I sthis for real? (freep letter to my local paper)

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14211638&BRD=2271&PAG=461&dept_id=462943&rfi=6

Bush's second term: End of Southern culture or beginning of rescue?

To the editor:

On Feb. 11, 2005, President Bush came to Raleigh, N.C. to talk about Social Security. When Bush took to the podium, Mr. H.K. Edgerton called from the balcony, "Mr. President, are you taking any questions from the cheap seats?" The president responded, 'Yes sir, I am. "Edgerton told Bush he had been awaiting an answer to his letter, and had brought a copy in case Bush had not seen it.

At that point, Bush dispatched a secret service agent who accepted the letter from Edgerton and took it directly to the president. Bush glanced at it and called to Edgerton, "I promise you I will read this shortly and you'll be hearing from me."

Text of H.K. Edgerton's letter to George W. Bush

Dear Mr. President:

Earlier this week, the South, voting as a solid bloc for the first time in decades, helped you achieve a second term in office. Now I am writing to request a meeting with you to discuss ways of achieving cultural justice for millions of these same Southerners, who find themselves the victims of the only prejudice and discrimination still allowed in America.

Mr. President, I am a black man, the descendent of slaves. I am a former NAACP officer. Yes, I am also Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the Southern Legal Resource Center, an organization that advocates for Southerners' civil rights. And in 2002, I carried a Confederate flag and marched 1,606 miles from Pack Square in Asheville, N.C., to the Texas Supreme Court Building in Austin, where I stood to demand the replacement of two Confederate plaques that had been removed. (I believe you may recall the case.) All along my march to Austin, I was greeted by an astounding outpouring of love and support from blacks and whites alike, ordinary Southerners who share a common heritage.

These people, my Southern family, hunger and thirst after righteousness.

They have been fired from their jobs, had their reputations ruined and their lives disrupted, been ridiculed, libeled, slandered, injured and even killed for trying to express their pride in who they are and for trying to tell the truth in the face of the tyranny known as "political correctness." Most deplorably, my people see their children force-fed politically correct lies in the public schools, where they are bullied and intimidated if they wear clothing depicting a flag that former President Carter called "a legitimate American icon." Dr. Eugene Genovese, a northern-born, Harvard-educated scholar, has said, "We are witnessing a cultural and political atrocity - an increasingly successful campaign by the media and an academic elite to strip young white southerners, and arguably black southerners as well, of their heritage, and therefore, their identity. They are being taught to forget their forebears or to remember them with shame."

In short, there are a lot of Americans here in the South who are having some very un-American things done to them. This deeply offends the American sense of justice and freedom that was instilled in me from birth. I have carried my flag - the cross of the apostle Andrew - down enough American roads to know that nearly all Americans, as individual children of God, instinctively respect and honor each other's history and heritage. The cultural holocaust that is ruining the American South is driven by self-serving special interest groups, media and politicians. That is why I am appealing to you; you are, after all, the duly elected leader of all Americans.

Mr. President, your second administration can either mark the completion of the destruction of my people's culture or the beginning of its rescue. The implications of this matter reach into the furthest corners of your domestic policy. Will you sit down with me to explore ways to begin righting this pervasive and poisonous wrong?

Thank you for your attention, sir. I hope to have the honor of hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,
H.K. Edgerton

As a member of the Republican National Committee and the League of the South and other Southern organizations, I will be very interested in President Bush's answer. I will inform your paper when Mr. Edgerton receives it.

Bob Kline
Petersburg

South.
That's even evident on this message board.
I don't think that Bush is the person to solve this problem, however, since he seems to want to perpetuate the myth that we're all bumpkins with no formal education.
I'd rather Wes Clark or Bob Graham, Jimmy Carter or Ann Richards be my models, politically speaking.

<i>Edited to fix Bob Graham's name and add Jimmy Carter.

Really? Surely you meant someone else...

Cousin marriage.

"Don't know Jack."

Southern laws forbid close cousins to marry. I think you'd do well to check your facts before flaming.

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/cousins.htm

http://www.cousincouples.com/info/states.shtml

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2064227

Yup, the south really banned it alright.

legalized cousin marriage as well. So, hows about dropping the region bashing? There are nuts all over this country, just as there are sane, rational beings. Let's not continue to arm the haters with a geographical bias as well.

