SCV Camp 1524 Place Flags at Confederate Veterans Graves for Confederate History and Heritage Month

Members of the Prattville Dragoons Camp 1524 placed Battle flags on the graves of Confederate veterans at historic Oak Hill cemetery in Prattville on Saturday morning March 30th in preparation for April being Confederate History and Heritage month.  Adjutant Sutherland procured new flags to put out at this cemetery as well as the two cemeteries at Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury.  There are over 80 Confederate veterans buried at Oak Hill and over 300 at Confederate Memorial Park.  Adjutant Sutherland also printed up maps which were highlighted to show the locations of the graves of these Confederate veterans. Compatriot Rob Schwartz led everyone in a prayer at the beginning of the work this bright and beautiful spring morning and also at the end reminding everyone of Easter and Christ's sacrifice he made for us with his triumphant resurrection celebrated the very next day. Commander Waldo and his son participated in the flag setting, finding graves, removing old flags and placing new Battle flags in the ground next to the headstones.  Most all of the flags placed a year ago by the camp in the cemetery remained which speaks to the honor the local community places on their Southern history and heritage.  Quartermaster Myrick, compatriots Larry Spears, Darrell Haywood and Louis Turner also helped with the task.  A tremendous way to bring in April, Confederate History and Heritage month. 

Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 First Cemetery Maintenance of the Season

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Dragoons met at Robinson Springs cemetery on Hwy 14 in Millbrook on Saturday March 23rd to finish mowing and trimming the lawn there for the first time this spring of 2024.   Brigade Commander Harold Grooms mowed the large spaces on Thursday prior so those who gathered on Saturday morning needed to just mow and trim more closely around the gravestones to finish the job.  Commander Waldo and his daughter, Quartermaster Myrick, and compatriots Philip Edwards, Rob Schwartz and Todd Rogers and his son all helped on Saturday making quick work of the effort.  Historic Robinson Springs is the final resting place for a number of Confederate veterans as well as veterans on other wars and founding families of the Robinson Springs area.  This grounds maintenance work is performed by Camp 1524 as part of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Guardian program. 

Prattville Dragoons at the Sons of Confederate Veterans Alabama Division Education Conference

A number of SCV Camp 1524 members, Sons of Confederate Veterans members from across the state and members of the Southern Cultural Center enjoyed the annual Alabama Division Education held at the SCC in Wetumpka.  Dragoons there included Tyrone Crowley, Bill Myrick, Rob Schwartz, Louis Turner and Paul Whaley.  Attendees enjoyed a number of great speakers including the Kennedy brothers, authors of "The South Was Right" as well as former Division Commander Karl Jones and many others.  The SCC was decorated beautifully with all historical Confederate flags and the SCC members did a wonderful job hosting the event.  A delicious lunch was provided for everyone midday.  With all the SCV and SCC attendees, the event made a small profit which was earmarked as a donation to the SCV National Museum.  At the end of the program, it was unanimously decided the Division will host another Education Conference next year.  A very informative and entertaining event.  

Prattville Dragoons Camp Meeting for March 2024

Members of the Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 held their camp meeting on Thursday evening, March 14th at the Masonic Lodge in downtown Prattville.  Rob Schwartz played his guitar to entertain everyone prior to the meeting start.  Chaplain Brantley then led everyone in an invocation followed by Color Sgt Dennis who led the pledges and salutes to the US, Alabama and Confederate flags.  Commander Waldo then recited the SCV Charge and welcomed everyone to the meeting.  A great event as a new member was sworn in, Josh Baker who has attended a number of meetings and had already participated in a parade with the camp as part of the Mechanized Cavalry riders at the Millbrook Mardi Gras parade.   The upcoming events were then highlighted including the Alabama Division SCV Education Conference, setting of flag on March 30th, Confederate Memorial Day program at the state capital and, the camp's spring picnic for which a covered dish signup was passed around.  This camp meeting evolved into a business meeting as the elections for the camp's officers were held including the positions of Commander, 1st Lt, 2nd Lt, Adjutant, Treasurer and Chaplain.  All men were elected unanimously and will be sworn in at the spring picnic in April at CMP.  The SCV Closing was then recited by Commander Waldo and a Benediction by the chaplain closed out the meeting.  

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Commander's Column for March 2024 - Who is Behind the Attacks on Our Culture and Heritage and Why

   My daughter said that she and her friends at school were talking the other day about books being marketed to children with LGBQT themes and she asked why would anyone do that sort of thing?  I took it as an opportunity to discuss with her the forces at work today attempting to destroy the United States of America and the ideals on which the founders established our republic and the attacks on the nuclear family and white Anglo-Saxon Christian culture.  There is a cabal of anti-American, anti-white, anti-Christian forces which have succeeded in gaining a foothold in our country’s institutions and seek to destroy the foundation on which our nation was established and remake it as a socialist body under CRT and DEI pillars. 

Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev forewarned, “We will take America without firing a shot ... we will bury you!  We can't expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism.  We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within."  That’s the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.   There are now more avowed socialists serving in the United States Congress than at any time in our history, members of or politicians endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, nine including Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar etc.  But the very Democrat party today espouses a Marxist and socialist platform including debt forgiveness, a massive welfare state with subsidized housing, (diversity) quotas, government intervention/control in industry thru massive reulation, one-payer universal healthcare and, embracing progressive cultural norms like LGBQT and racial equity.  The Chinese communists are using state sponsored economic warfare to gain disproportionate trade advantages to build their military while infiltrating our borders with Chinese nationalists and spying on our populace with Chinese cyber TikTok applications marketed to our youth. 

This has been decades in evolving to this point, the disintegration of the concepts and ideals on which the nation (and the Confederacy) was founded including egalitarianism (not equity), self determination and liberty (not socialism), and a nation founded under the blessings of God (not LGBQT pride and abortion rights blasphemies).   Russian President Vladimir Putin has decried the moral decay of the west including America so it is not purely the work of foreign communist elements.  BLM is a Marxist organization which has pushed Critical Race Theory, the destruction of the nuclear family as well as American/western institutions so much so they literally burned cities to the ground, DE&I and racial equity agendas amazingly seeing them implemented into schools and businesses in a knee-jerk response to a fentanyl induced death of a career felon in the name of racial justice.  Crazy.  And anti-American.  Don’t attack them or you’ll be labeled a bigoted racist, a white-nationalist targeted by the federal government law enforcement.

Similarly don’t attack the Jewish power structure which has become embedded in the educational, governmental, financial and entertainment sectors of our country in inordinate numbers and positions of power far outweighing their population furthering Israeli interests and conceivably endangering national security and certainly compromising our Christian moral foundations.  Their infiltration and elevation to these powerful positions in America and throughout the world has been many years coming - one need only recall Judah Benjamin as one of the most powerful figures in the Confederate administration.  The Jews of course from a Biblical perspective believe they are God’s chosen people (and refute the deity of Jesus and the foundations of Christianity) and that Gentiles are beneath their station, no doubt long bemoaning the influence of the Christian founders of the United States. 

At the risk of being branded as antisemite thought which is perhaps the worst conceivable label in mainstream thinking, it would be conceivable that they would seek to undermine the ideals espoused by our nations’ founders to further strengthen their position of authority and power including degrading our nation’s Christian values and morals thru LGBQT indoctrination as an acceptable alternative to the nuclear family (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2013/05/22/biden-jewish-leaders-helped-gay-marriage-succeed/ ) (https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2015-08-05/ty-article/.premium/homosexuality-part-of-jewish-tradition/0000017f-f64d-d5bd-a17f-f67f92080000 ) incessantly broadcasting representations in television shows and advertisements and Hollywood movies, backing a pornographic onslaught (https://www.finalcall.com/docs/Jews_in_porn_abrams.pdf ) in media including online readily accessible to our children and, pushing abortion rights activism and clinics (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/6f/3e/6f3ed444-28b2-4bc3-9301-5debb8a8fdfe/reproductive_choice_-_a_reform_jewish_perspective.pdf ) all backed at the highest levels of academia as normalcy and bankrolled for an incessant indoctrination.   In “Whatever You Do, Don’t Mention the Jews” -  https://www.firstthings.com/article/2002/05/whatever-you-do-dont-mention-the-jews,  “Referring to Jewish domination of the media, Rev Billy Graham said, “This stranglehold has got to be broken or this country’s going down the drain.”  To which President Nixon concurred.  “Jews have a disproportionate influence in American society. But of course that is no secret at all; it is the obvious fact. About 2 percent of the population, a little over five million people, exercise an influence far out of proportion to their numbers. In certain sectors of American life—notably in media, entertainment, prestige research universities, and to a lesser extent in finance—people in that 2 percent hold 20, 40, or even more than 50 percent of the positions of greatest influence. It is quite astonishing. It is clearly disproportionate. “  Also in the highest levels of the federal government. 

