Recently I read Ron Kennedy’s new book When Rebel Was Cool, published by Shotwell Publishing in Columbia, South Carolina. This is a book that should touch the average reader on many levels. It is a poignant story the Kennedy Brothers, Ron and Donnie’s “growing up years” from 1950-1965. Being only nine years older than the Kennedy Brothers I found myself comparing my “growing up years” to theirs.
They grew up in rural South Mississippi in a time when the results of Yankee “reconstruction” in the South had not quite worn off yet–100 years after the War of Northern Aggression I was in parts of the South in the late 1950s and so I can attest to the results of Yankee “reconstruction” in that part of the country. Ron explained why he wrote this book, and I can identify with his reasons. He wrote: “These stories and photographs–some over 100 years old and in poor condition–are our stories written for our grandchildren and all the grandchildren of the South, even if they no longer live in the South. One day our grandchildren may want to know why their grandfathers loved the South so much, especially during a time when the left-wing secular world is actively engaged in destroying Confederate monuments and viciously slandering the honor of the men who wore the gray in the War for Southern Independence…I hope and pray that one day our grandchildren and other Southern grandchildren will read these accounts, otherwise they will never know the truth–a truth that sadly, today, is not allowed to be publicly told.” My grandchildren have always lived in the North. Only the oldest one has been in the South–but I want them to know these truths as well so they will not embrace the Marxist lies told about the good people of the South. Ron dealt with many issues in this book and gives you an accurate picture of much that went on in the South during his growing up years. His comments on racial segregation are some you will never read in Yankee “history” books–but they are true nonetheless. On page 18 he noted: “Today, most Americans think that segregation (white supremacy) was something established in the South, but in reality, it was something already established in the North and then, after the War, imported from the North. During the War, Yankee General ‘Beast’ Butler established ‘Black Codes’ in occupied Louisiana. His ‘Black Codes’ were based upon similar laws then in effect in his home state of Massachusetts. Most Americans incorrectly think that slavery was strictly a Southern issue, but in reality, it was an American issue–the North being primarily responsible for slavery in America. Very few folks know that slavery lasted 75 years longer in Massachusetts than it did in Mississippi.” And he commented also that “…Massachusetts and other Northern states earned much of their wealth from their involvement in the African slave trade and then enacted exclusion laws to prevent free blacks from coming into their states!” Ron also commented on life in the rural South and said some things I, as growing up in semi-rural Eastern Massachusetts could identify with. He mentioned the three-room rural school house he and Donnie attended and how it had no inside gym, only playground equipment in the school yard. The first school house I attended had only four rooms, for grades 1-4, and the next school house I went to had only six rooms and no inside gym, only playground equipment in the school yard. Ron mentioned the kids, as they got older, taking guns to school so they could go hunting after school was out and when they got older and drove to school there was often a rifle rack in the back window of the truck that was driven to school–and no one shot a people on the way home from school. Today many parents would be alarmed at this, but in those days there were seldom any problems. Nowadays kids get arrested for bringing a toy gun to school for “show and tell” or if they even point their finger at another kid and say “bang.” We have gone from responsibility to sheer panic–and mostly over nothing! Ron also noted something else that struck a familiar chord with me–wild berry picking in the Summer. Many rural Southern folks did this because it helped to put food on the table. My Grandfather, Dad and I often picked wild blueberries in the Summer–not because we had to, but because my Grandmother was a good cook and made delicious pies. The South has often been called “The Bible Belt” because it is the area of the country where the Christian faith is most evident and where more folks go to church than in other areas. And to get through the Yankee “reconstruction” and the really hard times that followed it Southern folks had to have a strong faith in the Lord to see them through. Life in the post-war South was not easy, nor was it easy for the next hundred years! And, here, Ron had a warning for Christian folks. He said: “It is a sad fact of history that when a people are struggling during hard times or when outside tyrants oppress their nation the people tend to ‘look to God’ for comfort, guidance and help. But once freedom is won or prosperity returns, these same people (or the next generation) tend to ignore the very God who sustained them during the hard times. I fear that this is happening to the South just as it happened to God’s people of Israel, as recorded in the Old Testament.” There is a warning for us here today–if we will but heed it! Ron noted on page 57 the apostasy that engulfed the North in the decades before the War and how many religious leaders in the South saw the War as a spiritual struggle. There was definitely that aspect to it–and it has never been dealt with by our “historians.” Ron discussed the differences between Northern and Southern cultures on page 93. He commented on the Civil Rights Movement on page 144 and how it was resisted by Southern folks not because they hated blacks but because it was something being pushed and promoted by the federal government–the same federal government the fought against their ancestors and pushed “reconstruction” down their throats. And he noted on page 150 how much of the so-called “history” and commentary in our day is employed as a ‘divide and conquer” strategy to divide the races off against one another so they will not realize that they have more in common than what separates them and that keeps them from working together against globalist politicians who plan to do both races in one way or another. Toward the end of the book Ron had a chapter called How to Speak Southern: Redneck words and phrases and I really enjoyed this. It is a compendium of colloquial Southern phrases, many of which, surprisingly, I also heard growing up in the North. Quite a few of these were used in my own family in my growing up years and were familiar to me. I don’t know if they originated in the South and made their way to the North or what, but I sure heard a batch of them from both family and friends growing up. There is much more in Ron’s book than I could ever cover in a book review. I have only touched on some of the high spots and areas that struck me personally. Reading it caused me to think back to my own childhood and to the hard times we had when I was growing up, We were not “punished with poverty” as the South was, but life was not always easy street for us either. Maybe some of us older folks need to read this and then call it to the attention of our grandchildren so they will possibly begin to get a glimpse of what life was like for us “back in the day” and what it may end up being like for them again if they refuse to heed the warning signs about the direction we seem to be headed in.
