Rally To Be Held To Protest Flag Removal At Lee Chapel

                                 

Rally To Be Held To Protest Flag Removal At Lee Chapel
Compatriots,
The situation involving the Flags at Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia goes far beyond the Virginia Division. I have been in contact with Commander Tracy Clary, Virginia Division and Commander Brandon Dorsey, Stonewall Brigade on this matter.

I ask all compatriots from all Divisions to attend this rally (details below) if possible. If you can not attend, at the very least, please contact the officials at Washington and Lee and express your concerns.

 B. Frank Earnest,
Commander Army of Northern Virginia and Southern Patriot

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Desecration of Robert E. Lee's Grave and Memorial Rally and Forum in Lexington, Virginia Saturday July 26th.

Recently Washington & Lee University President Ken Ruscio announced the university would remove the eight regimental Confederate Battleflags surrounding the famed recumbent statue of Robert E. Lee in Lee Chapel. The statue chamber and the Lee family crypt were built onto Lee Chapel as the site chosen for the Robert E. Lee Memorial using private donations raised for the purpose. As such the university accepted the responsibility to ensure that Lee's burial place would be given the proper respect it deserves and it did so for well over one hundred years.

Sadly, the once proud Southern school has become infiltrated more and more with radical ideology and the academics running the school no longer share the same values as Robert E. Lee. Instead many overtly and openly proclaim disdain for him. When Lee's character was recently attacked, the school offered no response and instead has caved to the demands of a small group of student's who want Lee and everything he stood for repudiated.

For now they have won their fight to remove these flags, but they or others like them will continue their crusade with revolutionary fever to destroy Lee's image in its entirety. The current president, the successor to Robert E. Lee, has now become the nations most notorious grave robber. These radical students undoubtedly dream of the day that sledge hammers will be taken to Lee's recumbent statue just as the mob in Iraq recently did to the grave of the famed Prophet Jonah.

How should decent people react to the cowardly violation of the memorial for an American Icon?   Are we so ignorant to believe that people cannot understand why Confederate flags would be at a deceased general's or veteran's grave? Why has this happened and what can be done about it? The Stonewall Brigade Camp 1296 is putting together an event where these issues will be addressed.

This event will be held on July 26 at an open community meeting to be held at the Holiday Inn Express on N. Lee Highway at 4pm that day featuring Dr. Marshall DeRosa, Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. He will present "The Heroical Robert E. Lee: Under Attack by the Useful Idiots of the Ruling Class."  Following Dr. DeRosa's presentation attendees will be invited to express their concerns and to offer ideas and solutions to the matter.

In addition we will hold a Flag Vigil against this cowardly act in downtown Lexington throughout the day and are working to secure a sight near Lee Chapel to hold a rally beginning at Noon. We encourage anyone concerned about this issue to attend and bring your flags and signs in hand to protest what we consider no less than grave robbery as defined under law by the current president of Washington & Lee.

We ask that everyone remember that although we have the right to be angry at this situation, everyone should conduct themselves in a manner that would not further embarrass the memory of Robert E. Lee. We do not need to stoop down to the level of those who started this travesty. The city sidewalks will be accessible to us, but expect W&L security to remove or arrest anyone entering the campus with a sign or flag.

What else can you do? Write, call, and email the university using the contact information listed below. Secondly, if you know any W&L alumni or donors let us know who they are so that we can encourage them to contact the school and consider withholding further support. Thirdly, attend the flag rally and forum if you can. Fourthly, consider contributing to the various heritage defense funds for this purpose.

Contact Information:

President:  Dr. Kenneth Ruscio, Washington and Lee University, 204 West Washington Street Lexington,Virginia 24450. (540) 458-8700 president@wlu.edu

Provost: Dr. Daniel Wubah Washington and Lee University, Washington Hall 214 Lexington,Virginia 24450. (540) 458-8418 dwubah@wlu.edu

BOARD OF TRUSTEES:

Secretary of the University: James D. Farrar, Jr. Washington & Lee University, 203 Washington Hall Lexington,VA 24450. (540) 458-8465 jdfarrar@wlu.edu

Executive Assistant to the Board of Trustees: Katherine Brinkley Washington & Lee University,   202 Washington Hall Lexington,VA 24450. (540) 458-8417 kbrinkley@wlu.edu

Congratulations to the Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans!