Employers tell me they can't hire since I'm from MI. Now that I have some money, dad recovered from emotional breakdown, time to head to a blue state.

Who would turn down a shot at having such an intelligent, thoughtful, fair-minded employee? :eyes:

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Hmmm. Now I think I can see why the issue of people marrying close kin concerns you so much.

Whatever.

And the liberals wonder why they're seen as elites.

Anyways, cousin marriage is allowed and my old manager dated her 1st cousin. It is more common than southerns will let on. Of course, it's moral and Biblical. Adam and Eve had kids who inbred enough to form 6.5 billion people. Right there in the Bible, only book to endorse inbreeding. Considering the southerns Bible thumping and allowed cousin marriage, it's a wonder the gene pool can support them. It's not a slur against the south, it's the truth. They tend to "bred thier own" as they say.

anyone to marry their first cousin.
In my state, first cousins are FORBIDDEN to marry by law.
Geez.
And what the hell does Michigan have to do with the South?
MI is MICHIGAN - if you're talking about Mississippi, that's MS.
Hell, honey, I'm SOUTHERN and smart enough to know that.

What do you mean by that?

I've heard Rush Limbaugh say that many times, but I'm wondering why you are repeating that here.

I hear all the time in the mainstream media about how Northeasterners don't understand America, Californians are out of touch with the "real" America, etc. And while it's primarily directed towards the coasts, it also gets directed at North Central states with a history of progressivism, especially Minnesota and Wisconsin.

But, honestly, would you rather be discriminated against because you're smart and well-read (which is the bias) or because people presume that you're stupid and slow-witted?
This is my point.
I may talk a wee bit slower and my draw out some words, but I'm not dumb.
I'll take your prejudice if you'll take mine! ;)

but I hear what your saying, about the well-read part.

I hear all the time about how liberals and northerners and non-fundies are out of touch. I occasionally get defensive about it, being an intelligent, well-read person who voted for Kerry (and who still has a Kerry sign posted in the flower garden). In the south (and even in Oklahoma), prejudice against the non-south remains strong, and any values that are "non-south" are "un-American," to the minds of many living here.

Stars & Bars?

I haven't. But I have heard of quite a number of assaults ON the left by the righties . . .

to the South . . . I know it's all over . . .

Because the Stars and Bars are hardly ever seen anywhere in the South these days.

Now, the Confederate battle flag is another matter.

I can't remember his name. He was on when they had that "Black Unity" forum on cspan. He totally disgusted me.

First of all, it's not even slightly credible that Bush would take questions from anyone who wasn't vetted and rehearsed. As far as I know, any events at which Bush appears are very carefully screened, and participants are chosen in advance and walked through their spiels.

Secondly, the details of the story just sound like total horse manure. It's not a scientific analysis, merely a gut feeling.

Just google "edgerton NAACP" I didn't click on any of the results, but from the clips it's clear there is an HK Edgerton, black, former NAACP officer, who argues in favor of the Confederate flag, is a Republican and has been publicly accosted and insulted by regular African-American citizens. Which, it seems, he probably deserved.

Is this actual scenario real where he yelled from the top tier balcony and the SS took his note directly to the President.

Just curious... I kind of find it hard to believe that chim chim would take a question from anyone not previously rehearsed...

I have carried my flag - the cross of the apostle Andrew

http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0401/13/m06.html

David Sansing, history professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi, said recently that what people have claimed is the St. Andrew's Cross is not.

"What is in the Confederate battle flag is a blue saltier. The St. Andrew's Cross is a white, diagonal cross on a blue field," Sansing said. "The man who designed the (Confederate battle) flag makes no reference to the St. Andrew's Cross."

Sansing said the St. Andrew's Cross dates back to the Middle Ages and represents the X-shaped cross on which the apostle Andrew was crucified. Andrew was the patron saint of Scotland and the St. Andrew's Cross is Scotland's national flag.

was a Christian flag?

This poor guy, once a member of the NAACP, now wanders the South dressed in a Confederate uniform, carrying a Confederate flag.

