 I wonder if readers of Reckonin.com have ever heard a name as unusual as Dixie Strawbridge. Dixie Strawbridge is a real name, and a real man. I have known Dixie for 52 years. He was born in 1954, went to the local public school and played on its football team. Unlike many of his peers who moved off to Chicago or Detroit or Albany, New York, Dixie stayed in southeast Mississippi. Following high school, he worked for my father (who was the county forester) for a couple of years in the Mississippi Forestry Commission. For the last several years, he has driven a truck for a plant which manufactures styrofoam cups. He delivers this product all over the southeast. Yes, he's still working at 70. Every time I see him in town I holler 'Hey, Dixie!' And every time I see him, he has a huge smile on his face. I saw him in town a couple of months ago, and we conversed for several minutes. He has no interest in retiring, only to sit at home all day watching 1970s reruns on the boob tube. He bought a beautiful old house in town which had been the residence of a prominent attorney. Dixie tragically lost a son in a drowning incident on a Gulf fishing trip several years ago. My heart was heavy for him, but he kept his faith in God, kept his head up, and knew he had to just keep living and working. Dixie, believe it or not, is a black man. I never met his mother, so I have no idea why she named him Dixie. I'm thinking it might simply be because she liked the sound of the name. Or perhaps she simply loved the South. Regardless, Dixie is definitely not ashamed of his name. I am sure that he will never change his name to Mustafa, or Jirekus or Ta'Darius. Dixie suits him just fine. Imagine the scorn and ridicule he would have faced had he moved to a northern city. 'Dixie! Man! Your momma actually gave you dat name!' And you kept dat name! Come on man! Ain't you gonna change yo name?' I'm sure if Dixie had moved North, hearing taunts, he would have simply responded 'Naw, man. My momma gave me my name. It's my name, and I ain't ashamed of it.' But Dixie had the wisdom to stay in Mississippi. He works for a living, minds his own business, respects others, and they respect him. Dixie Strawbridge. He's a friend of mine.
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 The Mississippi county 120 miles due west of my native Wayne County is Lincoln County. I'm not sure why it just recently dawned on me, but Lincoln County, Mississippi is named for the tyrant, liar, and war criminal, the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. (With quite a bit of irony, the county situated two counties east of Lincoln County, is more appropriately named in honor of a truly honorable Southern gentleman, Jefferson Davis.) Lincoln County was established by an act of the Mississippi legislature on April 7, 1870. I was dumbfounded as to how and why this legislative body voted to name this 586 square miles after the man who was responsible for the war of invasion, occupation, and subjugation which caused so much death, destruction, and economic misery in the South in general, and in Mississippi in particular, only five to nine years prior to this. Of course, the economic misery continued for decades. Was the Mississippi legislature overcome by Stockholm Syndrome? Possibly, but perhaps the best answer lies in the numbers comprising the legislature. In the 1870 legislature there were 110 Republicans, 35 of whom were black. 'Reconstruction' was in full swing at the time, and pro-Union forces took their vengeance on the Confederates for daring to rebel against the Yankee Empire, for daring to establish their own new country. Five years after atomic bombs killed an estimated 140,000 residents of Hiroshima, and an estimated 74,000 residents of Nagasaki, did the Japanese name any town or community in honor of Harry S. Truman? Following the illegal invasion, occupation and destruction of Iraq, from 2003-2011, were any communities or townships in Iraq named in honor of the war criminals Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Blair? Yet, here we are in Mississippi in 2023 – stuck with Lincoln County, named after the man who despised the South, and who delighted in the destruction of its land, farms and homes, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants. With few exceptions (notably Senator Chris McDaniel), modern-day Mississippi Republicans are as worthless as their 1870 counterparts. On June 28, 2020, they forever turned their backs on their brave Confederate ancestors, and voted to replace the Mississippi flag which had been in place for over 100 years, in spite of the fact that the issue should have been settled once and for all, in a voter referendum in 2001. In that referendum, 60% of those casting a vote, voted to keep the 1894 flag. So, the attitude of the legislature in June, 2020, was 'voters be damned, we're going to pacify the SEC, the NCAA, the Clarion-Ledger, the Washington Post, and the New York Times!' Eternal shame on the Mississippi legislature of 1870 and 2020. The party of Lincoln may have prevailed, but I, for one, refuse to participate in the worship and deification of its namesake.  