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Most Southern patriots are familiar with the Bonne Blue Flag and the song that goes along with it. For a long time I had a Bonnie Blue Flag flying at my house. The history of that flag goes all the way back to the early 1800s all the way back to when Spain and France had a disagreement as to whether West Florida was included in the area each country claimed. When Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 he sort of inherited the debate. The inhabitants of West Florida were mostly people that spoke English and they were not real happy with either France or Spain, neither of which could deal with them in English. A revolt took place in West Florida in 1803, led by the three Kemper Brothers. And while it was not successful, it told the Spanish they had better start taking the English-speaking folks in West Florida a bit more seriously. So Spain started dribbling out a few more liberties to them. A second revolt ensued in 1810, led by a Major Isaac Johnson He led a march to the capital in Baton Rouge, which was captured in late September of that year. A new flag was then raised over the fort there, which consisted of a single white star on a field of dark blue. Shortly afterward a Declaration of Independence was passed and the Republic of West Florida came into being. The same flag was then adopted as their national flag. The Republic was rather short-lived. In late October U. S. President James Madison proclaimed that West Florida was, in reality, part of the Louisiana Territory. The U. S. flag was then raised over the fort, but, by this juncture, the image of the Bonnie Blue Flag had burned itself into the memories of the Southern folks in that area as a symbol of liberty. When the Republic of Texas came into being a similar flag was adopted, with Texas still being known as the Lone Star State. And in January of 1861, when Mississippi seceded from the Union and established the Republic of Mississippi, another blue flag with a single star was raised in Jackson. In the audience at that event in Jackson was an Irish actor named Harry McCarthy. He was inspired to compose lyrics pertaining to the flag and he set them to a tune from where he was born. He called his turn The Bonnie Blue Flag. Some say this became the first flag of The Confederate States, but there is some debate over that. Whether it was accurate or not, the Bonnie Blue became, at least, an unofficial Confederate flag and still is today. The lyrics of McCarthy's tune are still enough, even today, to stir the hearts of Southern patriots. If you want to see or hear the words of the song just go on the net and type in Lyrics for the Bonnie Blue Flag into a search engine. You will probably find several different videos or sets of lyrics for the tune. This piece was published on the Copperhead Chronicle on August 22, 2020.
Usually I enjoy watching Tucker Carlson. He gets lots of stuff right that most others either ignore or are afraid to touch. However, Tucker, like the rest of us, is only human and he doesn’t always get it all right. A case in point was the monologue he did the other night, which a friend back east sent me. In this particular offering the best he could come up with was a mixed bag of truth and untruth. He attacked those who are trying to tear down our monuments and destroy our history and I was with him all the way on that one. But then he made some really far out comments about the Confederacy that soured me on his commentary as a whole. In regard to our “civil war”_ aka the War of Northern Aggression, he said one side was right, the North and the other side was wrong, the South. Sorry Tucker, but you blew it here. Your comments would lead people like yourself, who don’t know any better, to believe that War was only fought over slavery. And that sentiment is one of the greatest lies ever perpetrated on this country. There have been books written fully explaining why the South did not fight that War to defend slavery but had a host of other more important reasons that they fought. Tucker, maybe you need to read some real history instead of the revisionist crap they fed you in high school and college. Your comments lead me to believe you have never really read anything about the War that gave you any remote idea of what the South stood for and fought for and what they fought against. I don’t expect you will ever read or even see my commentary here, but I would love to provide you with a list of books written by folks in the South that explain their rationale for that war. And by the way, the South did not declare war on the North. It was never a “civil war” in the sense that both sides were contending for control of the government. The South never wanted control of the Northern government. All they wanted was to be able to depart in peace and Lincoln denied them that option. You may or may not believe in secession, but it was a legitimate option and was recognized as such. After all, it is what we did from Great Britain in 1776–we seceded from the British Empire. I am going to provide you with a list of books here that would be helpful for you to read if you are truly going to understand why the South did what she did. None of them are New York Times best sellers but they do contain the truths that you were never taught during your educational years and, Lord willing, they may give you something to think about. Yankee Empire–Aggressive Abroad and Despotic at Home by James and Walter Kennedy. Shotwell Publishing, Columbia, South Carolina Segregation–Federal Policy or Racism? by John Chodes. Shotwell Publishing, Columbia, South Carolina The South was Right by James and Walter Kennedy. Pelican Publishing, Gretna, Louisiana The Un-Civil War–Shattering the Historical Myths by Leonard M. Scruggs. Universal Media, Asheville, North Carolina Slavery Was not the Cause of the War Between the States by Gene Kizer Jr. Charleston Athenaeum Press, Charleston and James Island, South Carolina The Land We Love–The South and its Heritage by Dr. Boyd D. Cathey, The Scuppernong Press, Wake Forest, North Carolina Lincoln’s Marxists by Al Benson Jr. and Walter Kennedy Pelican Press, Gretna, Louisiana Some of these may be out of print or the publishers out of business, but you can probably find all of them on Amazon. I have seen all of them there from time to time. Tucker, I have always enjoyed your material and have promoted you to many folks, but this is one area, respectfully, that you need to do a little homework in. You may or may not change your mind about all of it but you do need to look at the other side and up to this point, it does not look like you have done that. On the question of the Confederacy you sound no different than the Leftist radicals we both abhor. This piece was originally posted on RevisedHistory.com on June 14, 2020.
