Dear Ms. Lunelle,
I have come to realize that the editorial page of the so called Knoxville Sentinel is nothing more than a sounding board for those who hate the Southern Cross and who spit out such disdain against it and any who dare to express their constitutional right to carry it, wear it, or display it. And bear witness in the editorial :Confederate flag in parade insult to blacks, veterans; corpus delicti at its best. Where are the facts to substantiate the libel within the entire article?
The spectacle of a man in his stupor shouting the word treason in the ear of a man who would portray the Honorable General Robert E. Lee, and myself who would portray his Color Bearer in a timeline capsule presented by the co-sponsors of the Clinton Veterans Day parade," The Tennesseans for Living History", who had invited us, as well as the Union soldier who rode the capsule float.
I would tell this man that he was doing something that even Thaddeus Stevens who hated the South for expressing its Constitutional right to leave the Union would do; accuse the Southern people or their army of treason. Who the hell is Thaddeus Stevens, and you don't believe in God , defending treason was his reply that he continued to yell in my ears as the people clap and cheered as we pass them by.
Had the Knoxville Sentinel cared for what the people were thinking, all they had to do was to follow any of us who carried the flag on this day, not only in Clinton, but Knoxville as well. They would have to print how the veterans and spectators, Red, Yellow, Brown, Black and White, saluted us, hugged us, took photographs beside and with us, and most importantly praised us for being there.
On Tuesday morning, November 25, 2014, as I began to furl the Southern Cross after having strolled some 5 miles with it; a young man would identify himself as a newspaper reporter for the Black Mountain Times. He would ask if I did not feel some anxiety about carrying the Southern Cross after the decision of the Ferguson Grand Jury? The interview would last for 2 hours, and another hour and a half the next day. I await the article.
On Thursday morning, November 27, 2014. With snow flurries abound and a bristling wind, I would don the uniform of the Southern soldier and with his Colors in hand, partake on a twenty mile journey around Buncombe County, listening to the shouts of the Rebel Yell, folks calling out my name , waving, clapping as they passed me by, and an occasional stop for a photograph, or to accept a Thanksgiving breakfast from the young baby girl, Bree and her grandmother who at a dead run for almost an eight of a mile before I would turn around after hearing their shouts from behind.
Bree's grandmother would recount a time that I had spoken at the Zebulon Vance Camp 15 Sons of Confederate Veterans, and that I had given her son Daniel, Bree's dad a Dixie Out Fitter shirt with my picture on it, and that he had explained to Bree why it called me a Modern Day Confederate hero, and that I was his and many others of the South's hero. Bree who appeared to be about 6 or 7 years old would give me a big hug, and her grandmother would remark;" first the son, and now his daughter" , and another hug I would have to accept.
This scene would play out many more times before I would finally furl my flag on Thanksgiving Day. God bless you!
Your brother,
HK
Recipient of the H.L. Hunley Award
