“WAR ON THE CONSTITUTION”
by Michael Gaddy, ©2015, blogging at The Rebel Madman
(Dec. 19, 2015) — *Author’s note: I have been going through some of my older writings, throwing some away and saving others. While doing so, I found this article I wrote back in 2004 reference my decades long battle to honor my Confederate ancestors. I wrote this about those who claim fealty to the same cause, yet appeared, even back then, to be all hat and no cowboy.
My son graduated from Virginia Military Institute, the home of Stonewall Jackson and the New Market Cadets in 2001. I was so proud of him when he was only 11 and we visited VMI and the Chapel at Washington and Lee where Robert E. Lee is interred inside and his warhorse “Traveler” is interred outside, and he proclaimed when we got in the car to leave, “This is where I am going to college.”
There are others who continue to carry on this battle to honor our ancestors who fought not to preserve slavery, as Abraham Lincoln did when he proposed the Corwin Amendment in his first inaugural address, but to defend the principles of our Declaration of Independence. To these men I dedicate this article. Thanks Joe and Joey for continuing the battle. You both are inspirational.
Since this article is well over 10 years old I’m sure some of the links in the article are no longer active. For that I apologize.
There Ain’t No South—It’s Just North of Mexico
March 30, 2004
When one types the words “Southern” and Confederacy” into the Google search engine, he/she is greeted with the information that there are 47,900 links to that subject just a mouse click away. Included are many groups that espouse faithfulness and devotion to all things Southern.
There are sites that seek to educate each and every visitor to the “forgotten” heritage and history of the South. There are national groups and there are regional and state groups. There is an organization that allows only members that can prove their ancestor was a Confederate Soldier. There is a plethora of “Southern” paraphernalia: T-shirts, bumper stickers, flags belt buckles and even bikinis that will exhibit your pride in being a true Southerner. There is a Southern broadcasting station on the Internet that one can tune into and listen to Southern music and inspiring speeches. Many sites are proud to talk of conventions and lectures available for one and all so they can become more knowledgeable of all things prideful to a Southerner.
Could it possibly be most all these groups are all flag and no soldier?
Could all these organizations be more interested in promoting themselves than actually supporting and promoting the true ideals of the South? Could it be the majority of these groups have missed and/or ignored a chance to support true “patriots” to the Southern cause?
There stands today in Virginia an institution that is one of the icons of Southern heritage and history. It is in Lexington and is the school where Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson taught before the War of Northern Aggression, and the home of the Cadet Corps that marched to New Market and participated in a battle against the Yankee invader. Yes, it is none other than the Virginia Military Institute.
In the past six years, no other icon of the South has suffered the attacks and tampering of a gone mad politically correct government than the West Point of the South. First, in 1997, that bastion of Southern grace and dignity was forced to endure the unthinkable: the admission of women. This of course was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court, led by that pedophile-defending, Marxist, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. In her world it is better to rape a child than to allow a state institution to make its own decisions.
Where were these Southern support organizations as that happened? I know, you are going to tell me of all the letters and articles that were written and all of the radio talk shows that were held in protest. But just where the hell were the protestors when the event took place? Where were the multitudes of Sons of Confederate Veterans, League of the South members and all those proud writers of Southern Heritage and History at matriculation day on that hot August afternoon in 1997? Anyone in attendance would have noticed there were more members of the media present than defenders of the South and its heritage.
Where were the “Southern Patriots” when the administration at the Virginia Military Institute forbade the placing of Confederate Battle Flags on the graves of the young Cadets who gave the ultimate sacrifice at the Bushong Farm on that fateful day in May of 1864? Is there in the entire “Confederate” movement today the bravery and commitment of just one of those young men who charged across that “Field of Lost Shoes?”
Just where were the legions of defenders of the South when those young members of the Pipe and Drum Corps dared to play “Dixie” at the New Market Parade in 2000? The leaders of that group of courageous young patriots were threatened with expulsion and not graduating by the administration of the Institute for daring to display the heritage of the South musically. They stood alone, for no one appeared in their defense!
The Pipe and Drum Corps of the year 2001 planned to ignore the threats of expulsion by the administration and again play “Dixie” at the New Market Parade. These young men who were prepared to put their entire four-year investment in education on the line in order to hold true to the traditions and honor of the South, received exactly zero support from the entirety of those who claim to support the cause.
Since that time, prayers have been stopped before meals at VMI because a couple of idiots complained that they should not have to hear prayers if they did not want to; even though the Institute never required their participation in the prayers, only that they remain tolerant of those who did. It appears the tolerance door only swings one way!
There are possibly only a few remaining members of the Pipe and Drum Corps who have a real commitment to the heritage of the South and to those Cadets who made that fateful march to New Market in 1864. On this May 15th they will march in that solemn tribute that was created solely to honor those Cadets and the South they were willing to die for.
What exactly could, or would, the administration of VMI do to those young men if tens of thousands of true Southern Patriots showed up to cheer when they broke into “Dixie” with bagpipe and drum? What would happen if thousands placed Confederate Battle Flags on the graves of those brave Sons of the South who lie beneath the monument of Virginia mourning her dead?
How many Sons of Confederate Veterans and League of the South members live within a day’s drive of Lexington Virginia? Is there anything better they could do to serve the South and her heritage than to be present at this event?
How about those folks at Dixie Outfitters who make all those wonderful T-Shirts and other goodies with those great messages about the South? Could they not create a shirt for the event? It sure would be great if the folks at Dixie Broadcasting started talking up the event on their shows. Perhaps even the folks at Dixie Rising could make up an ecard to herald the event that could be sent to all who should be in attendance and to forewarn the scalawags in the VMI administration that their support of the politics of Northern Aggression will no longer be tolerated.
Would not more be accomplished with such a turnout than all the conventions that have been held in the history of those who claim to support the South?
If these young men and the ideals and history they represent and are seeking to carry on do not deserve our true support (and not just lip service) then we deserve everything ole Abe brung us when he declared war on the Constitution.
See all you true patriots in Lexington on 15 May! I’ll be driving from New Mexico–Anyone want to make it a convoy?
In Rightful Liberty