ITS TIME TO MAKE AMERICA AMERICA AGAIN

Candidate Sheri Few announces her candidacy for the Congressional Seat recently vacated by Mick Mulvaney:

Dixie Heritage has endorsed Sheri in her effort. She is vocally advocating for our Heritage in her television commercials. 

FLORIDA COMMITTEE CHAIR KILLS STATUE BILL

Florida State Representative Scott Plakon, who opposed removing the statue of Confederate General Kirby Smith from the U.S. Capitol is now blocking its replacement.

Rep. Jose Felix Diaz presented a bill to replace the statue of Kirby Smith with one of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who wrote "The Everglades: River of Grass" and is credited with helping create the national park that preserves 1.5 million acres of wetlands in southern Florida.

The law requiring the removal of the Smith statue set up a process to replace it. An independent committee reviewed 130 recommendations from Floridians and presented the Legislature with three choices. The Legislature was then to pick one of the three.

In addition to Douglas, the committee recommended Publix supermarket founder George Washington Jenkins and Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in 1904. Bethune's school eventually became the historically black university that bears her name in Daytona Beach.

But before the Legislature can vote on replacing the statue, the Bill must clear the committee chaired by Plakon who has refused to put Diaz's bill on his committee's agenda. The Committee has no more meetings this year beyond the few where the bill will NOT be on the agenda. This effectively blocks state legislators from considering Douglas or Bethune or from replacing General Smith's statue.

Call Rep. Plakon's office this week and thank him for having blocked the effort to replace General Smith's statue.

On an aside to this story, Seber Newsome III of Save Southern Heritage appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to oppose replacement of the statue of General Smith.

Afterward, the committee voted unanimously in favor of SCR 1360, by Sen. Perry Thurston, to replace the statue of Smith with Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College.

In his address to the Senate Committee, Newsome, a resident of of Yulee, defended General Smith. "He's been there since 1922," Newsmen said. "There'd been no problem until after the tragedy in Charleston. Then the purge of Southern history ignited."

His comments were interupted so a committee member could ask a sponsor of the bill, "What has Gen. Smith done to deserve being removed?" The Senator sponsoring the Bill could not answer, except to say he was a Confederate general."

Newsome concluded his remarks by saying that, "My ancestors fought for the Confederacy, and I'm proud of them. And I'm proud of my Southern history and heritage, and my culture. President Trump was elected by Southerners like me, and we're watching what is happening with politicians in regard to our culture and our history."

Newsome is advocating for a referendum on the switch on next year's primary or general election ballot. "Let the citizens of Florida decide who is going to he in Statuary Hall, since it is their tax dollars being spent," he said.

Afterward, Newsome made an appearance before the Finance Committee where he called out Sen. Randolph Bracy for failing to take up SB 418, to attach criminal sanctions for desecration of military monuments, in his Criminal Justice Committee. "Are you anti-veteran, or anti-police?" he asked Bracy, before budget chair Jack Latvala shut him down. "OK, we're not going to name senators," Latvala said.

Newsome then attempted to engage Sen. Jeff Brandes, only to hear Chairman Latvala yell to him, "We're not going to call out some senators. You're almost out of time. Thank you, Mr. Newsome."

FLAG BURNING IN NORTH CAROLINA

A Charlotte, North Carolina man tells FOX 46 that his house was nearly set on fire with his kids inside - and it's not the first time it's happened.

The man, who asked the station not to use his name, said his Confederate Flag in the front of his house has been burned twice in the last month. He is now putting measures in place to make sure if the Flag burns again, it won't injure his family.

Outside this particular home in south Charlotte folks can find the American flag flying high, a POW flag attached to the home, and a burned Confederate Flag scattered on the ground.

"All the way back to The Revolution we have been involved in the military. That's what these flags are. That's a symbol of my great-great grandfather. Just like that is a symbol of my country. I would hate to think we have done all this, all these years, for some punk to come up here and set my house on fire," he said.

This past Tuesday the homeowner was sitting inside watching work crews cut grass at a Greenway nearby when one man caught his attention.

"He starts walking up my yard and I think he's going to ask for a bottle of water because it was hot that day," he explained.

Instead, he was walking up for another reason.

"He flicks his BIC, lights my flag on fire, runs back to his truck and hauls out of here like a wild man," the homeowner said.

For the second time in a month the man's Confederate Flag has turned to ashes. The Flag now hangs from a tree. So if an arsonist strikes again - it won't burn his home.

"And I got a 2-year-old daughter that sleeps in that house," the homeowner explained.

Security cameras, plenty of written warnings and a 'No Trespassing' sign now line the property. Instead of setting fire to something they disagree with, the man hopes they reconsider.

"Talk to me about it! It's not really their fault the schools and today's society has not educated what this flag really is. It wasn't about slavery. My people never owned slaves," the man said.

