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WARNING: Read this only if you have your blood pressure under control;

Confederate flag-loving Ferndale High School students may think they are fighting for free speech in their attempts to display the ignoble Rebel flags and emblems on campus, but their pernicious ignorance of vile icons demonstrates quite clearly that they either don’t understand the flag’s inglorious heritage or they do not believe the infamy it represents in our nation’s history and for that reason the necessity of relegating it to history’s dustheap along with other such failed social experiments as national socialism, communism and fascism.

The students have a constitutional right to fly the flag, use an emblem on the vehicle they drive or do any number of assorted things to promote the neo-Confederate cause off-campus, but I have a question for them: Are they buying into a nostalgic Southern past that never existed, one that existed on the backs of black slave laborers and/or are they supporting the current attempt by some Americans to rekindle a racist Rebel agenda?

Do they realize the Confederate flag and/or its emblems are un-American because they represent the disloyalty of 11 treacherous states that dedicated themselves to our Union’s destruction?

Neo-Confederates and the flags and/or emblems they display represent a perpetuation of slavery’s misery — still an open and festering wound in our society.

By their allegiance to such racist symbols, they define themselves as disloyal Americans who either overlook or uphold the Confederacy’s treason, deception, death, destruction and racism.

I have written against displaying the Confederate flag in the past, which has been met with attacks from neo-Confederates for my “misunderstanding of Southern heritage.”

As a result, some of these so-called Southern “gentlemen” have put my name, e-mail and phone number on neo-Confederates’ Web sites, encouraging those opposed to my viewpoints to phone and e-mail me. Countless men did — curiously, not a single woman did — and they often were crude, rude and racist. Some were threatening.

I was alerted to this campaign against me by a Ku Klux Klan researcher based in Texas who saw my column and personal information appearing on neo-Confederate Web sites throughout the United States. He thought I should take precautions because of what was written about me.

Neo-Confederacy is gaining, in my opinion, so I must speak out against neo-Confederate leaders who hide their racist ideology in the cloak of “Southern pride.”

When you decipher neo-Confederate leaders’ often skillful rhetoric, however, you can pick up on their Machiavellian — albeit improbable — plot to “return the South to Southerners” — whatever that really means.

Since public schools are for all community residents, including those of color, Ferndale Unified School District Superintendent and FHS Principal Sam Garamendi’s action to ban display of the Confederate symbol was commonsensical. After all, how can a public school condone such prejudicial and discriminatory behavior?

Please do not mistake my distaste for the treasonous Confederate flag and emblems as a condemnation of the positive elements of our country’s wonderful Southern heritage that our nation should embrace and celebrate.

My opposition is aimed at those neo-Confederates who see themselves as Rebels, and they are not all Southerners. They are spread throughout the United States.

It is a distasteful and truly sad day indeed when even in the quaint Victorian village of Ferndale that such injurious Confederate emblems and/or flags are displayed under the protection of our constitutional rights but at the expense of further deepening the wounds that the evilness of racism has inflicted upon our society.

(Glenn Franco Simmons is managing editor.)

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ï¿½Happiness Is A North Bound Yankee ï¿½ Reb_Smilie

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...and my FAVORITE response to the above drivel;

From: patriot1861@yahoo.com

My response to Mr. Simmons:

GLENN FRANCO SIMMONS can be reached at
editor@eurekareporter.com
The Eureka Reporter, CA
http://eurekareporter.com/article/080126-confederate-flag-represents-ungodly-suffering

Mr. Simmons,

My, my, my....are we just a little bit thrown by the Confederate Flag? ?I want to assure you that this letter is from a history and Southern loving individual who just can't take it when a guy from California bashes the flag that my ancestors fought under. ?I hope you take the time to read my comments. ?Let me first apologize for the knuckleheads that write you the "crude, rude and racist statements." ?They are not representative of those who truly love their heritage. ?I thought it odd though that you did not mention that you received letters from those opposed to your views that I am sure were good, honest, heart felt and free from negativity. ?Did you not receive any at all?

Your statement "do not mistake my distaste for the treasonous Confederate flag and emblems as a condemnation of the positive elements of our country's wonderful Southern heritage that our nation should embrace and celebrate" makes quite a point, one that you contradict yourself on throughout the rest of your editorial. ?How in the world can our country celebrate and embrace our unique Southern Heritage and at the same time deride its symbols and more importantly its people? ?These days, there is an all out effort to eradicate Southern and Confederate Heritage in the name of political correctness and bringing people together. ?This can never be accomplished if folks like you are so ready and willing to condemn that part of the South's, and America's, past.