There are many ways to totally flip out, and this is just one.


http://www.southerngrace.biz/bonnieblue/13_hkedgerton.htm
Help Dixie & H.K. Edgerton In His 1,300 + Mile March Across Dixie For Southern Heritage!
Why Is HK Edgerton Walking All the Way To Texas? Because The Hays Consolidated Independent School District Declares War on Southern Confederate Heritage -
<snip>

that guy makes me sick. What a fucking cur.

So why is * promoting Southern Legal Resource Center?

Who is Edgerton and what is SLRC?

http://www.slrc-csa.org/



BOARD OF ADVISORS


H.K. Edgerton
Director
5 Jane Street
Asheville, NC 28801

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kirk D. Lyons
Chief Trial Counsel and Director
P.O. Box 1235
Black Mountain, NC 28711
Phone: 828.669.5189
Fax: 828.669.5191
http://www.slrc-csa.org/site/kirklyons/index.htm
kdl@slrc-csa.org
P.O. Box 1237 Black Mountain, N.C. 28711 (note different PO box)

(see more in seperate post)

Lourie A. Salley III
Chairman of the Board
Attorney at Law
P.O. Box 469
Salley, SC 29137

Dr. Neill Payne
Director
P.O. Box 1235
Black Mountain, NC 28711

Larry Ellis Norman
Director
Attorney at Law
Norman & Gardner Attorneys
101 Rex Place
Louisburg, NC 27549

Carl A. Barrington, Jr.
Director
Attorney at Law
Barrington & Jones Law Firm, P.A.
Heritage Square
213 Dick Street
Fayetteville, NC 28301

http://www.slrc-csa.org/site/kirklyons/index.htm



Résumé

Born: June 17, 1956 McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, California
Parents: Lt Col C.J. Lyons, Jr. (USAF Retired) of Childress, Texas and the former Modena Morris of Plainview, Texas. Two brothers and one sister.

Married to the former Brenna Signe Tate. 5 children: Nathanael David, 14; William Wallace, 11; Stuart McLean, 9; Robert Alexander, 7; Katherine Elise, 5.

All my sons are in scouting. My oldest son is an active SCV member and my younger sons are cadet members of the Isaac Newton Giffen Camp, SCV. My daughter is applying to join the Children of the Confederacy.

Education:

Anderson High School Austin, Texas 1974
University of Texas at Austin, B.A. History with honors 1978
University of Houston, Bates College of Law J.D. 1983

Professional:

Member: State Bar of Texas

Licensed in the Supreme Court of Texas since 1984, The Supreme Court of the United States, United States District Courts for the Southern Western & Northern District of Texas, the Eastern & Western Districts of Arkansas, the Northern & Eastern Districts of Oklahoma and the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 10th circuits.

Attorney for Mrs. Alberta Martin, last Confederate Widow

Counsel & Executive Committee Member of the South Carolina Heritage Coalition for the planning of Heritage 2000 rally in Columbia, SC. The largest Confederate Rally held in modern times

Currently Chief Trial Counsel & member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc., a non-profit tax exempt civil rights firm that specializes in cases involving Southern Heritage.

Current cases involving SCV:

Civil Rights lawsuit against DuPont - representing seven (7) Virginia Division SCV members.

3rd Circuit appeal on behalf of Curt Storey - supported by the Pennsylvania Division, SCV

Civil Rights lawsuit against Lawrence County, Alabama schools - supported by the Alabama Division, SCV

Civil Rights lawsuit against Bechtel Savannah River, Inc. - representing Georgia Division SCV member and supported by Georgia and South Carolina Divisions, SCV.

Civil Rights lawsuit against FAA Jacksonville - representing two (2) Florida Division SCV members and supported by the Florida Division, SCV.

More provided on request.


Confederate History:

Children of the Confederacy 1972 - 1977.
Chapter President Calvin Crozier Chapter Austin Texas
President Texas Division 1976
Custodian General 1975
Chaplain General 1976
Attended college on UDC Scholarships

Founder and initial Commander of reactivated George Washington Littlefield Camp # 59 1977-79

Adjutant Albert Sidney Johnston Camp #67 Houston, Texas 1984-1987

Founder and initial Commander Isaac Newton Giffen Camp #758 Black Mountain, NC in 1993 - currently serve as Adjutant

Chief of Staff & JAG under ANV Commander Ron G. Wilson

JAG under ANV Commander Frank Powell

Elected ANV Councilman in Charleston 2000

Life Member, SCV

Life Member, North Carolina Division

Raised our flag on the crane at Chattanooga SCV National Reunion and Richmond SCV National Reunion and by balloon at the Nashville Reunion - when it was said our flag could not be flown.

