Commander's
Column: Confederate History Month
Observed
We just enjoyed another Confederate Heritage and History
Month and Confederate Memorial Day in April and I hope each and every one of
you honored your ancestors and the Confederate soldiers in this
Sesquicentennial. In addition to our
annual Dragoons camp picnic and Memorial Day observance, the SCV Alabama
Division joined with the UDC to host a Memorial Day event at the Confederate
Monument on the state capitol grounds in Montgomery. The guest speaker at this event apparently
stirred up a bit of a controversy with disparaging remarks regarding the US
flag and the pledge thereto and military service in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Many SCV members across the nation and in our camp have
served honorably in one of the branches of the U.S. military and should be
commended for their service. Obviously
the Confederate veteran's brave and heroic fight and victories and indomitable
spirit in the face of overwhelming odds and deprivation have earned him a place
of admiration and legend throughout the world and history. The general officers commanding the
Confederate forces are recognized as some of the most brilliant strategists and
tacticians as well as examples of leadership and are representative of the best
of our Southern heritage and many were trained and served and were career
officers in the U.S. Army prior to the secession of their home states. One of the things that helped to mend the
wounds from the War and Reconstruction and bring the nation back together was
the commendable service of Southerners in the U.S. Army and Navy in the Spanish
American War. Brave Southerners have
inordinately earned the highest honors for their military service throughout
all the conflicts in U.S. history. Any
SCV member and any Southerner should be proud to have responded to the call to
serve their nation in any of the branches of the U.S. military to carry on this
legacy.
The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted by the U.S. Congress
in the midst of the national peril and sacrifice of World War II, the country
uniting to face the Axis powers. The
Pledge was written by Francis Bellamy in 1892 to promote nationalism at the
400-year anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the New World. The Pledge of Allegiance has obviously served
as an expression of faithfulness for generations of Americans and immigrants to
this nation. I am certain that we all
believe ourselves faithful and patriotic to our country in which we have been
blessed by God to have been born and to which we have invested our lives and
toil. We start all of our camp meetings
with the pledges to the U.S. flag, the Alabama state flag and Confederate
Battle Flag as the latter represent the sovereignty and the heritage that we
place in equal but not greater importance to our national patriotism. There have been some in the progressivism of
our nation’s recent past who have objected to the revision of the Pledge including
God Almighty in the recitation and while our Christian heritage in the SCV
would condemn the omission of a recognition that we and our nation dwell under
the grace of our Creator, some in the SCV who feel strongly enough about the
justification and constitutionality of the Confederate States' secession elect
to omit the statement maintaining the indivisible quality of the United States
when reciting the Pledge.
Some may have objected to the speaker’s inference that
America perhaps was not and is not the greatest country in the history of the
world. Greece and Rome and England and
Egypt and Mesopotamia of millennia past might offer contradiction to that
notion anyway. The United States of
America has led the world in the past hundred years through World Wars and has
ushered in some of the greatest advancements in human history but our knowledge
of the rise and fall of the Confederacy (borrowing from Jefferson Davis)
demonstrates that while the U.S. was founded on principles of freedom and liberty
and a democratic republic, Lincoln’s War of Northern Aggression changed the
path of the country’s government and history to one of ever growing federal
control and dominance. Despite the
nauseating rapid decline of family values, American world leadership, economic
growth and capitalist opportunity, and personal liberties choreographed by the
politicians in Washington DC over the past few years, a recent poll showed over
40% of our neighbors and countrymen apparently approve of current events and
the direction our nation is heading.
That is 40% of the United States I can’t truthfully say I like. We are fortunate to belong to a fraternal
organization founded on a worthy ideal to perpetuate the best of American
history and Southern heritage and it is our duty and Charge to advance the
Cause today and for our children and for future generations.
Stuart Waldo
Camp Commander
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