best wishes to all

Dave Tatum

Hannah Rodriguez (FGCU)

Now that we are on an even keel, you stated -

My students are asked to see the complexities of issues and never to assume that the simplest explanation is the truth, much as you highlighted in your comment.

One more Item on my stance my oath

“To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish.”

I took the oath with passion !

And one starement for your students to consider !

“Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable and most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so many of the territory as they inhabit.”

Abraham Lincoln
January 12, 1848.

I guess the statement goes along with–

” I am not a Crook” R.M.N.

“Read my lips, no new taxes !” G.B.

” I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinski” B.C.

Some things never change.

Have a good day and thank you for letting your students see the big picture !

Dave Tatum

The blog was a response to an in class activity involving the Confederate flag in which we discussed the complex nature of symbols, especially those symbols that have been co-opted for different purposes. My students are asked to see the complexities of issues and never to assume that the simplest explanation is the truth, much as you highlighted in your comment.

Again, thank you for clarifying, and good luck in your endeavors. Remember, though, that we all share a common humanity…regardless of the flags our ancestors fought and died under.

The letter was from the————-

Grand Dragon - Realm of South Carolina
Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc.

I posted it to show they do not swear alligence to the battle flag, I removed the web link to the letter so that I would not help spread the hate they have !

As for my web site ! I sell replica cannons ! I have no idea to the T- Shirt refrence !

“The Confederate Battle Flag, bares the taint of that sick ideology regardless of its original intent as a symbol of southern pride.”

I agree ! But as an SCV member I have sworn to protect the good name of the confererate’s who fought for independence ! NOT SLAVERY ! The battle flag is a part of that oath !

So I suggest you re read my original post. Then goback to my web site and look at it again !

Your emotions seem to have altered you vision !

Take off the blinders / calm down and try it again !

A few other of my postings —
Im NOT who you think I am !!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2009/may/29/man-finishes-homegrown-memorial/

http://terriorist1864.blogspot.com/

http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2009/jun/01/preserving-tapestry/

http://cwmemory.com/2009/05/30/david-tatums-civil-war-memory/

Deo Vindice

Dave Tatum
Suffolk VA.

I have only just a few questions. Exactly what “anti-southern tyranny” have you been fighting for so long? And how have you been fighting this tyranny? Who have been the targets of your “military” organization. Were they always people in a position to fight back? There’s a fine line between “military” and “militant.” But there isn’t a fine line between fighting tyranny and bullying the disempowered.

And your website, and the merchandise that you sell on that website, clearly displays the Confederate Battle Flag. I would suggest that a website is public; and unless you are mandating that all those people who purchase your t-shirts only wear them in their own house you are being disingenuous in this issue as well.

I can’t say which flag you and yours swear allegiance to, but your philosophy is one of fear and hate and exclusion; one of dehumanizing others in a vain attempt to prove your inglorious notions of superiority and reinforce your in-group paranoia. And the symbols you embrace, like the Confederate Battle Flag, bares the taint of that sick ideology regardless of its original intent as a symbol of southern pride.

As for the KKK thing the following letter explains that.
Greetings,
In response I felt it important to explain that the Ku Klux Klan is not a political organization nor a fraternal organization. The Ku Klux Klan is a military organization which has fought anti-southern tyranny for 137 years, and has been quite successful. We do not consider the Confederate Battle Flag to be an issue of divisiveness. We are no longer using it in public, and have never sworn our allegiance to any flag but the U.S. Flag. The battle flag is simply an extension icon to pronounce our southern pride. As I said we no longer use the banner in public, so Its only fair that the S.C.V. and others quit using the KKK to parlay public apologetics. It’s slanderous and inaccurate at best.
God Bless, thank you for you moment.
J.L.H.
Grand Dragon - Realm of South Carolina
Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc.

The lie is that the War for Southern Independence (or as the U.S. Congress officially declared it to be — The War Between the States; it was not a “civil war”) was fought over slavery, with the North fighting to free Southern slaves and the South fighting to keep her slaves. This is, of course, not true !
How could the North be fighting the War to free Southern slaves when they would not free their own, such as Ulysses S. Grant’s personal slave or Abraham Lincoln’s father-in-law’s slaves? What hypocrisy! Even worse, Lincoln and the U.S. Congress offered to pass a constitutional amendment for the South, guaranteeing permanent slavery forever in the slave states, if only the Southern states would return to the Union. The South refused the offer.
Northern slaves were even exempt from Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Furthermore, captured Southern slaves on the Mississippi River were forced to work on the plantations as slaves for the United States Army, growing cotton for Northern factories, rather than being set free. Also, during the War, just as many Union soldiers owned slaves as Confederate soldiers. Is the U.S. flag a symbol of slavery because the North owned slaves during the War?

Hitler was trying to rule the world, The south was trying to establish a new nation !
Thomas Jefferson, who in the Declaration of Independence, stated, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.”

Within Lincoln’s first month in office, the U.S. Congress had passed the Morrill Tariff, which was the highest import tax in U.S. history, more than doubling the import tax rate from 20% to 47%, which was enough to bankrupt many Southerners. This oppressive tax was what pushed Southern states to legally withdraw from the voluntary Union, not slavery.

Study History ! Then make comments !

Dave Tatum
Suffolk VA.