|
It is my great pleasure and privilege to bless the flags of our
ancestors. Our ancestors carried into battle the originals of these
flags here today. Our ancestors hoisted them up the masts of ships
and up thousands upon thousands of flag poles all across our beloved
Southland. Our ancestors displayed them from their public buildings
and their houses and in their churches. Our ancestors and their
succeeding generations continued to have this right and privilege,
until some self-serving, egotistical, politically correct, injuriously
ambitious members within the good Civil Rights movement accused
my generation and my childrens' children's generation of being
racists and segregationists. Today our ancestors' flags are spit
upon as symbols of hatred and white supremacy. Bigoted racial groups
and their White politically correct sycophants, and those evil-minded,
ignorant revisionists of our Southern history are determined to
remove every Confederate flag from ever flying again.
Well, we members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Daughters
of the Confederacy and many other American heritage groups will
resist, until death do us part, these badly informed, intolerant
people from destroying the symbols of our Southern history and
culture. That is why we have brought our flags there today for
a blessing. You already know why you have brought these flags for
a blessing. You already know what such a blessing signifies. It
means that we are praying to God to strengthen our resolve to keep
our flags flying everywhere and at all times as the means of honoring
our Southern history and culture. It means that we are not going
to let anyone or any group whether they be White, Black, Hispanic
or Oriental, from destroying the honor, goodness, integrity and
sacrifices of our noble ancestors. It means that we will stand
by the Bill of Rights of our Constitution to fly our flags. It
means that we will ask God in our prayers to purify our lives and
motives so that all t hat we should say and do in maintaining our
struggle to keep our rights will be pleasing in God's sight.
So far I have only talked about the flags of the Confederate States
of America. Now I want to say a few words about our United States
flag. In a few minutes, I want any re-enactor group or Color Guard
that is carrying the U.S. Flag to bring them forward also for a
blessing. Why does "Old Glory" need a blessing? Why?
Because we must not forget that over the span of many years the
Federal Government has betrayed the principles of the Constitutional
Democratic Republic that our "Founding Fataher" ancestors
gave to us. From the very day that Betsy Ross presented to the
Continental Congress the "Stars and Stripes" flag, our
Southern ancestors honored and cherished and fought valiantly for
that flag. But as t he 1850's drew near, the Federal Government
betgan to favor the radical politicians of the Northern States.
That government imposed huge tariffs on the South, interfered with
the rights of the Soutehrn states and attacked the culture and
traditions of the South. That government then declared at totally
unnecessary war against the Southern people. It sent ravaging Federal
armies marching behind "Old Glory" into the Southland.
And our "Old Glory" brought only gory horror to our ancestor's
homes, cities and land. So what did our ancestors do? They designed
a Battle Flag and several other flags to represent the Righteous
Cause of the Southern people to defend their homes, farms, churches
and places of work and business. Their flags represented their
determination to defend themselves against an aggressor nation.
They also were determined to fight that defensive war according
to the long-standing and world -wide chivalrous code of civilized
warfare - something the Federal Government refused to do! The Confederate
Battle Flag was designed with the Cross of St. Andrew in mind,
which represents the cross upon which the Apostle St. Andrew was
crucified for his faith in our Blessed Lord. And that X-shaped
cross represents the Greek letter "Chi" which is the
first letter in the Greek work for Christ. Our battle flag which
is in the canton of all official Confederate flags has therefore
a religious dimension. That is one reason why our ancestors fought
so long and so desperately and so gallantly against vastly larger
Federal armies. Their flag was a living religious prayer that God
would defend them against their aggressor enemy. Their flag was
also, as I have said earlier, a symbol for the individual states
to have their rights as guaranteed by the 10th Amendment to the
Constitution. The Confederate flag was a declaration to the Federal
Government that they , the Federal Government, had no Constitutional
right to interfere with the freedom of local governments to function
according to the needs and desires and the cultural traditions
of the local people. Today, my friends, the Confederate flag is
a corrective symbol to all our people who fly the flag of the United
States of America. Our ancestors' flags remind all the citizens
of our United States just how far our country has drifted away
from being a Constitutional Democratic Republic to become, slowly
but surely, a dictatorial socialist state with visions of world
empire.