Peter Navarro On June 3rd of this year, the FBI arrested Peter Navarro, former Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy in the Trump administration. Mr. Navarro's alleged crime: 'Contempt of Congress.' Apparently Mr. Navarro ignored subpoenas issued by the kangaroo court known as the January 6 Committee, headed by the incredibly stupid Bennie Thompson, and also composed of the incredibly evil Liz Cheney (wickedness is deeply imbedded in her gene pool) , and seven other tax parasites. For ignoring these subpoenas, Mr Navarro was arrested and shackled in leg chains, treated as if he were the captured ringleader of a Mexican drug cartel. On Friday, July 22, former Trump aide Steve Bannon was convicted of 'Contempt of Congress.' Mr. Bannon awaits sentencing in October. One can expect the harshest of possible sentences to be given to him. The federal prosecutors and judges assigned to these cases are relishing the power they have been given to ruin the lives of those who had the gall to enter the hallowed chamber on January 6, 2021. Ah, the peril of disrespecting, then ignoring these hypocritical cretins! Count me overwhelmingly guilty of Contempt of Congress. Although I was in the woods in Wayne County, Mississippi on January 6, 2021, 937 miles from the filthy imperial capitol, I am 100% guilty of Contempt of Congress. I have nothing but contempt for a legislative body, each making $174,000 a year ($210,000 a year for the Marxist Pelosi) , taken from the fruits of the labor of those who actually work for a living. I have nothing but contempt for a group which increases useless federal spending year after year. I have nothing but contempt for a group which has participated in increasing the federal debt from $5.674 trillion in 2000 to over $30 trillion in 2022. I have nothing but contempt for a group which votes to give Planned Parenthood, the world's most prolific baby-killing machine, $500,000,000 of taxpayer money, year after year. I have nothing but contempt for a group which has given $53,000,000,000 + of taxpayer money to Ukraine since March of this year, (whose government and so-called president, is as corrupt, or more so, than the cockroaches in Washington, DC) to fight a proxy war against Russia, all because self-anointed Saint Hillary claims the Russians are the reason she was denied the White House in 2016, and to further enrich the despicable war profiteers, whose multi-million dollar homes dot the landscape of northern Virginia. I propose reducing congressional pay to the median income which corresponds to the state one wishes to represent. This means the pay of Mississippians Roger Wicker, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Bennie Thompson and the others would drop from $174,000 a year to $45,081 a year. If that's not enough for them to make ends meet, maybe they could get a part-time job at Wal-Mart stocking shelves at night, or cooking hamburgers at the local Wendy's. On second thought, let's just completely eliminate congressional salaries. If a would-be congressman/senator can't support himself without money extracted from the 'deplorable' hoi polloi, don't run for the office. By the way, I did vote for Mike Ezell in the recent primary, if for no other reason than to give neo-con Steven Palazzo his walking papers. He has been on the taxpayer dole long enough. (However, he won't be completely off the taxpayer dole – he will receive a generous taxpayer-funded pension beginning next year.) If Ezell goes to Congress and does not work to drastically reduce federal spending, does not push to bring the U.S. military home from around the globe, to defend the United States, and ONLY the United States, and does not push to eliminate foreign aid of all kinds, I will vote to fire him, too. On second thought, I have grown weary of voting in elections originating in the District of Corruption, the city whose part-time and full-time inhabitants revere the tyrant and war criminal Abraham Lincoln. I have concluded that secession, for the second time, is the only answer. Et tu, fellow Rebels? Contempt of Congress - I plead guilty!  I'm sure my fellow Rebels have grown quite weary of reading and hearing about the planned-demic, Dixie-bashing, and election fraud. I durn sure have. Have some fun with this Dixie I.Q. Test. (Answers provided at the end.) Drop me a note and let me know how you fared. Southern baking products company Martha White Foods is based in which location?
In the Charlie Daniels Band classic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the devil jumped up on a ___________ stump, and said “Boy, lemme tell ya what!”
In some areas of the deep south, particularly Mississippi and Alabama, a catfish restaurant is often called a
The Loretta Lynn/Conway Twitty duet “______________ Woman, ___________ Man” was a smash hit.
This Southern writer won the Nobel Prize in literature.
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the ___________ took the music world by storm in 1948.