UDC: Jefferson Davis Medal :1978

SCV Distinguished Service Award: 2001

SCV Heritage Defense Medal: 2001

Patrick Henry Award: (Patriotism Award) Burke County Camp # 836: SCV: 2001

Order of the Southern Star (Heritage award) Burke County Camp #836 SCV: 1999

Twice awarded Dixie Medal for SCV recruiting

Stonewall Camp #380 SCV Heritage Defender of the year 1998

Organizer: Opening ceremonies for Asheville SCV Reunion 2003

Master of Ceremonies: Debutante Presentation - Confederate Grand Ball - Asheville SCV Reunion 2003

Extracurricular:

Reenactor & living historian since 1972 have talked to over 30,000 students on various historical topics.

Instructor and caller in Scottish Country Dances and American antebellum dances.

Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop 43 Boy Scouts of America, Black Mountain, NC

Member of Clan Fahrquahrson and Clan McCallum

Kirk D. Lyons P.O. Box 1237 Black Mountain, N.C. 28711 kdl@slrc-csa.org

http://www.slrc-csa.org/site/kirklyons/index.htm

The Path Forward

A Proposal for Modernizing the Sons of Confederate Veterans to create an organization capable of dramatic expansion in size.



In the first years of the new millennium the Sons of Confederate Veterans finds itself with 32,000 or more members and an unprecedented number of calls on its resources to respond to Heritage challenges. These challenges will only increase in size and intensity as the years goes by. If these challenges are to be met and won, the SCV as an organization must "tool up" for a long war, and re-organize so that its resources can be used most effectively for the battles that are to come.

One of the critical areas the organization needs to improve is increasing membership from the pool of the millions of eligible members, and supporters. The SCV need 100's of thousands, if not millions of members and our survival as an effective organization depends on us getting there. Unless we can dramatically increase our numbers we will be written off as the political weaklings that we are by every politician and bureaucrat that we court.

Our fundamental drawback is that we are a 19th century corporation trying to fight a 21stcentury battle. Our current organizational structure prevents us from growing to the levels we need to be considered "national players." For instance, if a local Camp drops the ball on potential members who contact IHQ, that member is lost to the organization. When a prospect calls IHQ our position should be: get his name address and a donation or membership fees and don't let him off the hook quite so easily.

I analogize our predicament to the plight the National Rifle Association found itself in after passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act. A 100 year organization founded to increase interest in shooting sports and safety found itself, due to the anti-gun crowd, as the logical defender of the 2nd Amendment. The organizational changes came slow and only after a lot of bitter in-fighting (and the "non-political" advocates still kick up a fuss now and then). My point is the NRA transformed itself into a fighting organization of over 3 million members that has done yeoman work in fighting for the 2nd amendment and raising the millions of dollars necessary to pay for the fighting. I use the NRA as the SCV's model as to where we need to go organizationally to meet the challenges facing us.

more......

Where he was doing a skit of a blind KKK member.

As a southerner living in the Pacific Northwest, I hear anti southern slights but its more provincialism than anything. I heard the same provincialism coming from people in Austin towards Seattle. Nothing new.

People, we gotta remember that the divide is not between North and South. It's more between urban versus rural values. From detailed elctoral maps, that's how it boiled down. Most of the cities and urban metropolises were predominantly Democratic.

However, the rural progressives cannot be ignored either. They can help make inroads at the local level to make future electoral shifts more likely.

To my Southern brothers, ignore the ad hominem bullshit. You know better than anyone what needs to be done in your area. We need you to recruit more southerners to spread the word that the Repubs don't represent your real interests, either economically or culturally and that we really d ohave a better way to do things. Dean has it right whe he says that we can't afford to ignore a single state.

It is ad hominem.

But, of course, Dean didn't campaign down here during the primaries (well, not to speak of), so I agree with what he says, but not what he did.