I sit here tonight, feeling the driving compulsion to write, but about what, I have no clear idea. There is no title for this piece as of yet; the top of the page simply says “Title Pending.” All my energies as of late have been focused mainly on my pro-Confederate activism, and the fight to save Confederate Monuments, and I haven’t had a lot of time to write, although I’ve wanted to. Now I’m listening to music, mostly from my childhood and youth, waiting for the creative juices to begin to flow; for the words to just come. This is nothing new, but it’s the first time I have written about this part of the process before. I’m sitting here listening, thinking, feeling… My thoughts are, as most times these days, filled with thoughts of how to preserve my heritage and my country’s true history, and what can be done to return her to the kind of republic our Founding Fathers meant her to be. Brother Phelps is singing “… Somethin’ or someone is tellin’ you it’s over and done; outside the free wind blows, let go…” Strangely it brings to mind the people who ask, “Why don’t you just let it go?” Let it go?! You might as well ask us to “just quit breathing.” Let go of the truth? Let the Honor of our ancestors, Confederate AND Revolutionary, be sullied by “educational” indoctrination and misguided hatred? It ain’t about wanting to let go or hold on, it’s about not being able to “let it go.” I think we may have found our subject matter…
I believe that most folks who ask that question do not understand the connection true Southerners (by that I mean those whose families resided in the South before, during, and after the secession of the Southern States), have with the land itself; they don’t have the emotional capacity to understand it. I also believe that most of them don’t understand our need, especially that of descendants of Confederate soldiers, sailors, and marines, to remember our ancestors and to honor them and the things in which they believed; it’s merely another thing that they don’t have the emotional capacity to understand. I believe that they don’t realize the ramifications of erasing history, for whatever reason; they don’t have the mental capacity or the imagination to think that far ahead. It is a fact that most of them believe the propaganda that they were indoctrinated with by the nation’s educational systems, and don’t want to hear the truth; maybe because of the danger it presents to the beliefs that have been ingrained in them. I do not intend for mention of the lack of certain capacities to be insulting, I am merely pointing out my observations; I believe the lack of these capacities to be the result of the aforementioned multi-generational indoctrination of our children by our nation’s educational systems.
A Southerner’s connection with the land itself comes from generations of living in an agricultural economy, because our families’ livings come from the land, and have for, in some cases, centuries. It comes from the blood, sweat, and tears of those same generations being poured into this land through decade upon decade of toil and war. It comes from the knowledge that the remains of generations of our ancestors are interred in the soil of this beloved Southland of ours, which brings us to the need to honor our ancestors.
Our need to remember and honor our ancestors and the things in which they believed comes from knowing the truth of things about which history lies. History has construed them all, and by association of descent is construing us all, as racists, white supremacists, and fascists. The accusations of fascism are laughable, as nothing about the definition of fascism resembles the ideals of us or our ancestors, while the behavior of those who call us fascists is the very definition of the word; they are fascism incarnate. As for the accusations of racism and white supremacy, they did indeed exist, but no more in the South than in the North; I give you Abraham Lincoln, the “Great Emancipator,” as one example. There were abolitionists in the South; I point to the many Quakers and others who were involved in the Underground Railroad as examples. The greater majority of men in the Confederate armies were non-slaveholders; definitely not men who were fighting so that somebody else could keep his slaves, but instead men who were fighting against tyrannical oppression and the violation of States’ rights. We honor them in thanks for what they sacrificed for us. We are not all racists; no more so than anywhere else in the country.
As for the ramifications of erasing history, no matter what the reason, history forgotten is history that shall be repeated. The monuments to the soldiers, sailors, and marines of both the Confederate and United States are there to honor those men for the sacrifices they made for their beliefs. They are also there to remind us that something terrible happened here, in this country, and that we must do all we can to make damned sure it is NEVER allowed to happen again. If you erase that history, it could very easily happen again; are you prepared to accept the responsibility for such a thing as that?
The propaganda that our opposition has been indoctrinated with has them deifying Abraham Lincoln, one of the most vile excuses for a human being to ever walk the face of the Earth, and, without a doubt, America’s most beloved white supremacist. It has convinced them that the people of the South were, and still are, evil. It has taught them that Southerners are all about hate and racism, and they believe it to the point of passionately hating us because of it; their hypocrisy, born out of ignorance as it may be, knows no bounds.
Why don’t we just let it go? The answer is “Because.” Because history has lied, and because our honor, and that of our ancestors, has been attacked, degraded, and belittled. Because we are not all racists and white supremacists, and because we want the truth exposed to the light. Because we want it historically recognized that “Honest” Abe Lincoln was not a “Great Emancipator,” but was instead a white supremacist of the worst caliber, a liar, and a president who repeatedly violated the sanctity of the Constitution of the United States in order to achieve his own ends. Because we want it known that the preservation of the institution of slavery in America was not a primary driving force behind the War of Northern Aggression, and because we want it to be recognized that the greed, both for financial gain and political power, of the industrial Northern States and the Northern-controlled Federal government was in reality very much a driving force behind the secession of the Southern States, and that the initial request by the Federal government for troops to invade South Carolina was another. Because we want our monuments left alone, or as the case may be, returned to their rightful places. Because we want our flags not only left alone, but treated with respect; they represent American servicemen who fought for the republic gifted them by their grand-fathers, and they earned and deserve that respect. Because we can still hear the ring of clashing sabers and bayonets, and we can still smell the powder burning, and there’s a better than even chance that we will until the end of time. You see, it isn’t possible for us to “just let it go.” We are patriots, in the truest sense of the word, and we shall never “just let it go;” to us, that would be treason to both country and kin, and therefore it is not an option. Why don’t we just let it go? Why don’t you just try listening to us and then think things out and form your own opinion? I’m willing to have a civil conversation about it anytime…
24 January 2019
K. Lance Spivey
Chairman
Board of Directors
Heirs to the Confederacy
Deo Vindice… [x]