Tabasco Sauce is produced by the McIlhenny Company and headquartered in
According to Hank Williams Jr. in “A Country Boy Can Survive” three essential survival items are
A grand tradition in many rural Southern churches for homecoming services for the last 200-250 years or so: All day singin' and __________ on the ground.
Martha White Self-Rising Flour (You bake better biscuits, cakes, and pies), has the following critical ingredient:
Stone Mountain has etched into its side three of our Confederate heroes:
In the bluegrass classic “In the Pines,” Bill Monroe sings “The longest train I ever saw, went down that Georgia line. The engine passed at _____________, and the cab passed by at nine.
The first Southern state to secede:
The Grand Ole Opry's first performance was in
Southern rock/country band proud of its Dixie heritage
The correct pronunciation of 'pecan'
Strom Thurmond ran for U.S. President in 1948, representing the ___________ Party.
General Robert E. Lee's horse in the War of Northern Aggression.
The Grand Ole Opry's first show in this location was June 5, 1943.
The post-war home of President Jefferson Davis in Biloxi, Mississippi:
Royal Crown Cola originated in this town:
Clint Eastwood portrays ____________, as a member of a Confederate guerrilla band, setting out to avenge the slaughter of his wife and children by Union troops
In the Southern rock classic “Ramblin' Man” Dickie Betts sings, “I'm on my way to _________ this mornin', leavin' out o' Nashville, Tennessee.”
Birthplace of General Ambrose Powell Hill Jr.
According to biographer Robert Lewis Dabney, “Let us pass over the river and rest under the shade of the trees” were the last words of:
Scroll below photo for answers...  Correct answers: C. Memphis B. hickory D. fish camp B. Louisiana, Mississippi C. William Faulkner C. Foggy Mountain Boys D. Avery Island, Louisiana A. shotgun, rifle, and a four-wheel drive C. Dinner (as in the mid-day meal. At my house, we eat breakfast, dinner, and supper.) A. Hot Rize B. Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis C. six o'clock D. South Carolina B. 1925 D. Confederate Railroad (Don't get me started on the first two!) B. Puh-kahn' (Don't come to my house and expect pee-can pie!) B. Dixiecrat C. Traveller A. Ryman Auditorium D. Beauvoir A. Columbus, Georgia C. The Outlaw Josey Wales D. New Orleans A. Culpeper, Virginia B. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson  October 22 marks the 56th anniversary of the day the Feds first nuked Mississippi. This underground nuclear explosion was in the vicinity of a community known as Baxterville, in the Tatum Salt Dome, roughly 28 miles southwest of Hattiesburg, 100 miles northeast of New Orleans. Baxterville, in Lamar County, was the area in which my late father, his parents, and nine siblings scratched out a living from circa 1920 to the early 1940s, before the days of food stamps, WIC, Social Security disability checks, and EBT cards. If one didn't work, one didn't eat. It was just that simple. These people didn't riot, and they didn't whine. They worked, hunted, and fished to survive from day to day. Fortunately for my father, he was no longer living near Baxterville the day the Feds detonated the bomb. However, he did have relatives and friends still living in the area. Unfortunately for those still living there, the earth shook, homes were severely damaged, and underground water supplies were contaminated. Many of his family and acquaintances later told my father of seeing sidewalks rippling, chimneys cracking, and pine and pecan trees swaying. The governments of the U.S., the United Kingdom, and the USSR, had signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty on August 5, 1963. This treaty banned underwater, atmospheric and outer space nuclear detonations. Of course Uncle Sam, devious as usual, decided to circumvent the treaty, and perform the detonation underground, figuring the Russians wouldn't be able to detect it. The explosion was initially supposed to take place on September 22, but the wind was uncooperative, and the project was postponed. Conditions were finally deemed favorable, and at 10:00 A.M. on October 22, 1964, the Feds 'pulled the trigger.' The bomb was a 5.3 kiloton behemoth, and was detonated 2,700 feet underground. The explosion had the equivalent power of about 5,000 tons of TNT. About 400 residents were evacuated from the area; adults were paid $10 each, and children $5 each. Horace Burge lived about two miles from the blast site, and returned home to discover considerable damage to his home. The fireplace and chimney were damaged, and bricks were scattered across the living room. Broken dishes and jars littered the floor, and the shelves inside his refrigerator fell. The pipes beneath the kitchen sink burst, causing flooding in the house. Damage of this type happened to dozens of other homes in the area. The shock wave was felt as far away as downtown Hattiesburg. Uncle Sam has always been fond of coming up with names for each destructive, money-wasting project it undertakes, (Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, the Manhattan Project, and, of course, the latest fiasco – Operation Warp Speed), and this one was no different. The Atomic Energy Commission dubbed this one 'Project Salmon.' On December 3, 1966, Project Sterling detonated a 380 ton bomb in the same salt dome. Apparently the only reason given for these completely unnecessary nuclear explosions was to confirm how easily they could be hidden and detected. Washington politicians and bureaucrats thrive on deception and stealth, being part and parcel of the way they operate. All the politicians want and require from us serfs is to keep our mouths shut, be good, unwaveringly compliant citizens, pay the taxes they extract (by force, if necessary), and vote them back in for term after term. The unelected bureaucrats and government technicians frankly don't care what we think. Southerners have long been used as convenient guinea pigs in one federal experiment after another, whether it's the men of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, or the 'poor white trash' in Lamar County, Mississippi. In the wicked, collective mind of the U.S. Government power elite, we're basically all the same, and all very expendable.  Remember the phrase 'consent of the governed?' The idea behind that phrase was officially stomped to death and buried in Mississippi on July 1, 2020, when the governor signed a bill, passed by both chambers of the state legislature, which took down the Mississippi flag. The flag had been in place since 1894.