There are some good Southern folks, conscious to some degree of their Southern heritage, who, when they plan to get married, they think it would be pleasant to exchange their marriage vows in the atmosphere of an old Southern plantation. I have been to a few Southern plantations over the years and they are interesting places with an atmosphere all their own, and, contrary to the opinions of some, that is not all bad. So I was a bit surprised when someone sent me an article about “Louisiana plantation weddings” soon becoming “a thing of the past.” My first thought was “well, I guess we are about to see one more bit of Southern heritage get trashed.” The left has gone after everything else Southern, flags, monuments, school and street names, so why not plantation weddings? I read an article for December 7th on WWL Radio by Don Ames which said, in part, “Five popular wedding websites have announced they will no longer push plantation weddings, in response to a campaign asking for the wedding industry to stop romanticizing plantations…That’s the basis of a campaign by national civil rights non-profit Color of Change, which asked the wedding industry to re-think the way it views marriages at historical slave plantations.” Never heard of Color of Change? You can even find them on Wikipedia and pick up a bit of basic information if you know what to look for. The organization was founded back in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, supposedly to “strengthen the voice of African Americans.” Its founders were James Rucker and Van Jones. Its current director is Rashad Robinson. While most of you all may not have even heard of Rucker and Robinson, you certainly should have heard of Van Jones. If you recall, he was one of Obama’s “czars” in the early days of his Marxist administration. Turns out Van Jones was a communist, an admitted one. He described himself that way in a publication called East Bay Express. He said: “I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail trying to be a revolutionary. I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th. By August, I was a communist.” A perfect fit for the Obama administration and also a perfect fit as the co-founder of a “civil rights” organization. So this self-identified communist is the co-founder of an organization that is trying to get the wedding industry to discontinue plantation weddings in Louisiana. Well, we know a little now about Van Jones, but what about James Rucker? Turns out James Rucker is a former directors of MoveOn.org and has also been involved with the Southern Poverty Law Center. The names of those two organizations ring any bells? If you’ve been paying attention at all over the past few years they should. Then there is the current executive director of Color of Change, Rashad Robinson. Seems that this sterling individual is in tight with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Right to Vote Campaign. According to Discover the Networks “From its inception, COC has aimed its criticisms chiefly at prominent conservative and Republican figures.” So it should come as no surprise that this “civil rights” (not really) organization should set its sights at the destruction of any aspect of Southern history and culture. The people at the apex of this organization are all on the far left politically and so the trashing of any part of Southern culture has got to be near the top of their to do list. But folks here in Louisiana and in our sister Southern states should realize who the people in this supposed civil rights group really are and how far to the left they really are. I doubt they are really all that concerned about giving ordinary black folks any real voice, but they are concerned about trashing Southern culture and history and giving the far left a political voice here in the South that they should never have. The people in the wedding industry should be apprised of who this group really is and what they stand for. This piece was previously published at Revised History on December 10, 2019.
Back in 2015 when Dylan Roof shot those black folks in their church in Charleston, South Carolina no one was quicker to denounce the Confederate flag than the governor of South Carolina, Nimrata Haley. Almost instantaneously she had the Confederate Battle Flag removed from the capital grounds in Columbia, and she said: “I think the more important part is it should never have been there. These grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain. No one should feel pain.” Sounded nice and sentimental back in 2015. No one should feel pain. What about those people who had ancestors that fought under that flag, not for slavery, but for the rights of their states? It would seem as though it’s okay if they feel pain. Their pain did not matter. It still doesn’t. Ms. Haley’s actions in Columbia started a mad binge of anti-Southern and anti-Confederate bigotry and hatred that has continued until this very day. How many Confederate flags, monuments, and plaques have been taken down in the past four years, all under the noble-sounding euphemism of “fighting racism” when all this has really accomplished is fostering the birth of a virulent new racism–only this new birth of racism is all okay–because it is anti-Confederate. And that makes all the difference in the world. You see, racism is perfectly permissible as long as it is anti-Confederate racism. The fact that Confederate monuments and plaques had nothing whatever to do with racism is just lost in the shuffle. What the far left prays for (if they ever pray for anything) is that you never discover that fact. None of this makes any difference to Ms. Haley. Her ancestry is East Indian Sikh, so Confederate history and heritage are meaningless for her. None of it makes any difference to her and, hence, she probably can’t understand why it makes any difference to the rest of us. We had a governor here in Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, who also had East Indian ancestry. He was a decent governor, but he never seemed to grasp the idea that Southern history and heritage meant something to us here in Louisiana. He was never willing to issue a proclamation noting Confederate heritage month here, no doubt because such heritage was meaningless to him. It was not part of his heritage so it didn’t affect him. Anyway, for all the damage to our history and heritage Ms. Haley caused, now, four years later, she seems to be backpedaling a bit where the Confederate Flag is concerned. In an article that appeared on The Hill, written by Marty