True, the Confederate flag has been adopted by hate groups, but then, so has the US flag. ?As a matter of fact, right here in Louisiana just a week ago, white supremacists, to my disgust, carried not only a Confederate flag emblazoned with a klan symbol, but also the US flag! ?By the very title of your editorial, 'flag represents ungodly suffering', so too does the US flag (Native Americans come to mind, legalized slavery, black codes, etc IN ALL of the United States, not just the South ). ?How do you explain this away? ?Why to are you not calling for removal of Old Glory? ?Of course that would be silly, but I am sure, editor that you are, get my point.

*NEW* Add image to post [?] OptionsYour comment that the "Confederate flag and/or its emblems are un-American" and that supporters "overlook or uphold the Confederacy's treason" is bordering on lunacy. ?If the Confederacy was treasonous, then how is it that no one, from President Jefferson Davis down to the lowliest private, was tried, convicted or hung for the crime of treason. ?Secession was not treason and not against the Constitution as it was taught at West Point to be a right of the individual states. ?How is it that latter presidents of the US supported healing between the sections, that governments supported Confederate veterans and their spouses with pensions, that now, at this very moment in time, the US Veterans Administration provides official veteran headstones to mark the graves of Confederate Dead (45 Stat. 1307, Feb. 26, 1929)? ?How do you explain that our current government, by act, recognizes those who wore the gray, and fought under the flag you abhor, US veterans?

You said that the flag represents "the disloyalty of 11 treacherous states that dedicated to themselves to our Union's destruction". ?How could this be when the states of the south removed themselves from the Union, leaving many other states behind to remain as the US, to become another country? ?This was most certainly not unlike the colonies when they broke from the mother country. ?This act of secession did not destroy the US and when Lincoln invaded the South, it was he, and the US, that sought the destruction of the Confederacy.

You ask "how can a school condone such prejudicial and discriminatory behavior" by allowing the display of the Confederate flag." ?Go back to your comments about accepting and celebrating heritage. ?How is it we can justify our wanting children and the rest of our country to respect each other when no one will respect Confederate Heritage. ?Oh, I am sorry, its offensive? ?Instead of the school trying to hide the Confederate flag because it is offensive, why not holding seminars and classes on true history to ensure that the students understand that the flag is misused by hate groups, along with the US flag, and that it has a place in history and was a battle flag carried by American servicemen who believed in what they were doing. ?Now there is a concept. ?I think they call it sensitivity training.

Finally, the only deepening wounds are caused by you, the media and other apologists who won't stop stirring the racism pot when you see the Confederate flag. ?Racism is a problem, but eradicating the flag will not, I hate to break it to you, solve it. ?You only tend to separate people when you ask for inclusion of one group, or the feelings of one group, at the expense of another. ?Those of us who have Confederate blood in our veins do not think it a negative thing to be called a Rebel. ?Your shotgun approach is wrong. ?I am proud of my "wonderful Southern heritage", as you so nicely put it, and of the great grandfather who lost an arm defending his country, his home, his family and the battle flag that he followed into battle. ?His cause and his flag were neither treasonous or evil. ?

Please refrain from scaring your readership into believing that that is so. ?It will help in the quest of appreciation and embracing of all heritage in the long run. ?God Bless America and the South and go students of Ferndale High! ?It is my sincere hope that, while they may be fighting this because it is a free speech issue, they take the time to look at the real story of sacrifice that is behind the flag, to your dismay I am sure.

Charles Lauret
Great Grandson of Pvt. Jean Pierre Laurt, Louisiana Militia and Pvt. Emile S. Fontenot, 6th Louisiana
Washington, LA

**************************************

SOUTHERN HERITAGE NEWS AND VIEWS is
dedicated to the preservation of Southern Heritage
and to defend the honor of our Confederate ancestors.
It is FREE and sent to you via E-mail.
To subscribe send e-mail to:
SouthernHeritage-subscribe@topica.com
_________________

God Bless "The Old North State" & Dixie!
Reb_Smilie

ï¿½Happiness Is A North Bound Yankee ï¿½ Reb_Smilie

ï¿½ & A South of the BORDER Bound Illegal ï¿½ C.S.A._Flag

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/johnnyreb64
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CNS2

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