The Battle For Our National Cemeteries

We take justifiable pride in our Confederate forebears, men and women, who sacrificed their all for the cause in which they believed. The Confederate soldier won the admiration of the world by his courageous fight against an enemy overwhelming in numbers, equipment and implements of war. With few exceptions they were volunteers who fought for principles of government in which they believed. Although defeated, they left us traditions of faith in God, honor, chivalry, and respect for womanhood; they left us a passionate belief in freedom for the individual. Our Confederate ancestors bequeathed to us a military tradition of valor, patriotism, devotion to duty, and a spirit of self-sacrifice. When our nation no longer admires and pays tribute to these traditions, we will no longer remain a free nation. That is part of the introduction that every SCV member was read before they raised their right hand and took the oath to become a member in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The last sentence in bold is a warning, and we are seeing that warning come to light. Every Southerner and Free American has to fight against the cultural genocide that is blanketing this country as we speak. A call went out yesterday to call your US Senators and Representatives and you must continue. I urgently request that you contact a US Representative today and tell them to vote no and ask for a written reply back. Please use the links below to help with the phone numbers of your members of both the Senate and House. http://clerk.house.gov/index.aspx http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact Below is a story of what has gone on since yesterday's vote. We have a voice and ours is of reason and sensibility. Report All Heritage Violations at scvheritagedefense.org Deo Vindice! Charles Kelly Barrow Commander-in-Chief Sons of Confederate Veterans @scvcic www.scv.org ------------------------------------------------ BY JASON PLAUTZ The House Wants a Do-Over on the Confederate Flag House will vote Thursday to undo previously passed amendments that would remove the flag from federal land. July 8, 2015 On Tuesday, the House unanimously passed three amendments curtailing the display of the Confederate flag in national parks. Thursday, there will be a do-over. As a marathon debate came to a close on the fiscal 2016 spending bill for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday evening, Rep. Ken Calvert, a California Republican, offered up an amendment that would alter previously passed amendments on the bill related to the sale of Confederate flag merchandise and the placement of the flag on graves on federal lands. The amendment is set for a recorded vote Thursday, putting individual lawmakers on record on the display of the flag for the first time since the June 17 shooting that killed nine people in a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. Calvert's amendment would reaffirm a National Park Service policy requesting the removal of merchandise featuring the Confederate flag as a symbol, set in place after the shootings. But it would scale back Tuesday's amendment from Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., that sought to make the policy permanent on future contracts. Calvert's amendment also would undo a separate Huffman provision that looked to ban the display of the Confederate flag on graves on federal lands. Current NPS policy allows certain local groups to place the flags on graves only on Confederate Memorial Day and removes them as soon as possible. The provisions had previously passed Tuesday by voice vote with no one speaking in opposition, and so Calvert's move Wednesday was a surprise to Democrats, coming after 8:00 p.m., at the very end of the spending bill debate. Calvert said simply that the amendment would codify existing National Park Service policy. An aide to Calvert said that his language would only undo language that goes beyond NPS policy and would not affect an amendment from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, which would have blocked funding for the purchase and display of the Confederate flag on NPS land outside of a historical context. Rep. Betty McCollum, who was leading debate for Democrats, said she could not "hide my surprise and my outrage," and she urged members to "stand with citizens of all races and remove all symbols of hatred from our national parks." "We should uphold what this House stood for yesterday, which is to say no to racism, which is to say no to hate speech," she added. In a statement, Rep. Nita Lowey, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement the amendment "would shamefully challenge the emerging national consensus that government must not countenance such a symbol of hatred and intolerance." The vote allows Southern conservatives a chance to weigh in on the language. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Mississippi, for example, said in a statement Wednesday that he was upset that Tuesday's flag amendment had been "slipped into the bill in the dead of night with no debate." "Members of Congress from New York and California cannot wipe away 150 years of Southern history with sleight-of-hand tactics," Palazzo said and vowed to fight the language. A week after the racially motivated shooting at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Park Service said it would remove Confederate flag memorabilia from its bookstores and gift shops. The applied ban applied to stand-alone items; books and DVDs containing the flag would still be sold. The move followed similar actions by retailers such as eBay, Wal-Mart, and Amazon. The amendments, however, may never become law. The White House has promised a veto of the spending bill because it relies on sequester spending levels and contains riders that would block several aspects of President Obama's environmental agenda. ----------------------------------------------------- As a country we no longer respect the dead. We no longer respect history. As the Native Americans learned long ago, federal promises mean nothing. Congressional Act of 9 March 1906 We Honor Our Fallen Ancestors (P.L. 38, 59th Congress, Chap. 631-34 Stat. 56) Authorized the furnishing of headstones for the graves of Confederates who died, primarily in Union prison camps and were buried in Federal cemeteries. Remarks: This act formally reaffirmed Confederate soldiers as military combatants with legal standing. It granted recognition to deceased Confederate soldiers commensurate with the status of deceased Union soldiers. U.S. Public Law 810, Approved by 17th Congress 26 February 1929 (45 Stat 1307 – Currently on the books as 38 U.S. Code, Sec. 2306) This law, passed by the U.S. Congress, authorized the "Secretary of War to erect headstones over the graves of soldiers who served in the Confederate Army and to direct him to preserve in the records of the War Department the names and places of burial of all soldiers for whom such headstones shall have been erected." Remarks: This act broadened the scope of recognition further for all Confederate soldiers to receive burial benefits equivalent to Union soldiers. It authorized the use of U.S. government (public) funds to mark Confederate graves and record their locations. U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958 Confederate Iron Cross (US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134) The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States. General Robert E. Lee Remarks: While this was only a gesture since the last Confederate veteran died in 1958, it is meaningful in that only forty-five years ago (from 2003), the Congress of the United States saw fit to consider Confederate soldiers as equivalent to U.S. soldiers for service benefits. This final act of reconciliation was made almost one hundred years after the beginning of the war and was meant as symbolism more than substantive reward. Additional Note by the Critical History: Under current U.S. Federal Code, Confederate Veterans are equivalent to Union Veterans. Researched by: Tim Renick, Combined Arms Library Staff, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Dean Stevens, 1902 Wellington Rd, Cayce, SC 29033, United States