Commander's Column for November 2019 - Perpetually Offending the Hyper-Sensitive

The attacks on Confederate monuments were chiefly centered around a supposed offense that snowflake historical revisionists perceived.  Today’s culture nearly worldwide is catering to these loud minority voices who take offense and exception at seemingly any and every thing and utilize social media platforms to beat the drums of alleged outrage.  Halloween presents an occasion ripe for potential fragile affront.  “Kmart Australia pulled a children’s bride costume from its shelves after a Melbourne mom launched a petition calling the costume “beyond inappropriate.”  The $6 costume, which included a white wedding gown and headband with veil for children between the ages of 4 and 6, was stripped from sale just two days after Shannon B launched the petition on Change.org.  “Kmart Australia regrets the decision to (offer) the bride costume.  It was not intended to cause offense and we sincerely apologize. We have made the decision to withdraw this product,” a Kmart spokesperson told 7 News.  The petition, which had just 124 signatures, had labeled the costume “offensive” and asked supporters to remind Kmart it had a “social responsibility” to uphold. “Each year, 12 million children (girls as young as 6 years old — the same size as this ‘costume’) are sold or married off by their family without their consent. That’s one million child marriages per month!” Shannon wrote.” (https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/kmart-removed-kids-bride-costume-backlash)  124 imbecilic signatures.  The articles’ comments thankfully reflected some semblance of reason including a few which maintained that little girls have forever enjoyed dreaming of being a beautiful bride or princess and dressing the part but, catering or even allowing such sexual stereotyping of course also runs counter to the warped progressive agenda. 
“Bed Bath & Beyond has reportedly pulled black jack-o'-lanterns from its website after a law office in the Nyack area received complaints from locals, who allegedly said the decorative pumpkins evoked blackface.   Ahead of Halloween, the black pumpkins were recently displayed on the steps of Feerick, Nugent, MacCartney Law Offices on South Broadway – and taken down less than 48 hours later due to complaints, News 12 reports.  “We understand that someone complained about them and so once we got word of that we immediately took them down," Mary Marzolla, a partner at the firm, told the outlet. “We represent people of all colors and faiths, and we would never do anything to exclude anyone from any community.”  According to the New York Post, the complaints about the pumpkins alluded to the decor as “another form of blackface.”  The black jack-o'-lanterns showed an "extreme lack of sensitivity,” NAACP Westchester regional director Wilbur Aldridge said.   A spokesperson for Bed Bath & Beyond told Fox News that while it was unintentional, the company apologizes for any offense caused. “ (https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/bed-bath-beyond-blackface-comparison-report)
“A McDonald’s in Massachusetts was forced to apologize this week after several customers took offense to the “insensitive” Halloween decorations displayed below a cash register.  Erik Pocock was ordering food at the McDonald’s in North Andover when he noticed a number of festive decorations below the counter.  “It looked like a typical Halloween decoration. It said ‘Happy Halloween.’ It had some spiderwebs and some spiders and, a haunted tree and I was like: ‘Oh, that’s cute. Then, you look closer and that’s not cute. That’s not right.’” he told WCVB.  Pocock was referencing a decal which appeared to show a person hanging from a tree. He said it looked “more like a lynching.  Something so insensitive like this, they need to take it down,” Pocock said. “They should have thought twice about putting it up.”  The restaurant's owner and operator Chuck Lietz issued a statement to local stations apologizing for the image.  “We deeply regret that these decorations were on display, and as soon as we identified the inappropriate content, we immediately removed the decorations display. Creating an environment that is welcoming and inclusive to all our guests and employees is critically important to us, and we apologize for any unintended offense they may have had on our community.” he said. (https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/massachusetts-mcdonalds-apologizes-after-displaying-insensitive-halloween-decoration)  I believe it seriously is a snowflake competition to find things which they can claim to be offensive and then get their 15 seconds of fame being interviewed by the local TV station or even just to enhance their Twitter or Facebook presence with like-minded nit-witted likes.   I suppose the headless horseman would be offensive as the victim of said lynching.  Future legislation may require every house to only display jack-o-lanterns made from pumpkins or squash of their appropriate skin color.  Seriously. 
When the Autauga County Fair organizers approached us to ask if we had a banner to hang on the fence alongside the road approaching the fairgrounds, I obviously saw that as a great opportunity to again get our camp and SCV message out to the public to appreciate and support their Southern heritage.  And predictably, a Facebook snowflake took offense calling us, brace yourselves, “racists” and apparently failing to note the black Confederate veteran front and center in the banner background photo.  They say any advertising is good advertising and based on the numerous replies to that post where many in the local community defended the banner and the message, I believe we again made a great splash with that banner.   We have long made the effort in the SCV to attempt to change minds thru community exposure and education but, I believe changing the minds of many in today’s culture and environment is futile.  We are at the point where we must use community exposure to gain general public support to continue to spread our message of the honor and respect due Confederate veterans and to remind our neighbors of our ancestor’s fight for Southern Independence and quest to preserve our nation’s Constitutional republic especially in today’s environment.   We will offend some folks.  The public school system has failed us and has used propaganda as an educational foundation of historical ignorance.   We must have the fortitude in the face of this misplaced political correctness and hyper-sensitivity to carry forth the Charge.  Look for our electronic billboard ads at Main and Memorial and Hwy 14 and I-65 in Prattville this holiday season, another opportunity to offend and awaken.