Johnson, on December 6th, it was noted:: “Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley says that Dylan Roof, who shot and killed nine black Americans in a Charleston church in 2015, ‘hijacked’ the meaning of the Confederate flag…People saw it as service and sacrifice and heritage, but once he did that, there was no way to overcome it.” Well, Ms. Haley, that’s a little bit too late. The damage was done. Too bad you didn’t have a little more foresight back then, you might have avoided some of the misery your actions have put us all through in the last four years as we have seen our heritage and history thoroughly trashed not only by the far left but by lots of other folks who should have known better. But at that point, you were not overly concerned. You were pursuing a political spot higher in the Republican Establishment pecking order and trashing our Southern heritage was an easy price to pay for that, wasn’t it? Didn’t cost you a thing! The only ones it cost were those who had Confederate ancestors–who your actions branded as automatically racist. No skin off your nose! And now, here you are, back four years later with a bit of literary legerdemain, telling us now that Roof only “hijacked” the Confederate flag instead of it representing him and what he did. Why the sudden burst of generosity toward our flag on your part now? It couldn’t be, perchance, that you now have a new book out that you are seeking publicity for, could it? And it couldn’t be that you are hoping for some healthy book sales for your new book here in the South that you so thoroughly trashed four years ago could it? I’m jus guessing, mind you, but it seems like a pretty fair country guess. Us poor rubes here in the rural South are supposed to have forgotten what you did to our heritage four years ago and we are all supposed to now run out and buy your new book because you have backed off just a bit on your thoughts about our flags and heritage–just a bit–but not enough!!! After what you started with your actions regarding our flag and our heritage, I have to be honest with you. I would not spend a thin dime for your book and I don’t think a lot of Southern folks will either. Your pious commentary about not wanting people to be hurt does not seem to extend to those who love and cherish their Southern heritage and the memory of their Confederate ancestors, the vast majority of which never owned a slave or supported slavery. It’s obvious to us that, to you, we don’t really count–and that being the case–you should not count on the dollars we won’t spend for your new book. This piece previously appeared on RevisedHistory.com on Dec. 7, 2019.
Way back in 1993 Ron and Donnie Kennedy came out with their best seller The South Was Right. Over the years it has sold well over 100,000 copies. In the process of reading it many people came up with many questions about what the Kennedy Brothers wrote in that book. Many questions were sincerely asked, while others were asked only as rhetorical questions by people hoping to be able to poke holes in what the Kennedy Brothers wrote. Earlier this year, Donnie Kennedy wrote the book that is the title for this article. It was published by Scuppernong Press in Wake Forest, North Carolina and in it Donnie deals with some of the questions they have been asked over the years pertaining to the various subjects they discussed in The South Was Right. In order to give readers a feel for what Donnie deals with in The Confederate Myth-Buster I am going to note some of the topics the Kennedys have dealt with and some of the questions they have been asked about them. Obviously, I can only hit some of the high spots in a book review, but I hope I am able to hit enough that you will try to get a copy of the book and check out all the material I could not deal with here. The subject of secession is one that has really engendered lots of questions–some good and some not to good. One question asked is “Where is it written in the US Constitution that a state has a right to secede?” The questioner may have thought he had the Kennedys over a barrel with this one. Not hardly! In fact, Donnie answers his question with an even better question. Donnie says “Since the Constitution does not provide a list of ‘rights’ your question cannot be answered. The correct question to be asked is, ‘Where in the US Constitution is the right of secession forbidden to the people of the states?’ In Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution we find those things which the states mutually agreed they would not perform as members of the new Union…But nowhere will you find the people of the states surrendering the right to judge for themselves how they should be governed…Such a people were loath to adopt a constitution that would limit their right to withdraw from a government that did not meet their needs.” Another questioner stated: “Southern secession would have destroyed the United States. What kind of country would we have if the South had been allowed to go free?” To which Donnie answers “We would have a free country! What’s wrong with freedom? How would the secession of thirteen Southern states have destroyed the United States?” It’s a good question. It would not have, in any way, shape or form. And then Donnie continues: “Now think about it; the Southern states never desired to invade or conquer the United States. If the Federal government had chosen peace rather than war, US trade and commerce would have commenced and gone on with the South just as it had commenced and gone on with the nation to the north of the United States, Canada.” This is something people today never even consider. They need to reflect on it. The new Confederate government sent people to Washington to try to work out a peaceful solution to the problem but Lincoln wasn’t having any of that. It had to be his way or the highway, and as evidence has shown, Lincoln really wanted a war. On the slavery question the Kennedy got lots of questions from those who thought they had them over a barrel with supposed questions that could not be answered. One they got was “How can you say the South was fighting for freedom and independence when all eleven Southern states had laws protecting slavery?” Again, Donnie answers a question with a better question. He observes: “How can you say that America was fighting for freedom and independence in 1776 when all thirteen states had laws protecting slavery and the slave trade? Only a hypocrite would condemn the South for slavery while praising the United States for doing the very same