Not a Martyr, But a Monster... Their Monster!

On Monday, the Admiral Raphael Semmes Camp #1321 held a Memorial Day service at the Confederate Stockade Cemetery on Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, OH. It was this author's first trip to the island cemetery, and it was also my privilege to give the keynote address for the service. The past few days were, in many ways, a welcome reprieve from what has become a regular drumbeat of anti-Confederate sentiment in the media. Instead, my newsfeed the past few days has been filled with story after story of people coming together to honor our brave boys in gray for what is our most hallowed of non-religious national holidays. More will be written, hopefully later this week about our camp's most recent journey to Johnson's Island, but today I want to discuss an article that caught my eye & raised my ire...

Julianne Malveaux, a columnist for the NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association) News Wire, recently wrote the 1,723,584th published article that attempts to tie the horrific murder of nine Charleston, SC church goers last summer to the Confederacy. Obviously I'm being a bit facetious with that number, but the fact is that an untold number of published media has wrongly asserted that connection over the last 12 months.

In her article, Malveaux talks about how the madman who committed the Charleston mass shooting should not be given the death penalty, and one of her reasons is that she thinks "[the madman] can turn into a Confederate martyr if he is killed."

A Confederate martyr?! How much more ridiculous could she get? That psychopathic, pimply-faced murderer has absolutely no more connection to the Confederacy by holding a replica of it's battle flag in a picture than I would to the company that makes my blue jeans! How hard is it to understand that there is no stopping anyone that wants to hijack or misappropriate any symbol (national, historic, religious, etc.) for hateful use! A Confederate martyr? Absolutely not; More like a monster of the media's own creation.

The problem is when we give in to the hate & lies, either by becoming hateful or by letting the hateful liars set the narrative. Malveaux exposes herself as having done both, since she has let those who misappropriate Confederate symbols for hateful purposes & those who perpetuate the myth that the Confederacy existed for the preservation of slavery. By doing so, she has let them set the narrative of the Confederacy for her, and in turn has manufactured her hate for all of us who identify with our Confederate heritage by presuming that we would look to a murderous basket-case as some sort of martyr to idolize or emulate. It is people like her, who write such articles, that create the breeding ground for more hate, filling the heads of other racist jerks that it is they who best represent the Confederacy and it's symbols. This is simply the circular nature of how hate & lies breed lies & hate.

This demonization of Confederate heritage and symbols is the kind of giving into hatred which will lead to people getting hurt or killed. If we feed this notion that symbols of the Confederacy are racist in nature, then it will not only embolden those who wish to terrorize or do harm to others under such symbolism, but it will also create a false sense of justification for others to terrorize and do harm to those who display it with no negative intentions. It's already happened several times since last summer. A black man, Anthony Hervey, was murdered just last year for his support of the Confederate Flag, being run off of the road after a Confederate Flag Rally by other blacks who'd had their heads filled with such negativity and hate. A woman in Ohio had her house broken into and she was assaulted simply because she had a Confederate flag in her window. A man in Minnesota was beaten because he stepped in to protect his niece, who was being threatened for wearing a hat w/ the Confederate flag on it.

It is just that type of giving in to hatred, lies and negativity that will forever divide this nation unless we resolve to stop it. It's causing people to vilify great men in our nation's history like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and yes, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson... If we don't correct course now, and start acknowledging & celebrating the positives rather than focusing on the negatives, then the turmoil will never stop.

What if we do get rid of all public displays honoring the Confederacy and the brave folks who served in it's armed forces? What will be next? The cross of Christ? It's already under attack. The American Flag? It, too, receives fire from those who choose to focus on negativity and hate by calling it a racist flag. The Democratic Party is phasing out "Jefferson-Jackson" dinners because Thomas Jefferson & Andrew Jackson both carry "historical baggage." Eventually, it WILL creep to such figures as George Washington... and yes, once the Confederate flags and monuments are all gone, then old Abe Lincoln will become a focus of the negativity and hatred, and they'll be crushing the monuments built to honor his mythologized legacy too. We'll have to totally raze Washington D.C.'s historic buildings, as many of them either were built by slaves or honor one-time slave owners, and then we can bulldoze Wall Street, since it made tons of money through the institution of slavery.

History is muddy & dirty, and no individual (w/ the exception of Jesus; I know not everyone believes in Him, but I do) or organization throughout the whole expanse of it is entirely perfect or without fault. The perpetuation of lies & hatred by the media and academia has to stop, or there will be no factual account of history. All that will remain are nice little myths created to coddle those who can't cope with historic reality, and there will be a number of completely unnecessary acts of violence committed around the country that can be traced right back to those who continue to perpetuate such falsehoods & negativity.

STOP THE HATE.
STOP THE LIES.
RETURN TO TRUTH & LOVE.
RESTORE THE HONOR!

DEO VINDICE!
- Jonathan McCleese
Sergeant-at-Arms
Admiral Raphael Semmes Camp #1321 (Dearborn, MI)
Army of Tennessee, Sons of Confederate Veterans