So why the promotion of an immoral agenda and the destruction of our American heritage? Always follow the money.  From an historical perspective where Jews have been subjected to attacks and even genocide, it furthers their collective pursuit of safety, security and power…money  (even at the cost of diminishing others) which is acceptable as they are, they believe, God’s chosen people.  BLM attempts to indoctrinate children with CRT and embed themselves in positions of power thru DE&I programs in educational and business institutions in the pursuit of money and power; BLM espouses Marxism as their solution to the socio-economic disparity plaguing black society.  The current Democrat party seeks to weaken the power and influence of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants today thru an unrestricted immigration policy at our Southern border open to illegal migrants from Mexico and South America and elsewhere, swelling the numbers of Hispanic minorities as they seek to gain a long term voting block of them at the expense of a massive welfare system burden as well as increasing the prevalence of third-world diseases and illegal drugs entering the country.  It’s a power move to embed the Democrats as the predominant political party in America for generations while creating a welfare class perpetually dependent on the government handouts.  And the RINOs can’t hardly be differentiated from the Democrats – it’s becoming a one party system, a Marxist socialist system.  Washington has the same ruling elites as the oligarchs and Politburo in the USSR or the CCP, even taking a page out of their Marxist brothers’ playbook in squashing dissent thru fascist partnership with and control and use of the media and social media.  All the while padding their nest egg and leaving Washington DC as multi-millionaires.  Always follow the money.  Our founding fathers and Confederate heroes would not recognize the country and culture they bequeathed to us.  It is our responsibility to “commit the vindication of the cause for which (they) fought”, “the preservation of liberty and freedom, rights guaranteed by the Constitution, (which) was the motivating factor in the South’s decision to fight the Second American Revolution.” (scv.org)

Prattville Dragoons Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1524 Chaplain's Column for March 2024 - Remain Faithful to God in Suffering

 

"What is needed is a mediator, and arbitrator who can come between us, who understands us both and brings us together."

Job 9:33

 

During the current Quarter for my MTI class through Samford we have been studying the book of Job. We are all familiar with the tale of Job and his suffering. We have even sung hymns about the "patience of Job." But how does the book relate to us and our lives? And Why do good people suffer? Why does it seem that the wicked prosper and the righteous are the ones who never seem to “get ahead?” Why does God “allow” bad things to happen to people who we feel don’t deserve it? Why do we feel we could do a better job of dispensing justice to the universe than God can? These and other hard biblical questions seem to permeate throughout the Book of Job.

After all his suffering Job believes that if he could just "pull God into court" and plead his case then God would wipe away his "mistaken" case of suffering. But he realized that God was too powerful to face alone and asked in the verse above for a "defense attorney," or mediator, to plead his case. Job did not realize that he was making a prophecy. Hundereds of years later we got that mediator in the form of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jesus went to the cross to plead our case, bear our sentence, before God.

Pastor Ray Stedman puts it thusly, "Job is laying the foundation here in his own understanding for the tremendous revelation that comes in the New Testament when God becomes man. God takes our place, lives as we live, feels as we feel, solves the great problem between us and God, and brings the two—God and man—together. For the first time in Job, we begin to sense what God is driving at." 

We also have that that blessed assurance that our sins are forgiven.

But it does not answer the question of why good people suffer? Why does it seem that oftentimes the wicked prosper? Job's friends believed in Divine Retribution. They believed that when someone is suffering they must have sinned and are being punished for it. They insisted Job and his family must have sinned, refused to confess and was being punished accordingly. But.. he didn't and wasn't. Job was blameless. He had not sinned. God had allowed Satan to test Job by taking away everything that was dear to him.

Thus Job maintained that it was a case of mistaken identity. Job did exactly what we do when we go through a time of suffering and pain. We ask "why?" The difference we are not blameless. But we have the mediator that Job desired and lacked. We have the confidence of Jesus. In the last chapters of Job, God answers Job by explaining to him why He is not to be questioned. After God shows Job the error of his ways, Job merely says, "I have already said too much and I will now cover my mouth."

The key to Job is that while he questioned God's sense of justice, he remained faithful to God throughout. He did not, as his wife suggested, curse God and die. That is lesson in all of this. It is normal to question why. It is what makes us human. But we have to trust God and remain faithful even when things don't turn the way we want them to.

When you go back and read Job, when you see or experience suffering it is best to just remember...

"The proper question is not so much why but who."

 

Amen.

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

 

Upcoming Events for Confederate Compatriots

 

Dragoons Camp Meeting – Thursday Mar 14^th at 6:45 pm at the Prattville Masonic Lodge  

 

AL Division Education Conference – Saturday Mar 16^th, 9:30-3:30pm, Southern Cultural Center, Wetumpka AL 

 

Setting Battle Flags for Confederate History Month – Saturday March 30^th at 8am at Oak Hill Cemetery followed by CMP

 

Battle of Fort Harker Reenactment – April 6-7^th, Stevenson AL

 

Thunder on the Bay Reenactment – April 19-20^th, at Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, AL

 

AL Division Confederate Memorial Day – Saturday Apr 20^th, 9am Alabama State Capitol grounds

 

Living History and Skirmish – Saturday Apr 20^th, 9am at Confederate Memorial Park, Marbury AL

 

Dragoons’ Spring Picnic – Saturday April 27^th, at CMP, Marbury AL

 

Prattville Cityfest – Saturday May 11^th, 8am-3pm (Dragoons’ booth) Main St Prattville AL

 

AL Division Reunion – Friday May 31^st (Commander’s reception, Gift Horse) and Saturday June 1^st (Graham Creek, Foley)