thing…The institution of slavery that includes the trans-Atlantic commerce in slaves, i.e., Yankee slave traders, has deep roots in American history, not just Southern history.” Another fact most anti-slavery folks conveniently ignore is that during the War of Northern Aggression, for one reason or another, four slave states remained in the Union. If Lincoln had really been all about freeing the slaves, then why didn’t he emancipate the slaves in those slave states that were still officially in the Union? His bogus “emancipation proclamation” didn’t bother doing that and those slaves remained in bondage until the (second) 13th Amendment was passed after Lincoln had passed on to his reward. Then the inevitable question of racism emerges, and one questioner asks: “The Confederate flag is the flag of the Ku Klux Klan. Why should an emblem of a hate group be allowed public display?” Undoubtedly the questioner does not know his history, so Donnie sets him straight. He answers: “In the mid-1920s several very large Klan marches were held in Washington, DC. At that time thousands of Klansmen carrying hundreds of flags were seen marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. How many Confederate flags were displayed in these parades? There were no Confederate flags in the Klan parades, but there were hundreds of United States flags. The Klan has used many symbols during its history. The cross, the Bible, and the United States flag are just a few items used by the Klan. Shall we ban these items that are routinely used by the Klan? Where do we stop once we start banning items that have been misappropriated by hate groups? Neither the Confederate flag, nor the United States flag, nor the Bible should be banned because the Ku Klux Klan has used it. The Klan and not the items it has misused should be the object of your rage.” Another ignorant questioner who obviously has never been taught much real history asks “With such a history of slavery and racism in the South, how can you defend Southern heritage?” By this time Donnie has to be getting tired of these airhead questions about Southern slavery and racism. He answers this question thusly: “It must be nice to live in Utopia as you do, but the rest of us don’t live there. As for your place of residence, Utopia is an air castle that does not exist. The North has its record of slavery, slave trading, and of course discrimination against people of color, yet no one is demanding that Northern heritage and/or history be eliminated. Southern heritage is more than just reliving the days of slavery. Although slavery is part of Southern history as well as American history, it is not the central theme for those who love the South…” Donnie has also dealt with questions about Black Code laws in the South, a favorite topic of liberal leftists, and he has noted that “Black Code laws were born in the North. It was New England where schoolchildren were segregated by race before the war. One of the first acts against the freed slaves by Northern states was to pass laws to eliminate free black citizens from voting. New Jersey was one of the first Northern states to do so in 1807, Connecticut followed in 1814, and Pennsylvania’s free people of color lost the right to vote by a state court decision in 1837. Other Northern states followed suit not only by eliminating the ability of black citizens to vote, but also by excluding them from moving into their states.” Illinois, the “great emancipator’s” home state was one of these. Some of those questions asked to the Kennedy’s reveal the abysmal lack of historical facts and understanding so prevalent in our society today. Another clueless questioner says: “Your reference to John Brown as a terrorist is somewhat off base. Wasn’t he a freedom fighter? Didn’t he make the ultimate sacrifice for human freedom?” Donnie replied: “Heroes are men who understand the ends do not justify the means. The barbaric notion of doing whatever is necessary to promote the ‘greater good’ is a tool used by most 20th century tyrants and 21st century jihadists…John Brown was a murderer who took pleasure in the slaughter of Southerners in Kansas. At Pottawatomie, Kansas, he and his sons hacked and shot to death five unarmed men within sight of their wives and children. This was done in the middle of the night, without warning–a cowardly act of murder–and this is the man you call an American hero?” Having been in Eastern Kansas on more than one occasion I can tell you, from personal experience, that there are people still there in our day that view John Brown in the same way Christians view our Savior, Jesus Christ. John Brown was a terrorist, pure and simple, but explaining that to some people confuses them with the truth, so they refuse to hear it! Another ignorant questioner castigated Donnie for his “suggestion” that communists supported Lincoln during his War of Northern Aggression. He seeks to explain to Donnie that “Anyone with even the simplest understanding of history knows communism did not exist until after the 1917 communist revolution in Russia… How can you believe that these communists fought in the American Civil War?” Donnie goes to some length to explain to this sophomoric mentality about Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848, not 1948, and he gives him some of the history that he and I wrote about in our book Lincoln’s Marxists. Some of the questions asked of Donnie by these folks about Marx and Lincoln and their connections reveal an almost total lack of understanding on the part of the askers as to what that war was really all about as well as those connected with it. It is a daunting task to attempt to educate the historically ignorant, many of whom continue to refuse the truth because it was not what they were taught in school. Did we not realize what public education in this country was really all about we might be tempted to wonder what the schools have been doing for the past 150 years. Sadly, many of us realize what they have been doing–and real education ain’t part of it! Donnie has so much information in The Confederate Myth-Buster that I can’t even begin to scratch the surface. He covers topics and questions on those topics that I do not have room here to even get into, lest this review become so lengthy that few would read it. As previously noted, this book was published by Scuppernong Press, P O Box 1724, Wake Forest, North Carolina 27588. The cost of the book in the US is $20 and it would make a great Christmas gift for those who have historically deficient friends and relatives.
