap on Nov. 27, 1863. The national and local Sons of Confederate Veterans countered that evidence shows other Confederate flags were present at the battle, and that at any rate the depot display is a memorial and that the Battle Flag is the correct flag to fly in that context. The Southern Legal Resource Center, acting on behalf of the SCV, demanded that the city replace the battle flag or face legal action.



“This is just another example of the politics of appeasement,” Edgerton said Tuesday. “The city put that flag [the battle flag] up in the first place and they were correct. “Then the NAACP said ‘Boo!’ and they took it down. I will bet you that most if not all these city officials had ancestors in the Confederate army. I’d be ashamed.”

End of Press Release

Ringold is in NW Georgia, and the Battle of Ringgold Gap was a tactical victory for the Confederacy after the disaster of Missionary Ridge. The battle was on November 27, 1863.

View the Cleburne flags.

Letter From HK Edgerton: March 4th

HK Edgerton is a black Southern heritage activist and he is currently on a march to build awareness of Southern culture and history. I have been on the list to receive updates from him on his journeys via e-mail, and have recently obtained permission to reprint portions of his communications. You can support him by purchasing merchandise from Dixie Outfitters.

I will start this series with a letter sent yesterday, reprinted in it's entirety:



Florida Confederate Flag Heritage License Plates
For those who say that our flag represents a time that should not be revisited, and that having a Heritage tag in the great State of Florida would only force that visitation; I like many would welcome a moment such as that. Just maybe this time when our children who sit daily in the public school system; will be given the opportunity to hear a different story told about the things that set a region of people against their brothers of another. Just maybe this time when the story is told; the love that a man called master and that of one called slave will find reasons to be rekindled. Those of us who are truly loyal southerners and have prayed daily to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, to bring us to the point of vindication , stand ready for any public dialogue, a dialogue that should and must take place.



Here we stand in preparation to elect a new leader of this nation, and Southerners are forced once again to hold their heads in shame because of the rhetoric and slander put forward by those who come among us , groveling for votes and money as their attack upon the Southern Cross is surely an attack upon the Southern people. Obama proclaims to stand for change, but is there change in store for, or against Southern people? He is a man that continues to parade through the South praising and comparing himself to Lincoln. I personally cannot come to how any knowledgeable Southerner could or would embrace Lincoln, and any man running for the highest office in the land , especially from Lincoln’s Illinois should at least know this. John McCain fares no better. Any man who would come to the South and talk down on the Southern Cross as John McCain has done on many an occasion; is he deserving of Southern votes and monies or not ?. It’s gut check time. Do we as a proud people continue to sit back and watch as we face social and cultural genocide as our children are forced to remember their ancestors in shame while folks continue to come amongst us and change the landscape of the South. Some of the most honorable people on God’s earth fought and died under the Southern Cross for Southern Independence, both Red, yellow, Black and White. No matter the slanderous and bigoted cartoons, the slander and lies of those who are paraded before us against the Christian Cross of St .Andrew; I am a man who has adorned the uniform of the Southern Soldier while brandishing his glorious banner and trod where so called legendary civil rights leaders trod while rocks, bottles and racist epithets were hurled in their paths, through towns where the whole Black population had fled; to cheers of delight that someone who looked like me would come and tell of a time when a man call Slave and one called Master , looked upon each other as family and friend, and shared a love for each other to this very day that has withstood the evils of so called Reconstruction , the uncertainty of the turbulent civil rights (state rights) periods; though much of that love was pushed asunder, and once again is being severely tested as loyal Southern Blacks are being asked again to turn their backs on their Southern White family and the honor earned by their ancestors who stood faithfully with their Southern family in feeding, clothing and building the economies of much of the civilized world, and when the time came, stood once again beside their Southern White family, in defense of their homeland ; the Southland of America.



I don’t know how any man, or woman proposing to be elected to the highest office in this land could purport a policy to heal the rift between the peoples of other lands, when they are afraid to come clean with the people of this nation, and especially undo the distortions placed upon an honorable people and their symbols. God bless the Great State of Florida and best wishes for a successful passage of the Confederate Heritage License Plate. It is a rich and glorious heritage for all its citizens and should be proud to be scrutinized by all.



HK Edgerton

VIDEO: Southern Highlanders (1947)

I found this video in the Internet Archives:




You can download it here.

**Note: The player won't embed on the blog, so click on the link to watch instead.