“Hurrah for Texas! Texans always move them!”

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/07/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-confederate-flag-license-plate.html/

Austin—The 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the Texas branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has the right to have the state issue license plates adorned with the Confederate battle flag. In April last year, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled against the group, declaring that the state was allowed to pick and choose which messages and symbols appear on state-issued plates.
At issue in the Circuit Court was whether the state Department of Motor Vehicles Board had engaged in “viewpoint discrimination” and violated the group’s First Amendment right when it denied an application for a specialty plate.
The judges ruled that license plates are a form of “private speech,” and thus protected by the First Amendment. The court also ruled that the Board’s rejection of the plate “favored one speaker over another.”
Supporters of the plate argued that the flag honored Confederate soldiers and Southern heritage, while those opposed said the flag symbolized a racially-charged message and that distributing such a plate would be tantamount to the state memorializing slavery.
Texas could choose to appeal for a rehearing by the 5^th Circuit judges or to the Supreme Court.

Virginia Flaggers

P.O. Box 547

Sandston VA 23150

info@vaflaggers.com

Battle of Centralia

To all,

   This is a reminder of the Re-enactments of the Battle of Centralia is September 13 & 14 and Mount Zion. In cooperation with the Missouri Civil War Reenactor's Association, the event will be a "Maximum Effort" with a night firing of cannons. We are expecting a very large number of spectators for this two-day event. We would like to extend a personal invitation to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and should you like a tent or table set up for information and/or recruiting purposes, please notify us. We look forward to seeing you there.

Jack Chance, President of Friends of Centralia Battlefield.

Please put on your calendar.

Attn: H. V. "Bo" Traywick, Jr. Author of Empire of the Owls (Reflections on the North's War against Southern Secession)

Phone #: 1-804-241-5415

email: botraywick@phoenixws.net

web site: empireoftheowls

	empireoftheowls Loading mobileactionsmenu unavailable Pages
	View on www.empireoftheowls.com	Preview by Yahoo

Empire of the owls opens a window onto the past, carries us back to old Virginia and the old south and sings to us the Confederate epic in the voices of those who lived it. From John Brown's Raid through the war and Reconstruction, it speaks truth to power, challenges some long-cherished American myths and goes for in answering the "call" made to the scv by Gen. S.D. Lee. It is available at the scv bookstore, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other selected bookstores. Copies signed by the author are available from the publisher at Dementi Books, Richmond publisher and Richmond Authors

		Dementi Books, Richmond publisher and Richmond Authors Richmond Virginia publisher representing Richmond Authors and Richmond History.
		View on www.dementibooks.com	Preview by Yahoo

Confederatly Yours,

Paul Lawrence,

 Mo. Div. Adjutant SCV

Fwd: Protest Flag Removal At Lee Chapel

Friends and Family of the South Carolina Division. As many of you have heard, there is unrest in the state of Virginia concerning Washington - Lee anniversary and the removal of flags at Lee's Chapel.  Please visit the link below for the entire story and call to action - Rally To Be Held To Protest Flag Removal At Lee Chapel To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish." Follow:

1902 Wellington Rd, Cayce, SC 29033, USA

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LTTE: Virginia Flaggers Honor Ancestors Again

From: info@vaflaggers.com

Many thanks to Colonial Height resident Jesse Harrup, Jr. for ANOTHER great Letter to the Editor...

Progress-Index

Virginia Flaggers Honor Ancestors Again

To the Editor,

The Virginia Flaggers last week erected another commemoration to the memory of the Confederate States of America (CSA) soldiers who fought and died at Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Fredericksburg, and other battles in that area. They have ensured that a flag, flown by CSA units in those battles, flies alongside I-95 in Fredericksburg. Of course, the expected hue and cry of those offended has again risen; primarily fomented by the Richmond mainstream media and certain always malcontent citizens of the area. To those people I say: you have no legal right, constitutional or legislative, nor any reason, to be offended, not only about flying the Confederate flag, but about anything in life, other than you choose to allow yourself to be.