The homeowner was able to track down the contractor who cuts the grass who he believes is hired by the City of Charlotte. He is now waiting for police to make an arrest and hopes the fires outside his home come to an end.

 

TEXAS EXHIBIT DRAWS ATTENTION

The Confederate Heritage exhibit at Gregg County Historical Museum isn't going to make anyone rich, but visitors will learn how money evolved for the Southern states struggling against a financially fortified North.

"When the war started, President Lincoln established the federal banking system in this country," Larry Harper of the Upshur County Patriots said recently, sitting in the Ann Lacy Crain Exhibit Center at the Fredonia Street museum.

A dozen Confederate brigade flags lined one wall near Harper and John Gregg Camp Chaplain Jerry Haymes. A 12-pound mountain howitzer stood nearby, and weapons and other memorabilia filled a display opposite the banners.

The museum's exhibit, lasting through April 29, coincides with Confederate Heritage Month.

"That's an 1858 Springfield," Harper said of the long rifle over his shoulder. "All our guns, everything that is here, will fire. Nothing's loaded, there are no munitions available as far as powder."

A display case at the exhibit center's east end holds a confusion of paper money.

"Since the South had seceded, we would not use government tender," Harper said. "So, different banks began to establish their own currency."

That phenomenon wasn't limited to financial institutions.

"Any store or business, from what I understand, did issue their own tender," Harper said. "So there was a large amount of inequity, because we were very disorganized here in the South."

"It was almost like a company store," Haymes added, recalling the era when companies would pay workers in script that was legal tender in groceries and other company-owned outlets.

"Companies did that for many, many years," Harper added. "Even after the Civil War."

Southern currency is the starting point for a lecture scheduled 7 p.m. Thursday by the Rev. Richard Hester of Gilmer First United Methodist Church, a regional aficionado.

The Confederate descendants emphasized the exhibit celebrates heritage but not the distasteful side of the era.

"We want people to understand that the war was not about slavery," Harper said. "A 42.5-cent tax on cotton - yeah, that's taxation without representation."

MONUMENT DEFILED BY BLACK LIVES MATTER

The College Fix reports that vandals who signed their destruction with "BLM" have again desecrated a monument honoring Confederate dead at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The statue, known as "Silent Sam," has been the focus of student protest and Black Lives Matter vandalism for two years. This latest episode, discovered last Friday, concerned a message scrawled in black paint that read in part, "Love is understanding why others hate."

The latest incident is the fourth time in two years that the statue has been sullied with graffiti. No one has taken credit for the defacement, but a former member of the inactive anti-monument group that called itself the Real Silent Sam Coalition extolled the vandalism as an "effective" way for students to register their disapproval of the statue. The UNC activists tried unsuccessfully to have the monument removed and fervor for the cause seems to be wavering.

The monument was specifically dedicated to UNC alumni who fought for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Vandals first struck in July 2015 with graffiti messages, after which the university installed security cameras to monitor illicit activity. The cameras recorded footage of a second graffiti incident only a month later but the video was not considered clear enough to use. A third episode did lead to an arrest in 2016.

Campus security is investigating the latest crime, confirming that "there are indeed security cameras which provide surveillance footage of that area," and that the university is "encouraging members of the campus community to provide any information which might aid in the investigation."

According to activists previously dedicated to the statue's removal, protesting the presidency of Donald Trump has superseded all other progressive causes at the university.

MONUMENTS FOR SALE IN VIRGINIA

As reported back in February meeting, the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia voted to tear down two monuments erected almost 100 years ago to Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson and to erase all vestiges of the town's Confederate heritage. Now, after lawsuits were filed to stop it, the City is looking to sell the statues to the highest bidder.

After a series of contentious City Hall meetings where supporters of Heritage and those wishing to whitewash history battled over the council's decision, City officials have doubled-down on the initial decision to eliminate its historical parks.

The decision to remove the two statues and redesign Lee Park to eliminate General Robert E. Lee's name was calculated at $300,000, according to the City. Likely the costs would be far higher.

11 local citizens have joined together to file a lawsuit against the city to stop the removal of the statues. The plaintiffs, joined by the Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. and the Monument Fund, Inc., cited a list of reasons for filing the lawsuit. Chief among those reasons is their contention that the City is in violation of a State law preventing alteration of such monuments. According to State law, it is illegal for local officials to tear down memorials to war veterans.

But now the City thinks it has a solution to its breach of State law. If the City can sell the statues to some other City or park that will maintain the historical integrity of the statues, officials think that might satisfy State law, according to Newsplex.

Both the local activists who want to preserve history, and those who want to eliminate all history they do not like, find the move to sell the monuments unsatisfactory.

If the courts rule that a City can sell monuments it would require the re-working of monument protection acts not only in Virginia but nation-wide.

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