This review was previously published at RevisedHistory on Oct. 18, 2019. They came to destroy Southern culture and history–and you said nothing because you were not a Southerner. Then they came to destroy all American culture and history and you, again, said nothing because, even though you lived here, you were not an American. So let me ask you a question, if you are someone with a legitimate culture and history, what in the world makes you think they won’t get around to coming after your culture and history? Well? Just because they haven’t gotten around to you yet doesn’t mean they ain’t coming! Maybe you need to think about that. If they totally destroy American culture and history then who will be left to help you defend yours? Don’t all answer at once now! Many of us have noted the planned destruction of our culture here in the South. Although many of us have resisted it, not enough have gotten off their beds of ease to assist us. Much too easy just to stay at rest and let the reality shows help us drift off into nirvana or wherever it is they take us. Has anyone ever stopped to think that the real reason for reality shows and much of the other drivel on the tube is to keep you from doing anything constructive toward preserving the culture and history God has bequeathed to you? Hadn’t even thought about that? Maybe you should! Much of what is presented to us by the media, be it the news media or the entertainment media, is meant to destabilize us, to render us useless as anything but “useful idiots” for the leftists and Deep State types to move us around on their New World Order chessboard however they will. For you Southern folks that this article makes uncomfortable, good! Maybe you will begin to realize you need to do something to make sure your grandchildren even have a history and heritage. If you don’t, mark my words–it will be gone! For those that do become concerned, why not check out the Sons of Confederate Veterans website, especially a new project by the SCV called Make Dixie Great Again. With a little effort you should be able to find the SCV website and this project herein mentioned. I would urge you to check it out. Find out what you can do to help. Also check out the website for The Confederate Society of America. They have a blog on their site with some great educational articles–stuff you need to be aware of, stuff you can pass along to your kids to help them get educated. If you think your kids will be educated about your real history and heritage in public school, forget it. In that hostile environment they will be miseducated about their real history and heritage. I know good folks that has happened to. Thankfully, in time, they realized what was happening to their grandchildren and sought sources of accurate history to help turn their grandchildren’s thinking around. Now they are telling us the Betsy Ross flag and the “Don’t tread on me” flag are “racist.” In other words, anything they don’t like in America’s history is now “racist.” Does it ever occur to you that the people pushing all this “racist” crap are, themselves, the biggest racists of all. They claim all whites are racist. Anyone with a brain realizes that is bovine fertilizer. All that does is prove their racial animosity toward all white folks. So the white-haters are the real racists. Does it also occur to you (it should) that the people pushing and promoting all this racism have an agenda? It’s the old “divide and conquer” strategy. Easier to conquer your adversaries in detail, one at a time than all at once, so if you can get them to hate each other you can pick them off one at a time. Just because we got Trump into office, don’t for a New York minute, thing the federal government is your friend now. There are people in the government that would deep six Trump in a millisecond if they could. Let us never forget, the Deep State is committed to our destruction as a people. Our culture, heritage and history, particularly the Christian part of it, is something they want to totally obliterate. They are truly the sons of the Illuminists and the French Revolution. Bush 1 proved that when he let the cat out of the bag with his “New World Order” commentary several years ago. So the culture killers are at work among us, and some of them occupy very high offices in Washington, and also in many of our state capitols. Don’t you ever wonder why so many Southern governors are in such a heat to do away with Confederate monuments? Especially when 80% of the people in their states want them left alone? Such governors are part of the culture killing Deep State that wants us all gone and our culture forgotten–so they can then replace it with something the cultural Marxists will approve of. “Those people” need to be resisted, by every lawful and legal means–before resisting their culture killing schemes is outlawed. I realize lots of folks just won’t want to be bothered, but the day will come when they will stand before the Lord and He will ask them “what did you do to preserve the culture and heritage I gave you?” And what will their reply be then? Do you really think the Lord will care that you watched 4,000 reality shows but did nothing to pass your heritage on to your children? Something else maybe you need to think about! This piece was originally published on RevisedHistory.com on September 21, 2019.