You just as easily may choose: to be quiet about it, allow yourself to be unaffected by it, or any other such personal non-reactions. Should you choose to be offended I, and others with CSA ancestors, will choose to simply not care about your offense. So, the way I see it, we cancel each other out; so why expend the energy, angst, and stress to publicize your feelings of offense? If you stop, "we" will have no reaction whatsoever, and everyone lives peacefully.

Let me finish, by reminding the readers: not a single, zero, (0) slave was ever transported to America under a CSA flagged vessel; however, one of the flags that did fly over those vessels was the USA flag. Think of that as you commemorate slavery sites in Virginia and what flag you fly. We will now, yesterday, and in the future, always continue to honor our ancestors who fought for states rights, adherence to the constitution and at the request of their Virginia governor and legislators.

Let's bring some common sense back into our lives, this state and this country, by just being concerned with living life the best we can, and let some commemorate slavery, should they choose, and others commemorate their ancestors, if they so choose, with no offense chosen by any.  

V/r,

JESSE L. HARRUP, JR.

Colonial Heights

Aftermath From the Battle of Fort Stevens at Lincoln Hospital

http://www.thehillishome.com/2013/12/lost-capitol-hill-the-aftermath-of-the-battle-of-fort-stevens/

July 11, 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early and his men reached the outskirts of Washington D.C., just north of Fort Stevens. The fort, which represented the last line of defense between Confederates and the Capitol, was lightly defended and held by a company of soldiers from Oberlin College. General Early was resting his troops in Silver Spring after marching continuously for weeks. They stopped to break at Postmaster Montgomery Blair’s wine cellar. - See more at: http://www.thehillishome.com/2013/12/lost-capitol-hill-the-aftermath-of-the-battle-of-fort-stevens/#sthash.Xl4Lj6ED.dpuf

W&L Lee Chapel flag removal update:

We have received copies of dozens of emails, and had reports of hundreds of phone calls that were made today.  We cannot emphasize enough how much each phone call and email helps to keep the pressure on as we continue to work on this issue from several angles, and develop detailed plans for protests and further action. 

Some of you were kind enough of to share the canned reply that you received.  It seems that the administration believes that they can explain away the flag removal, and that folks will take them at their word and give up the fight. 

One of the main issues that President Ruscio and others use as a defense for the removal is the agreement between the UDC, The Museum formerly known as the Museum of the Confederacy, and the University.   We have been able to secure a copy of this agreement, and while it does call for the removal of the original battle flags for restoration, and for the flags to be properly displayed in glass cases in the museum in the basement of the Chapel, it in NO WAY dictates that the reproduction flags, provided by the SCV as a replacement for the originals, must be removed from the Chapel.  The referenced agreement was made in 1997, and yet they expect us to believe that it just so happens that they decided to take the reproduction flags out of the Chapel in July of 2014, as part of a new agreement with the Museum formerly known as the Museum of the Confederacy, not to appease "The Committee".  Do not be fooled by this smokescreen. 

Please stay tuned for more updates and more contact information, as we need to "keep the skeer on" through the coming days and weeks, and plese continue to share these updates and calls to action with as many others as possible.   

FYI:  W&L has a FaceBook page.  They do not allow photos or posts from others, but you can comment on their photos and posts, here...  https://www.facebook.com/washingtonandlee

We wanted to leave you with one of the MANY fine communications on which we were copied on today, this one from Mr. Bill Dennison, of Bristol, Virginia.  God bless Mr. Dennison, and God bless each and every one of you who has stepped up to join us in this battle.

