Have you ever wondered why we’re taught to be ashamed of our heritage? Think about it. When you hear a Southern accent on TV or in the movies, isn’t it usually some sort of redneck joke or caricature? Even the Simpsons have their own redneck jester, Cleatus, to look really stupid.
Have you ever questioned why the Confederacy fought so hard to become separate? Why is it considered all right that we seceded from England, or that we stole Texas from Mexico, or even that we made war with the French and Indians to claim more land? Why are all those causes honored, but we’re just supposed to hang our heads because our ancestors banded together and fought to be free?
Well, I’m only 24, and I’ve spent a lot of my life wondering the same things.
I was thinking about it all recently as I walked through a cemetery near my hometown in Alabama. All around me, there were rows and rows of graves of unmarked Confederate soldiers. No one knows who they were, and their memory is all but forgotten in this sleepy corner of Old Dixie. Their graves were cold and lonely. No flowers, and no respect.
Until now.
I can’t live my life like this anymore. I can’t keep pretending that 250,000 men didn’t die for me and for my future. The stunning truth is, those men did die for you and me. 250,000 men, women and children laid their lives down in front of advancing armies because they thought they could win us a better future.
They did it for us, because there wasn’t anything in it for them! They weren’t fools. They knew that it was only a matter of time before the Union armies rolled over them and destroyed their cities and homes. Our forefathers took up arms with the vain hope that maybe, at some point, the soldiers and fellow Americans that opposed us would have an epiphany and say “wait a minute, this is crazy!” before killing their Southern neighbors. No such epiphany came.
So the rebellion was crushed, the historians built heroes out of the victors, and the course of our country was set.
The question is, are you content?
I know you’re not. I know it because I’ve seen you, walking in the malls and in the streets. You’re looking for something. You turn a disgusted face to the corruption that pollutes our country, but you don’t know what to do. You wear rebel flag T-shirts and listen to country music, but it’s not enough. I know. I’ve been there to. There’s nowhere to go, no one who will understand what we want.
We want less.
Less crime, less government, less red tape, less taxes, and less political correctness.
We want more.
We want more of the good stuff. More family, more truth, more God, more of the honor that means something.
Our present leaders will never get us there. We refuse to follow the Democrats, who have rejected God and are at the mercy of their morally bankrupt leaders. We believe in something more than the Republicans, who bloat up government and wage wars to hide themselves behind.
Sound familiar? We once had a Republican president who unleashed an army of mercenaries and conscripts onto his own people.
Wherever you read this, keep checking back until you hear from me again. We’re going to build a movement in the South, one that excludes the hate that has stained us for so long. It’s time to honor the past and fight for our future.
Until then,
Your Southern Brother of Honor,
Nathan Lee