The political Left, the Deep State, the so-called news media are all working to shut President Trump down–and after a constant three year battle, it is starting to look as if they might be doing just that. Arthur Thompson, in his revelatory book In the Shadows of the Deep State notes on page 268 that: “Due to the domestic war against Trump within what has become known as the Swamp, our intelligence services and the Justice Department have come into question among a large part of the American people regarding the lack of political neutrality and the apparent move by upper echelon personnel to scuttle Donald Trump’s candidacy and then his presidency.” I am not sure if Mr. Trump realizes the full import of what those people are and have been doing to him. I think he has some grasp by not total grasp of how these people really hate his guts and want him gone–no matter what price they have to pay to do that. Unfortunately, in some instances, I think Trump unwittingly helps those who plot his destruction. Case in point, the former head of the CIA, John Brennan–a despicable creature if ever there was one. Here is a man who voted for the Communist Party candidate for president in 1976, yet four years later, he is in the CIA and under Obama ends up the head of that organization. So does that tell us the political Left controls the CIA? What do you think? Trump supposedly pulled Brennan’s security clearance, something he should have done at the start of his administration, but didn’t. Supposedly he did it later on, but I read awhile back that Brennan, who is now in the private sector, still has that clearance, which means he can still go in and read certain government documents he should no longer have access to, but still does. So what happened here? Did those that were supposed to pull Brennan’s security clearance just not bother? Or did they just forget–conveniently? This is one situation Trump needed to follow up on and it seems he didn’t. Then there is the “Justice” Department–so-called. When William Barr got in there we were told the mess there would be straightened out. At the risk of being a bit previous, I have one comment–don’t hold your breath waiting! Barr has already gone over some of the problems caused by former FBI director, James Comey, who has already lied to Congress and been caught at it. He has decided that what he has seen so far is something he will not indict Comey for. So Comey has broken the law–but he gets a free pass. If you or I did what he did we’d be in the slammer, but because Comey is an integral part of the Swamp (Deep State) he automatically gets a pass. You watch, the same thing will happen with Hillary Clinton and the Uranium One deal with Putin. We have a two-tiered system of “justice” in this country–one set of rules for us deplorables and another set for the Swamp Creatures (the elites) who commit crimes far above what the ordinary con man could ever devise–and they never pay for their crimes. I realize that, at some point, God will judge them for their crimes, and there is no escape for them from that Judgment. But I would like to see some of them, at least, pay for their sins in this life. So far, Trump has yet to really deal with this issue. And now he is talking about letting some government agency, along with the psychiatrists decide who should be able to own firearms in this country. Do we really want government spooks and doctors to decide who can exercise our Second Amendment rights and who can’t? Once that happens you can kiss your Second Amendment rights goodbye–and all the rest as well–because the Second Amendment is the linchpin that holds up the rest of them. Trump, who is supposed to be a supporter of the Second Amendment should realize this, but apparently he does not seem to. Wouldn’t it be ironic if, during the regime of Obama, we had been able to retain our gun rights (and Obama was a big gun grabber) and we ended up losing those rights during the administration of Trump, who supposedly supports the Second Amendment? You think the Deep State denizens of our Washington Swamp wouldn’t laugh about that all the way to the (Federal Reserve) bank? I don’t think Trump fully grasps the situation he is in and if he continues in that vein, it will be his undoing–and that of the country as well. This piece was previously published at RevisedHistory.com on September 5, 2019. The reparations scam is like the proverbial bad penny–it keeps on coming back and back and back. And now we have a batch of Demoncrat congresspersons that want to try to foist it upon us yet again. Do you think they know it’s a scam? Of course they do. They are trying to shaft the public, particularly the white public and they hope we are too stupid to realize that. Well, some are and some aren’t. The ones that are will just go along with it in the name of “racial equality” (which really has nothing to do with it) and the ones that aren’t will just be labeled as “racists” by the mainstream media. They think that labeling us all racists will automatically shut us up. It won’t, but in their omniscient wisdom they haven’t quite figured that out yet. One of the sponsors of this pernicious legislation is Rep. Jerrold Nadler from New York. That fact alone should tell you that this bill has to be a project of the far left in the Demoncrat Party (although you have to wonder if there’s anything other than the far left amongst the Democrats anymore. Any Democrat who is not part of the far left is probably in hiding! So this bill is supposed to create a commission to study slavery in the US all the way back to 1565 through the end of the War of Northern Aggression. Anyone want to bet that most of their main effort will cover the years from 1860-65 in the South? I didn’t think so. So supposedly this commission will study the whole slavery banana. I hope that means they will take account of all the slavery that went on in the Northern states up until around 1830 or so–states like Massachusetts, Rhode Island. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and wherever else up there that slavery existed. It will be interesting to see how this commission goes about finding the descendants of slaves in Massachusetts in 1800. I could be wrong, but I’d bet they will end up deciding that is a non-starter and they will go to concentrating on slavery in the South after 1860. Mitch McConnell in the Senate will supposedly ignore this bill. We’ll see. It’s easy to see how some of these elastic congresspersons end up getting “persuaded” to change their minds at the midnight hour. Just so you all realize it, any reparations bill that ends up getting passed will be a bill that redistributes your wealth to some other group for a situation that, in our day, neither you nor they had any part in. Like so much legislation that gets passed in our day, it is little more than legalized theft. I’ve asked these questions before, but I will ask them again because I have never heard a satisfactory answer to them. Will descendants of black slave owners have to pay reparations also? What about people whose ancestors were not here during the slave days? Will they have to pay too, and if so, why? And please don’t tell me they also benefitted from slavery too. That’s a croc and we both know it. And what about whites that were slaves in this country? There were some–and we are not talking indentured servants here we are talking slaves. Do their descendants get reparations too? Bet they don’t. Bet they are not even mentioned or considered. And what about American Indians that were slaves–particularly in the North? Do their descendants get reparations? Bet they don’t! If I had a suspicious mind, I might be tempted to think a reparations bill being introduced at this time might just be a crude Demoncrat attempt at buying the black vote for the 2020 election. Of course we all realize such would never happen–would it? Next question! Discerning black folks need to be aware of smiling Demoncrat legislators bearing reparations gifts that leave lots of unanswered questions. This article was previously published on Revised History on June 21, 2019.