Mississippians had last voted on a flag referendum on April 17, 2001. The vote was 64% - 36% to retain the flag which contained the Confederate battle flag in its design. Over the years since, the Confederacy-haters in our midst, and in other parts of the country, would occasionally demand the changing of the design, but the demands reached a fever pitch in the last few weeks, particularly following the death of the man in Minneapolis. Yes, it happened in Minneapolis, not Jackson, or Meridian, or Vicksburg, or Natchez, or Waynesboro. The officer involved in the man's death did not have a Mississippi or Confederate flag tattoo on his forearm, so I really never got the connection. The fatal blow came when the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, and the NCAA informed Mississippi State University and Ole Miss that they would not be hosting any post season athletic events until and unless the flag was changed. One of Mississippi State's star players had threatened not to play this fall if the flag was not changed. This likely caught the attention of the SEC office. Sports is of utmost importance, so the athletics directors, and the head coaches at the respective schools undoubtedly put tremendous, immediate pressure on the legislature and the governor to make the change – NOW! Whether the ballplayers can write a coherent paragraph on any given subject is irrelevant. What matters (other than black lives) is the fact that people pay big money to see these ballplayers run up and down the football field in the fall, and the basketball court in the winter. Ticket sales, along with the big money-maker, television rights, pays the athletics directors', the football coaches', and the basketball coaches' seven-figure salaries, and these people are somewhat akin to drug dealers – mess with their gravy train, and you will pay the price. The heroic state senator Chris McDaniel and a handful of others, fought to force the flag opponents to start a referendum, to put it before the voters again. The legislature rejected the referendum process, and took matters into their own hands. The deal was sealed July 1. And, man, they didn't waste one minute in taking the flag down from the pole. The national and Mississippi media were all there to record the historic event, signifying Mississippi's official entry and semi-acceptance into the politically-correct 21st century. The Confederacy-haters can now sleep well at night. However, as Senator McDaniel stated, they're not finished. 'Ole Miss Rebels' will have to be changed to Mississippi whatever. I suggest 'Mississippi Social Justice Warriors,' which might work as long as a tomahawk or an arrow is not included in the logo. The statue of Confederate General Stephen D. Lee, who was Mississippi State's first president, will have to be removed from the center of campus. Lee Hall will have to be renamed. Jefferson Davis County will have to be renamed. The great purge....to be continued.  Although I don't pretend to be a redneck Nostradamus, I do feel compelled to offer the following prediction: If there are enough self-respecting, unreconstructed Southerners remaining who are racing fans, NASCAR signed its own preliminary death certificate on June 10, 2020. Earlier in the week, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace made his demand for a Confederate flag ban, and, by gosh, two days later, NASCAR complied with his demand with the following statement: “The presence of the Confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors, and our industry. Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the Confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.” One must wonder if pick-up trucks and SUVs arriving at a NASCAR track displaying the Confederate flag or the Mississippi flag on their vehicles will be refused entrance to the property. Might as well go all the way, NASCAR officials, and send them away. No freedom of expression will be tolerated, other than those expressions which BLM, the climate change activists, the LGBT movement, and the Yankee congress in the imperial capitol approve of. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the Marxist college professors across the land of the free. Gotta have their approval, too! Imagine an NFL or NBA player demanding that his respective league officials prohibit players or fans from wearing any BLM apparel which he considers to be racist and offensive. He would be summarily dispatched into the unemployment lines, berated, cursed and abused incessantly by ESPN, CNN, and on social media. Drew Brees made the mistake of recently stating 'I could never disrespect the flag.' And he wasn't even referring to the Confederate flag! Naturally, due to immense societal pressure, he retracted his statement and groveled before the politically correct crowd. I knew he would. But his next step will likely be at the New Orleans Saints training camp, where he will surely 'take a knee' before his teammates, and beg their forgiveness for his 'white privilege.' Regarding NASCAR, here is what I predict will happen within the next two years: due to lack of attendance, and practically zero television ratings, NASCAR will convert its tracks into 'Diversity Ovals'. At least once a month, foot races will take the place of cars screaming around the tracks at 180 miles an hour. In January, the climate change folks will have their race. Greta Thunberg will be the master (mistress?) of ceremonies. Saturday will be the day for the ole geezers race, headlined by Al Gore and Barbara Streisand. Sunday will be the day for the younger participants. Look for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to lead the pack. February will be the month for Black Lives Matter. Saturday again will be the 'ole geezers' race day. Prominent participants will be Morgan Freeman, Oprah Winfrey, and Danny Glover. Lebron James will take a break from his busy NBA schedule to participate in the Sunday race. This particular race should take place at Talladega, so all the participants can be at the renaming of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library on the campus of the University of Alabama, which could transpire the same weekend. Because Mrs. Gorgas was married to Josiah Gorgas, an officer in the army of the Confederate States of America, she is automatically assumed to be a racist, and this name change must occur. I figure the library will be renamed the Barack Obama Library, although Mr. Obama has never lived in Alabama. March will be the month for the LGBT races. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is the obvious choice to spearhead this weekend's races. Rachel Maddow would surely dominate the racing, so she will probably be relegated to sportscasting duties. Elton John will be asked to sing and play the LGBT anthem, whatever that may be. The flying of rainbow flags will be strongly encouraged. And, last, but certainly not least, will be the Yankee Empire's Congress/Senate Members weekend. Maxine Waters, Mitt Romney and Doug Jones will be the ones to watch in the Saturday races, but I expect Romney will run away from the pack rather quickly. Going by appearance only, he seems to be in superb physical condition. During a break in the races, Roger Wicker of Mississippi will give a stirring speech, detailing his plan to have his state's flag placed into a museum, and replaced by a more suitable one. Country band Lady A (formerly known as Lady Antebellum – they changed the band name because of the pain with which the word 'antebellum' is associated) ) will sing the national anthem, during which time all senators and congressmen will dutifully 'take a knee.' The persons of whiteness among the attendees will recite, in unison, their begging of forgiveness for white privilege. What a moving weekend this will be! After these four groups have taken turns, the rotation will be begin again. ESPN and CNN will alternate broadcasting these events, generating hundreds of dollars in revenue. Given the self-inflicted demise of NASCAR, Bubba Wallace's racing career will be over. Feeling sorry for Mr Wallace, President Joe Biden will offer him a position as his personal chauffeur, which Wallace will promptly decline with an obscenity-filled tirade. President Biden will then profusely apologize for such a condescending offer, then immediately offer Bubba the position of Secretary of Transportation. Of course, Bubba will accept, and will be unanimously confirmed by the senate. NASCAR was fun while it lasted, but it committed suicide. Good riddance.  