Communism has spread in Orange County, Chapel Hill, says Alamance group leader during Confederate Memorial Day Service
Kate Croxton, Times-News, Burlington, N.C. (TNS)
May 11, 2018
ACTBAC talked about honoring forefathers and legacy Thursday evening during the Confederate Memorial Day Service.
Though the rain delayed the service a half an hour, ACTBAC founder and President Gary Williamson spoke for almost 30 minutes on respecting Confederate history and the soldiers who died during the Civil War.
“It means the world to all of us to put in all the work to preserve and save what we feel to be correct,” Williamson said.
Before Williamson began his speech, three dozen people gathered around the Veterans Wall in front of the courthouse at 212 W. Elm St., Graham. A few were dressed in Confederate-style clothing, while others held flags and wore shirts bearing the Confederate flag. Women and children were asked to place red and white roses at the foot of the wall, while one man fired three shots into the air with a Confederate rifle.
“We gather in memory and honor of heroes who served in the war for Southern independence,” Josh Fogleman said during the group prayer. “We know many of those men stand in the ranks of heaven now, their muskets silent, and the heavenly trumpet plays taps. … We pray that we will be good stewards of what has been handed down to us through generations, that the stones dedicated and commemorated will stand for years to come, and to keep honor and the name of those gone before.”
Reason to fight
Williamson began by saying the names on the wall are the same names of the people who came out for the service.
“They were our families. They were our ancestors, our forefathers, our legacy, basically,” Williamson said. “‘We have learned that the truth behind what these men fought for was so much more than what a lot of people can understand today.
“A majority of people here, they know who their family was, they know what they fought for, they know the reason why the legacy was continued. It is a legacy of proud men, strong-willed men.”
Williamson said the Confederate soldiers fought because it was their duty to fight for the independence of the South, and to honor their ancestors by fighting for the difference between good and evil.
“It was property. It was family name. It was so much more than just slavery,” Williamson said. “Slavery existed, and I don’t like to bring it up. It was there. It was definitely, 110 percent there, and it was there 200 years before that, and it was there all over the world a thousand years before that. It was a part of the time.
“Do you think 1,100 people from Alamance County went and fought because they wanted to preserve slavery? No. They went and fought because they felt like they were being invaded, and they were.”
Finding truth
Williamson continued by saying people can’t find the truth on why Confederate soldiers fought by going online or listening to professors. He said people have to read books, family Bibles or letters from that era to understand what the people felt back then and what they were fighting for.
“You have to go back and read through the truth of the times to understand. You can’t go by what was rewritten by somebody else, by what they thought it was about,” Williamson said. “Go back to the truth and what it was really about by the people who were there.”
Williamson motioned to the side of the Veterans Wall that listed the Civil War deceased and the World War II deceased and claimed there was no difference between the two.
“The only difference is there are more descendants of these people [Civil War side] today than there are of those people [World War II side] today. That is your blood and legacy regardless if you agreed or whatnot.
“You have to be proud of who you are, and you take the good with the bad,” Williamson added. “There is good and bad in all history. There is family names and bloodlines and so on that we are proud of. The thing about the Southern people — what is the one thing that they definitely are and will always be? They are the proudest, most patriotic on the face of this Earth.”
Williamson claimed there are people who oppose them and their forefathers and family name, and that those people want to destroy America completely.
“They want to destroy everything about it,” Williamson said. “They hate it. They oppose us because they don’t agree with what our forefathers and our legacy extends out to today.
“Guess what? In some regions of this state, they are winning. That is disgusting. … There is a lot of things going on in the union right now a lot of people don’t agree with, and it has nothing to do with our legacy. It has to do with people that want to completely destroy it.”
Communism
Williamson concluded his talk by discussing communism and saying it has spread all over Chapel Hill and Orange County. He said communists want to rip away rights and take away the Confederate Memorial and Veterans Wall.
“We want to preserve what is ours,” Williamson said. “These names on this wall are ours. That monument up there is ours. This is Alamance County’s. That monument represents these people. Why in the world would somebody ever want to take that down? I can’t wrap my head around it. It is socialism, which leads right directly to communism, and it is all over the place right now. It is there. It is happening. There is communism in America today, and they are fighting for it.
“Do I want my child growing up in a communist state? You want to talk about slavery? How many people been killed under communism?
“We will not let it happen. We will fight it to the death.”
Williamson said the right must be kept to remember forefathers and legacy, and not to let anyone take their rights away.
“We lay these roses here out of love and respect. We love and respect the men on that wall. We love and respect the South,” Williamson said. “We live by the ways of the South. We live by our families, and we live by our legacy. We are proud people, the proudest there ever was. There is no people prouder than the Southern people. If they wasn’t, they still wouldn’t be here 156 years today flying this flag.”
One reaction
Among the dozens that showed up, one woman stood out, especially since she was the only African-American of the group.
Jen Fry, a resident of Alamance County, said she was driving home when she saw the Confederate flags and decided to pull over and see what was happening.
“When you drive by and you see 20 Confederate flags on your way home, you have to stop,” Fry said.
Fry tried to talk to Williamson before the service, but he told her it was not the right time or place to talk since ACTBAC had only an hour and a half to pay respects to the soldiers.
“They were respectful about it. It is their time. I can’t fault that,” Fry said.
However, she said Williamson’s message throughout the service did not shed full light on both sides of the story.
“I think it is a message that doesn’t tell the full story,” Fry said. “I think it only tells one side. It doesn’t think about that you owned people and raped people and killed them and maimed their kids and all that. I don’t think it tells the whole story of what their people really did to people who looked like me.”
©2018 Times-News (Burlington, N.C.)
