Relic Room
 
From: vaproto@optonline.net
To: meivey1@bellsouth.net
 
Dear Ms. Ivey,
 
I have discovered (living in New York all my life) that the more one becomes dependent upon any government to do anything, the less government will care about “serving” you and the worse you will be treated. Why? Because they know that you are dependent and therefore you will continue to serve them rather than the other way round in hopes of getting some small pittance in return.
 
For years I’ve read and heard many Southrons bemoaning the lack of help that Southern history and heritage gets “from government” – even local government. Gee! What a surprise! The drum beat of cultural genocide against the South begun in the 1950s and ever accelerating through the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and now into the new Millennium has been led by politicians catering to political correctness and very vocal minority advocacy and liberal groups. To expect government to help preserve that heritage is akin to expecting an across-the-board tax amnesty from the IRS.
 
If Southerners wish to preserve their heritage in whatever form, then they must take charge and do the job themselves – and, yes, that is possible if everyone works together and folks are willing to sacrifice for what is important. They must seek out whatever and whomever necessary to deal with each individual situation whether it is a matter of preserving relics or defending Confederate symbols in newspapers, magazines, television, radio or the internet. If you don’t care enough to do that, then the day will dawn when there is nothing left to protect and, within a generation or two, no one to care about what has been lost.
 
To realize that even those who believe that they are “self sufficient” and against government “interference” still look to government for the kind of help you mention in your appeal speaks volumes about how very dependent we have all become. It should also be a “wake up call” as to why our present federal tyranny has felt complacent and assured enough to move so boldly towards total control of just about everything and everyone. Oh, they hear our rage but consider that we are impotent because in the end, we’re all going to come crawling to some government entity to take care of us and our needs. Until we prove that we can – and more importantly WILL – do it ourselves, we are going to be ignored and dismissed by all levels of “government”.
 
Deo Vindice
 
Valerie Protopapas