Don't make the erroneous assumption that Abe Lincoln's hired killers and arsonists only destroyed larger towns in the War to Prevent Southern Independence. An example of their hooliganism and destruction of very small towns is the Yankee assault on Quitman, Mississippi in February, 1864. My family and I recently visited the Confederate Cemetery just south of the Quitman city limits, roughly 25 miles from our home in Wayne County. It lies down a narrow dirt road, just off Highway 145, nestled among the pine trees, and just a few yards from the Meridian Southern Railroad (formerly known as Mobile and Ohio; Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio; and Illinois Central Gulf.) This cemetery contains the remains of approximately 300 Confederate soldiers. Although each tombstone is marked 'Unknown Confederate Soldier,' there are quite a few names of Rebel soldiers engraved in a granite slab at the site. The cemetery is associated with what was known as the 'Texas Hospital' which was constructed nearby. Citizens of Galveston and Houston helped to construct the hospital in July, 1862, to ensure that Texans and other Confederate soldiers who were wounded, or seriously ill, could be treated and taken care of. They sent Dr. Louis Bryan with wagon loads of medicine which had been purchased in Mexico. Medicine was hard to come by in the CSA during the war, for obvious reasons. Dr. Enos Thomas Bonney, a well-respected surgeon from Enterprise, Mississippi, (a little hamlet about 12 miles north of Quitman) assisted Dr. Bryan, and eventually took charge of the hospital. In January, 1864, Sherman received approval from U.S. Grant to commence with a raid into the heart of Mississippi in Meridian, meaning, of course, to destroy everything in the Yankee army's path. Sherman had been planning to make such a raid since October, 1863, when he wrote to General James McPherson about the 'destruction in toto of a large section of the railroad at Meridian, the larger and more perfect, the better.' On February 3, 1864, Sherman's forces departed Vicksburg in two wings; the right wing commanded by McPherson, and the left wing commanded by Major General Stephen Hurlbut. This army marched through Jackson, Brandon, Morton, and Decatur, and arrived in Meridian on February 14. On February 16, Major General Crocker ordered Brigadier General Walter Q. Gresham to invade Quitman, destroy the railroad bridge across the Chickasawhay River, and the trestle work across Alligator Swamp. In an interesting side note, Gresham became Secretary of State in the Grover Cleveland administration. Then, as now, military heroes were often rewarded with cushy federal positions in Washington, D.C. for 'jobs well done.' Gresham did everything he was instructed to do, and more. His forces arrived in Quitman and proceeded to burn the railroad depot, the Methodist Church, (which was doubling as a hospital), the city jail, the courthouse, general stores, a sawmill, and a gristmill, in addition to many other buildings. Gresham's troops then tore up over four miles of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad track. Part of Gresham's force then proceeded to the Chickasawhay River, where they destroyed the 200-foot covered railroad bridge which spanned the river. Not quite finished with their destruction, the Yankee troops then marched to the Texas Hospital and set fire to all the buildings. The hospital complex consisted of two large buildings, in addition to at least 12 wooden barracks, and a drug store. Providentially, the staff had received word of the impending U.S. Army invasion, and the staff and Rebel soldiers had evacuated into Alabama prior to the arrival of Gresham's forces. Fifteen miles south, at the Langsdale Plantation (the Langsdale antebellum home is still intact today), residents could see the smoke from the fires in Quitman and the Texas Hospital as it burned to the ground. The Quitman 'Texas' hospital serving Confederate soldiers was never rebuilt. Inexplicably, the cemetery became forgotten for over 50 years, when a farmer in the 1930s, breaking ground to put in a corn crop, turned up buttons from a Confederate soldier's uniform. He had discovered the long-forgotten Confederate cemetery. The cemetery was formally dedicated on May 25, 1987. For those interested in the history of our CSA, a visit to the Confederate Cemetery in Clarke County, Mississippi is highly recommended. *Excerpts of this story were taken from www.Civilwarhome.com.
 As I sit at my computer, gazing through the window, looking at the tomato plants which were put in the ground yesterday, and the firewood, stacked in crisscrossed patterns for better drying until the first fires of Autumn will be lit, I'm thankful to Almighty God for another day of life on the 13 acres on which my family and I live in southeast Mississippi.