Sincerely,
Grayson Jennings

Va Flaggers​

P.O. Box 547

Sandston VA 23150

info@vaflaggers.com

Mr. Kenneth Ruscio, President
Washington and Lee University

Mr. Daniel Wubah, Provost
Washington and Lee University
Mr. James D. Farrar, Jr., Secretary of the University
Washington & Lee University
Ms. Katherine Brinkley, Executive Assistant to the Board of Trustees
Washington & Lee University
Re: Restriction and Removal of Southern Confederacy Related Items, Action and Speech

Dear Sirs and Madam:

The purpose of this letter is to express my concern regarding action(s) announced by President Ruscio relative to the Army of Northern Virginia regimental flag replicas surrounding the Edward Valentine sculpture, "The Recumbent Lee", the Lee-Jackson Day parade entering onto the Washington & Lee campus and the censorship of presentations made by private groups in Lee Chapel.
Straying a bit from the heart of the matter at hand, I would point out two things that I would have thought would have been obvious. First, because of the location in Lexington of Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s home, his burial place and the presence of the Virginia Military Institute where Jackson taught and which produced many renowned Confederate leaders, coupled with the fact that the final resting place of Gen. Robert E. Lee is on the campus of Washington and Lee University that many credit Lee with saving from extinction because of his efforts there, people throughout the South, the nation and the world hold the City of Lexington as an almost iconic place and travel great distances to visit.
With that thought in mind, I would submit that while the physical location of the flags and the others symbols of the Confederacy may be situate on the Washington & Lee campus, in a larger sense they belong to the people of this country, particularly those of us who happen to be Southern and especially we Virginians.

I know that "The Committee" claims, that the flags symbolize slavery and because of that they find them “offensive”. I would submit to you that a thorough review of Confederate history will demonstrate conclusively that the issues were, and are, far more complex than that simplistic viewpoint and that these people are “offended” primarily because they choose to be. In fact, one of them, at least, was in his third year of law school before the "offense" became intolerable. Contrary to current "progressive" thought, no one has an unalienable right not to be offended. To paraphrase a comment from another who opined on the matter, for a student holding sentiments such as those of "The Committee" to apply to and attend a university named Washington and Lee is akin to someone enlisting in the Navy when they know they are prone to seasickness.

I included this observation in an earlier letter, but I think it bears repeating. The targeted flags are regimental battle flags representing some of the regiments that Lee commanded in the Army of Northern Virginia. They are soldiers' flags, not, as many would have you believe, symbolic of anything other than the brotherhood of valor that comprised that gallant body of men, Lee's "boys". Those flags are there representing the devotion and respect of those veterans for their old commander, "Marse Robert".

President Ruscio's statement that, " “The purpose of historic flags in a university setting is to educate. They are not to be displayed for decoration, which would diminish their significance, or for glorification, or to make a statement about past conflicts . The reproductions are not genuinely historic, nor are they displayed with any information or background about what they are. The absence of such explanation allows those who either ‘oppose’ or ‘support’ them to assert their own subjective and frequently incorrect interpretations.”, is disingenuous at best and a bald-faced distortion of the true history of how the flags came to be there in the first place, and why. They were not placed there to be "in a university setting" at all. They were placed there to honor the man who led those regiments and the fact that the current flags are reproductions and have no information or background regarding them is moot . . . neither did the originals and the reason there are reproductions there at all is because the originals were deteriorating. The entire statement is pure spin, and amateurishly done at that.
Finally we get to the "marching" and the addresses in the Chapel. The only "marching" that transpires is a single event on a single day out of an entire calendar year and is by people who gather in Lexington for the Lee-Jackson Day parade and memorial service in Lee Chapel. This is done solely to honor the memory and service of two great Virginians, not to espouse or advance any agenda. Whether "The Committee" likes it or not, Lee Chapel is an icon, a beacon that draws people from all walks of life and from all parts of the country for this one hour service, once a year. To deny them this privilege for the sake of the demands of .4 of 1% of the total enrollment of the institution is outrageous.
The final restriction on what may or may not be said during lectures or presentations in Lee Chapel is pure, unadulterated censorship, completely out-of-place in a venue where freedom of thought and expression should be encouraged and defended.

This entire exercise in nothing but a thinly veiled effort by the university administration to kowtow to the racially charged demands of a vocal minority and relegate salient portions of the true history of the university to the dustbin of history. It is unfair, unwarranted, based largely on fallacy and is, above all, cowardly.

Very truly yours,
W. A. Dennison, Jr.