Our Champions

Dear Colonel Bill,

With the help of Kirk D., the other medals were awarded. God bless you and thanks. I can’t think of a better way to civil rights fight at this moment than to recognize and award our champions. Young Candice began her stand for the memory of her ancestors and those who fought and died under the banner of the Southern Cross almost as soon as she was able to walk. It didn’t just begin in the halls of Latta High. For her it started right next door at Latta Elementary. And I can tell you, she has motivated many a young girl and as far as that goes, young man in the South to take similar stands for what they believe to be an injustice heaped upon the good names of those who would come to the aid of their homeland that had been invaded by an illegal act.

And if we as her Southern family do nothing to help this baby who has felt nothing but terror most of her young life while we who understand the degree of evil that those who hate us will go to to break the spirit of this Southern warrior, mostly turned a blind eye; then shame on us, and God help us because the end for the South has come.

And at the other end of the spectrum is Korean War Veteran Sgt. Perry Thrasher who lies in a hospital room in the so called Veterans Administration Hospital that is as synonymous in its hypocrisy as NASCAR. Each organization having a direct relationship with the men and women who carry, love and cherish the symbol of the South, and who could have taken the high road as those who run the Alcoa plant in Badin, North Carolina did set the Table of Brotherhood out and allow the people to sort out the misunderstandings between them that were orchestrated by those whose greatest fear is to see Southern Blacks and Southern Whites come together as one as they were before the seize.

Sgt. Thrasher’s crime was to place the flag that the American fighting men were regulated to carry in the United Nations Conflict known as the Korean War because the other American Flag, the Stars and Stripes was deem sovereign and not to be under the command of any other force. Sgt. Thrasher placed that flag on that table not only to honor those who were his peers, but also because this year also marks the beginning of the recognition of the Sesquicentennial of the greatest war ever fought by Americans, the War Between the States, and he wanted to honor his and our ancestors Red, Yellow, Black and White who made an honorable Stand for the Constitutional Republic forged by our Founding Fathers and their homeland that had been illegally invaded.

Sgt. Thrasher’s flag was seized and he was told that some staff member, or members who were never identified were offended by the presence of that Christian symbol. While limited in his movement, and with a tube in his throat the size of a silver dollar, Sgt. thrasher raised his feeble body and said no. I shall fight this terrible wrong from where I lie until I am no more. He summoned the Honorable Kirk D. Lyons of the Southern Resource Center to mount a legal stand, and asked for me as his grandpa had for a man that could have easily been my grandpa to come and help. And I shall because we are family. How could I or anyone who calls themselves Southern do anything less for a man whose family rode with the likes of Lee and Jackson who did so much to advance the souls of a man who like me to the Heaven of the Almighty God where I would truly be free.

Sgt. Thrasher and young Candice of Latta are indicative in nature of the God fearing and God loving simple people of the South who just wanted to make a way for their families and who trusted their leaders to govern them in accordance to the laws established during those difficult times. And when those laws were abandoned, with great courage against insurmountable odds they made a stand together, freed or indentured for their homeland, "the Southland of America". Now it is time for the rest of America remove the stigma of shame that it has placed upon the South, its symbols and people.

May God bless Sgt. Thrasher and young Candice for giving us all the courage to say no more, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans Texas Division, Texas Division Mounted Color Guard, Texas Order of Saint George for awarding to each, their highest honors for their contribution to Confederate History and Heritage.

HK Edgerton