Save Southern Heritage
Press Release – May 24, 2017
SOUTHERN HERITAGE GROUP WEIGHS IN ON CONFEDERATE FLAG FLAP AT CHILES HIGH
Tallahassee – Save Southern Heritage Florida was shocked by recent press reports of disruption and school personnel’s reaction to it over the last weeks.
Press reports indicated that some students were using the Confederate Flag, possibly in a protest of the outrage over the removal of the historical Veterans memorials that occurred over the last two weeks in New Orleans. And in unfortunate responses, other students retaliated with vandalism. Confounded with the disruption, school officials punished some of the bad-behavior, but the Confederate flag was blamed for the incident – with a ban.
“We believe the problem is not the flag, but people’s perceptions of it” said McCallister. “This is the same lazy thinking we saw in Charleston” said Save Southern Heritage – FL (“SSH FL”) spokesman, David McCallister.
“The flag didn’t cause the vandalism, any more than the Veterans memorial in Columbia caused a deranged killer to shoot up a Church” he added. “Lawbreakers are the problem – not a piece of cloth”.
“And so long as we teach our children the myth that America’s most deadly war was fought to end slavery, we will continue to foment hate for the flag and other symbols of America and foster the current feelings of divisions between Americans by race” added McCallister. “Educators, parents, the community is all responsible for allowing our children to be taught that a historical American flag is a symbol of hate – and it simply has to stop” said McCallister.
All over America, educators have been confronted with similar incidents regarding symbols of the Confederacy and in many cases case in to the ‘race card’ that the flag is ‘offensive’ rather than discussing the history of the flag and having a discussion about its original meaning and the perversion of its use, like the use of the USA flag by groups such as the KKK.
“SSH FL is happy to work with staff and faculty and the Leon County School Board to bring educational speakers and/or discussions to teachers and students to lead to understand instead of bigotry and hate…hopefully they’ll take us up on it” said McCallister.
Gov. Lawton Chiles, the namesake of the subject school, in a “Confederate History Month” Proclamation in 1998 reminded us that “we study the war between the blue and gray for the same reason we study all wars, with a view to understand the historical events which compelled them, so that we may continue to live together and seek to avoid future conflicts”. “The Governor was right…and teaching fake history is now coming home to roost right in the laps of those who taught it” MCallister said.
“The ISIS-Like purge of historical veteran’s memorials in New Orleans made national news and has shocked and outraged Floridians – it’s not surprising that many, including students, are upset” said McCallister. “Hate engenders hate” he added.
Multiple national public opinion polls over decades continue to show that most Americans do not view symbols of the Confederate States of America, like the flag, as symbols of hate – but just history.
Save Southern Heritage – FL
PO Box 291053
Tampa, FL 33617