Bring Betsy Ross' flag along side our Confederate flags. "Old
Glory" needs a blessing: a blessing to be forgiven for representing
the errors and sins of our own country over the years. It needs
a blessing so that it will not repeat those errors and sins again.
We must not forget that it was the "Stars and Stripes" that
was hoisted up the masts of those ships that brought many of the
Negro slaves to our Southern ports. It was the U.S. Flag that provoked
and then waged an unnecessary war against Mexico. It was "Old
Glory" that deliberately planned and then started the war
against the South. Then after that totally unnecessary war of ruthless
aggression, the Stars and Stripes, our "Star Spangled Banner",
flew over a vicious, vindictive Federal Government that launched
a political, psychological and physical reign of terror against
our Southland which was already in total ruin. Yes, "Old Glory" flew
over an infamous period in our American history known as the Reconstruction
Era. The U.S. Flag did not represent a real beneficial reconstruction
of the South like it generously disposed and even lavished on a
devastated Germany, Italy, Japan and the Marshall Plan in Greece
after WWII. Instead, the South was ravaged, robbed and raced by
a revengeful, radical Federal Government and their carpetbaggers
and scalawags. The Reconstruction period following the War Between
the States was everything but real reconstruction. It was the evilly
and deliberately planned destruction of the entire Southern American
culture. Reconstruction was worse than the horrors of the war itself.
And the reconstruction of the South is still going on today! Let
us not forget that the U.S. flag rode ahead of the Federal armies
in our country's war against one Indian nation after another. It
waved over the guts and gore of thousands of native Americans who
were trying go defend their lands. It herded them year after year
into penal-like reservations thousands of miles from their marginal
hunting grounds. We must not forget that "Old Glory" flew
over some twenty-five Federal Government P.O.W. Camps that were
far more horrible than our Confederate P.O.W. camps, including
Andersonville. The U.S. flag flew over Federal P.O.W. camps where
more Confederate soldiers and civilians died than Union soldiers
died in those Confederate camps. So, as I said, the "Stars
and Stripes" needs to be blessed just as our Confederate flags
need to be blessed. Today all our American citizens should welcome
the flying of the Confederate flags because they are symbols of
what our ancestors believed in at the founding of our country.
Now some of you, but I hope not too many, may think that I have
been disrespectful of our U.S. flag, or somewhat disloyal to my
country. Let me assure you that I do honor my country's flag and
that good intentions of my country. I have taken the Oath of Allegiance
to the United States several times in my military service. I have
fought in combat in WWII and in Vietnam for my country. I salute
our National Colors, and if I were ever called to active duty again,
I would gladly go wherever I was sent. I honor my country and our
flag, but I also know that over the years, our country has changed
radically. In my opinion, many of these changes have not been for
the better. They have been for the worse. As a minister of the
Gospel and a priest, I could elaborate convincingly on that statement
I just made, but there is not time for that now. But I will ay
that the moral and ethical values f our country will not begin
to become better until the Confederate flag is honored again as
being an American flag. There are many people in our great land
who are filled with hate against our Southern history and culture.
They are determined to divide our country into separate, quarreling
groups. These people are meglo-maniacal and they should be known
by their fruits, namely, the character assassination of our ancestors,
and the eradication of the values and culture in which they believed.
If these people prevail in this reconstruction of not just the
South, but our entire country, then the nation we have known and
loved in the past cannot survive. So bring those wonderful flags
forward so that I , in the name of Our Lord, may bless them and
return them to you to carry them humbly before God, but proudly
before men.
Address delivered at the Lee/Jackson Ceremony, Nyman Park, Baltimore,
MD on Saturday, January 18, 2004
|
