Regarding "Swamped by conflicts "
From: colonel@37thtexas.org
To: editor@naplesnews.com
…(Letters to the Editor, Oct. 31) the writer exhibits the lack of understanding of American history which stems from the absorption of a history which has been edited, expurgated, revised, abridged and downright rewritten to ennoble the North and demonize the South.
Garland Edmonson wrote, "…we cannot even educate or legislate a segment of our homegrown population away from racism, hate and bigotry that the Confederate ideology represented in the 1800s."
Shall we try history and not hysteria?
"Almost fifty years before the (Civil) War, the South was already enlisting and utilizing Black manpower, including Black commissioned officers, for the defense of their respective states. Therefore, the fact that Free and slave Black Southerners served and fought for their states in the Confederacy cannot be considered an unusual instance, rather continuation of an established practice with verifiable historical precedence." – "The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell" by Lt. Col Mr. Edmonson also wrote, "You have been undermining American freedom and democracy since the days of Abraham Lincoln." What was Lincoln’s version of "freedom and democracy?" "Among the unconstitutional and dictatorial acts performed by Lincoln were initiating and conducting a war by decree for months without the consent or advice of Congress; declaring martial law; confiscating private property; suspending habeas corpus; conscripting the railroads and censoring telegraph lines; imprisoning as many as 30,000 Northern citizens without trial; deporting a member of Congress, Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, after Vallandigham – a fierce opponent of the Morrill tariff — protested imposition of an income tax at a Democratic Party meeting in Ohio; and shutting down hundreds of Northern newspapers." – "Constitutional Problems under Lincoln," James G. Randall, 1951, Urbana: University of Illinois Press Mr. Edmonson also opined, "The Taliban may as well have been marching past." "Lincoln Hospital, Aug. 14, 63…If a wounded Reb should come in to our ward I would hardly dress his wound…the Drs cut the Rebs up when they die. They are…taken to pieces. I see one the…day after he died…he was…cut up and put in a tub. It was an awful sight. But I could stand it very well knowing that it was a Reb." – Letter of Pvt. James Morrison, Co. E, 149th N. Y. V. Ignorance is the root of bigotry and Mr. Edmonson has clearly stated his bigotry. Michael Kelley
Pascagoula, MS