I'm also wondering what the next few weeks or months will hold, because these are the strangest times I've experienced in my 61 years on this earth. This will be the third consecutive Sunday of 'live-streaming' church services for the church my family and I are members of. Seriously! 'Live-streaming' church. I expressed my disapproval to the pastor, but he responded, 'Well, you heard about the governor's guidelines, right?' Yes, I did, but they were just that – guidelines, not commands. Regardless, we have to fall in line with the rest of the sheep, or risk being ostracized in the community for being 'insensitive' to the spread of the Deadly Virus Known By Many Names. The Wayne County board of supervisors met on Monday, and declared a 9PM – 5AM curfew, unless one is going to work, or transporting someone in a medical emergency. So, I suppose if my boys and I want to drive 16 ½ miles to a 40-acre plot of land we own, (land my late father-in-law was raised on in the 1920s and 1930s), to do some wild hawg hunting between 9PM and 5AM, we risk being stopped by the local Barney Fife, who might ask 'where y'all goin? Don'tcha know there's a curfew in place? Y'all better get on back to the house!' O.k., deputy, whatever you say. I could give him a lecture about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but I'll save it for another day. Given the fact there is more than way to get to 'the ole place' as we refer to it, we'll just take an alternate route. I know there is a finite number of deputies on the clock in Wayne County at 9:30 at night. In other words, it's pretty much an unenforceable curfew. But it makes the supervisors sound as if they are 'taking charge' and 'doing something'! Makes them feel that they're earning the tax-payer dollars they live off. This reminds me of an article I must read at Mises.org, entitled 'Politicians Have Used This Crisis to Remind Us They're Mostly Wannabe Dictators.' Truer words have never been written. Lately I've been reading 'Salvos Against the New Deal', which is a collection of essays written by Garet Garrett, which were published in The Saturday Evening Post, and is edited by Bruce Ramsey. In an essay from January 29, 1938 titled 'The Sign Ascendant', Garrett, referring to governments all over the world wrote 'All alike, they are limiting the areas of human freedom, for no government can in any way extend its powers over people but to limit freedom' and the last paragraph of this particular essay, 'Such then is the sign that now is ascendant in the political heavens. Such is the movement that is taking place in the world. Neither the sign nor the movement is new in the world; they are new only in this country, where now, for the first time, it may be that Government will overwhelm freedom. Certainly it will if the extension of its power be not heroically resisted.' In just a couple of hours, my boys and I are going to the Chickasawhay River to set out a catfish trap. The game warden wouldn't be pleased. However, if Daniel Boone was still around, I believe he'd say 'catch a big mess of fish, boys!'  Mississippi is the last remaining state which incorporates the Confederate flag into its state flag design. On April 17, 2001, in a special referendum, Mississippians voted to keep the state flag which had been adopted as the state flag in 1894. The vote was 64.39% in favor of keeping the flag; 35.61% opposed. Many prominent state politicians voted to change the flag, and urged those of us less enlightened to also do so, citing the need for a flag which 'unifies' all Mississippians. I believe these politicians were quite surprised that so many of us voted against their wishes. Why did we disappoint them? There are several reasons. First, there are quite a few of us who prefer to do our own thinking about any given subject. Just because a man goes off to school at Yale or Harvard or Princeton, and comes back to Mississippi with a new, progressive way of thinking about the South, and Mississippi in particular, doesn't mean we're going to agree with him. Just because our public and private school history teachers stood at the front of the classroom and bloviated (and still bloviate, unfortunately) about how the great Abraham Lincoln's United States military invaded and destroyed the Confederate States of America to abolish slavery, doesn't mean they were and are currently telling the truth. Many of us have researched this subject, and read extensively, and have arrived at a starkly different conclusion. Just because the state's flagship newspaper, Jackson's Clarion-Ledger, owned by the Confederacy-hating Gannett Corporation, published editorials pushing the flag change (and still does) , didn't mean we had to kowtow to their opinion. While we have kept the flag for now, I won't be so smug, or naive to believe that it will always survive. None of the three major public universities in Mississippi (Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and the University of Southern Mississippi) currently fly the state flag on university grounds. Several towns in Mississippi have ceased flying the flag on public property. It angers and saddens me greatly to go into a so-called Christian school in Mississippi, and see images of Abe Lincoln on the walls of the classrooms, colored with crayons, and taped there by impressionable young children; images of the man who inflicted an unimaginable degree of death and destruction on the people of the South. If a referendum on changing or keeping the state flag were to be held six months from now, I'm not sure what the result would be. When one of the U.S. Senators from Mississippi (Roger Wicker, Republican) is quoted as saying 'the Mississippi state flag belongs in a museum,' minds may have been indoctrinated with so many lies that the vote would possibly be to change our flag. However, drive into many rural areas of our state, and one will see many Mississippi and Confederate flags flying next to homes and barns. Many of us still honor the men who bravely fought and died resisting Washington, DC's brutal, vicious invasion and occupation of our beloved South. We still honor the men who fought to resist Abraham Lincoln's tyranny. Even if the 'smart people' in Mississippi eventually decide to make the change, there are many of us who will keep flying the flag on our private property. In Dixie land I'll take my stand. |