This book is a work of fiction, historical fiction, about a family from the low country of South Carolina at the time of the beginning of the War of Northern Aggression and for over half a century after that. Having said that, let me hasten to add that it is good historical fiction, good because it has a fascinating story to tell, and good because Mr. Moore knows the history he uses for the backdrop of this story. Once I started reading, I had a hard time putting it down and it seemed to get better as it went along, in spite of the sadness of some of the incidents written about. The main character is Drayton FitzHenry, the middle son of a family that raises rice on their plantation in the low country of extreme eastern South Carolina. The story covers the period from January, 1860, all the way through to July, 1913, when Drayton, his older brother, Cabell, and Tommy, his grandson, go to the 50th reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg. Although he was initially reluctant to go to the reunion, Drayton was eventually talked into it by his older brother, and it was good for him that he did go, for it allowed him to unburden himself of a secret about the battle that had haunted him ever since 1867. It was a burden he needed to get rid of. Let me say this here. I have been to Gettysburg three times over the years, going all the way back to 1961, and then twice after that. I have been across most of the battlefield from the Confederate side to the Yankee side. I’ve stood where Chamberlain’s men stood as they fired on the attacking Confederates, trying to get a feel for what happened to our boys as they crossed that wide open stretch marching into the Yankee guns. I guess, in my mind’s eye I wanted to see if I could see them coming. I couldn’t bring up the vision at that time. But, then, I still had a lot to learn at that time. One thing I will say about Mr. Moore’s description of the battlefield and the battle, it made me feel Gettysburg all over again as I had on our visits there. It was a mark of the caliber of this book that it made me feel what I had experienced previously only on the battlefield. Our protagonist, Drayton FitzHenry, marries the one love of his life, his first wife, Cecelia before he goes off to war. She is a Northern girl, in South Carolina with her father, a professor from the North, yet she marries Drayton, initially against the wishes of both her father and his. Yet once married, she becomes part of his family and remains with them the rest of her life, short though that unfortunately is. Neither Drayton or his family really wants to see this war come. Yet, when it does come, Drayton, his older brother, Cabell, and his younger brother, Ranse, all go off to fight in defense of their native State. Cecelia extracts from Drayton the promise that he will not let the war make a heartless brute out of him, but that he will exercise mercy as much as is possible in whatever situation he finds himself. To his credit, Drayton does this, but the doing of it, which happens at Gettysburg, is something that causes him heartache for all the years until he goes back to Gettysburg in 1913. Drayton’s problem begins on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, when General Longstreet, for whom Drayton is a courier and scout, is asked by the general to scout the Yankee army’s left flank to see if there is a way to get around the Northern army that the Confederates can use to turn the Yankee left flank and change the course the battle seems to be taking. In the course of his scouting, Drayton comes to Little Round Top, and as he scouts out this area, he discovers that there are no Yankee soldiers on Little Round Top. As he is about to depart to inform General Longstreet he hears a noise and discovers that two Yankee officers have also gotten up to the top of Little Round Top. He gets into the trees out of sight and observes them. With him he has a Spencer repeating rifle that has been appropriated from the Yankees in battle, and his first thought is to shoot the two Yankee officers who are up there with him. But then, the admonition of his wife to show mercy wherever possible comes to him and he hesitates to shoot two men in cold blood from ambush, and so he eases his finger off the trigger and the Yankees leave. At that point, Drayton leaves also and gets back to Longstreet as quickly as he can. But he has further to go than the two Yankees do. He gets back to Longstreet and tells him what he found, but before Longstreet can really do much in the way of moving troops there, the Yankees have already started moving men up to the top of Little Round Top, and we all know the rest of that story. And so, for the time being, although Drayton is sad that the Yankees beat us to Little Round Top, he doesn’t think all that much more about it. His future reflections on that situation come two years down the road. In February of 1867, Drayton gets to visit with former Confederate General Edward Porter Alexander when both are teaching at the University of South Carolina. Alexander shows him an article written for the New York Times, a tribute to Union General Gouverneur Warren, written in July of 1865. The article explains that General Warren was the Union officer, part of Meade’s staff, who was responsible for securing Little Round Top for the Yankees, which made the difference in the outcome of the battle. This was the officer that Drayton had seen up there and declined to shoot from ambush, and that act of mercy, a fatal mercy, made the difference in the Battle of Gettysburg, and eventually in the war as a whole. At this point, Drayton feels the eventual loss of the war is his fault for his act of mercy. He lives with the horrific burden on his shoulders until 1913, when he goes back to Gettysburg and is able to unburden his soul at that point in a speech to his comrades in arms of fifty years ago. And while a handful of them react with anger, the majority do not. Drayton’s second wife, Annalee, (his first wife, Cecelia, the real love of his life) died in 1864 of typhoid fever while he was away fighting and later on Drayton ends up marrying Annalee. She is no carbon copy of his first devoted wife. She is a control freak who wants to dominate every aspect of his being and she does not want him going to Gettysburg for this 50th reunion because he is out from under her control while he is gone. His whole relationship with Annalee and their “marriage” is an interesting sub-plot in this story, but it would drag this review on too long to go into it in detail here. It’s one of those fascinating parts of this book that you will have to get the book to discover. In the end, Drayton is able to resolve it to his (and our) satisfaction. You may be able to tell from this review that I really enjoyed this book. I have always enjoyed good historical fiction and this book filled that bill. I hope Mr. Moore will go on and do more work in this area. Good historical fiction always imparts a certain amount of historical knowledge and this book does that. I recommend it strongly. It was published by Green Altar Books, which is a division of Shotwell Publishing in Columbia, South Carolina. |
AuthorAl Benson is the South’s best-known Copperhead (Northern-born patriot), a prolific columnist. and the coauthor of Lincoln’s Marxists. Archives
January 2024
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