Letter to W&L Alumni group

From: vaproto@optonline.net

Washington and Lee University, Office of Alumni Affairs, Lexington, Virginia 24450

Waller (Beau) T. Dudley,  Executive Director of Alumni Affairs  wdudley@wlu.edu

Thomas D. Lovell, Associate Director of Alumni Affairs  tdlovell@wlu.edu

Mary Webster, Assistant Director for Engagement  mwebster@wlu.edu

Lady and Gentlemen:

There is no need to reiterate what has happened at your university yet, it would help if some of the misinformation surrounding the matter were dispelled. These "students" are hardly that; they are professional race-baiters wedded to the crusade to destroy the heritage, history, heroes and symbols of the South in the name of "civil rights." Unfortunately, as with Eric Holder, these particular crusaders do not believe that such rights extend to anyone but those of their race—a concept that cannot be more un-American.

Of course, given that most of today's academia is slightly to the left of Chairman Mao, one can be sure that the Administration of Washington & Lee had no problems with this "demand." Indeed, it is possible—if not probable—that there was collusion in the matter and that the entire affair was as spontaneous as a Broadway play.

But be that as it may, there is one truism in today's world; that is, that the "bottom line" trumps just about everything else including ideology. As long as these conspirators don't have to pay for their actions, the matter will remain where it presently rests. And, of course, that fact gives power to the alumni of Washington & Lee as represented by yourselves. You have an opportunity to put an end to this farce which pretends that these were merely innocent "students" who didn't realize that while attending Washington & Lee—in Virginia!—they  might be forced to view an historical symbol which would offend their delicate egos. However, you should understand this: if you fail to make use of the power you have, then you will not be able to use it when the next group of "students" demands the removal of all vestiges of the man who saved your university from oblivion.

It is to be hoped that sufficient intestinal fortitude remains among the former students of this institution that you will go forward to have these symbols of a noble man and his equally noble cause restored. This is your moment; only you can seize it—or not.

Valerie Protopapas, Huntington Station, New York.

Lee Flags

From: kparsons4@cox.net

Compatriots,

Your help is requested to distribute this to as many email addresses as possible.  You will also find it in the Virginia Courier.
Please send it on to all on your address list, Thanks.

Ken
                                                                                                               
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 on July 26 at an open community meeting to be held at the Holiday Inn Express on N. Lee Highway at 4pm featuring a talk by Dr. Marshall DeRosa, Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University entitled "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 be holding a Flag Vigil against this cowardly act in downtown Lexington throughout the day and are working to secure a sight nearby to 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 do 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.

President

Mr. Kenneth Ruscio


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

Provost
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

Letter sent to the officials of Washington and Lee University

Below is the letter I sent to the officials of Washington and Lee University regarding their cowardly and despicable removal of the Confederate battleflags from the Lee Chapel.

From: bjpershing@juno.com

I was frankly appalled to learn that Washington and Lee University determined to remove the Confederate battle flags from the Lee Chapel.  It appears to be nothing less than a cowardly capitulation to the whining of half a dozen liberal agitators.  I suppose that the injured feelings of those like myself who regard General Lee and our Confederate ancestors with honor count for nothing, because they are not politically correct.  In the name of tolerance, you are joining the most hateful, bigoted, and intolerant people in the world, while maligning the large numbers of us who still believe General Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia in a noble cause against the tyrannical usurpations of a tyrannical administration, and that the Southern battle flag is worth honoring.

I strongly recommend that you return these venerable flags to their place of honor, and inform the agitators that if they don't like them they are welcome to withdraw and attend another university.  However, I don't expect you to listen to me.  I have learned long ago that George Orwell was speaking prophetically in Animal Farm when he wrote, "All animals are equal; but some are more equal than others."  Apparently white Southerners who honor their Confederate ancestors are officially on the lower rung of equality.

Pastor Samuel Ashwood

Sovereign Grace Church

Muskogee, OK

www.samuelashwood.wordpress.com

Removal of the Memorial Flags in the Lee Chapel

From: wayne1861@verizon.net
To: KBrinkley@wlu.edu

I appreciate the timely reply to my email.  I have read through the links that you kindly attached.  You appear to be in agreement with the university President regarding the decision to remove the flags.  The fact that these flags, whether original or reproduction, and whether owned by the university or the Museum of the Confederacy, have been hanging in place for nearly a century, indicates an intention to make them a permanent part of the display at the Lee Memorial Chapel.  No one, looking at the circumstances of their removal could honestly fail to see that the timing for their removal involves a letter of complaint and a demand that this action be taken.

The university President, in attempting to deflect much deserved criticism for this act, couches his response in references to the need for "respect" and "a spirit of cooperation rather than confrontation".  I would like to ask you, as well as the President, where this respect and cooperation is exemplified in the demand by a small group of W&L law students to completely remove this 80+ year display.  The reality is that their demand only denotes a spirit of "confrontation" and an unwillingness to enter into a dialogue based upon mutual respect for those that revere both Lee and the unalienable rights, oft ignored, that pertain to altering or abolishing political arrangements that are integral parts of the War for Southern Independence.  In fact, it is THE reason why Virginia implemented this "unalienable" prerogative and joined the Confederacy, rather than acquiesce in the violation of this right.  No, opponents of this cowardly and illegal act will not be fooled or cowed by references to the unfortunate place the universal institution of slavery had in history, nor the deliberate obfuscations made related to keeping displays impartial.  We recognize that it is far, far easier to just surrender to the powerful leveling forces of our age, rather than attempt to give honor and respect, and a voice, to the voiceless dead, who risked and often sacrificed all, including their lives, for the unheralded principles all centralized empires deliberately suppress; the right of secession and self-determination.  The purging of a separate Confederate identity has been going on for some time now.  The removal of the flags from Lee Chapel is just the latest in a very long line toward this end.  The Quisling-like participation, by certain members of Washington & Lee's administration, can and will be exposed.  As the pendulum of history swings back, as it always does, the actors in this case will be judged for the courage, or lack thereof, premeditating their course of action.  This judgment will be based, not on what was expedient and easy at the time, but upon basic truths and principles that time and reflection determines best meets and reflects the needs of humanity and justice.  I will choose in this case to take the road less traveled, and that is grounded in my respect for the truths of history...all of them, and for the sacred principles that Lee and his Confederates attempted to preserve, imperfect as they appear to be to 21st century sensibilities.

Wayne D. Carlson
Dublin, Virginia

Heritage Victory in Texas!

"Hurrah for Texas! Texans always move them!"

Congratulations to the Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans!

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

Austin—The 5th 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 5th Circuit judges or to the Supreme Court.

Virginia Flaggers
P.O. Box 547
Sandston VA 23150
info@vaflaggers.com

SCV Dues/Fiscal Year - August 1

Gentlemen,

August 1st is the new SCV Fiscal Year.  It is that time once again.  I would encourage you and your camps to start the dues collections process early in an effort to retain our membership.  Last year, several camps retained 100% of their memberships, something I hope we can do once again this year. 

On a similar line, I want to let you and your camps know that if a member can help to get five (5) members that have been in "delinquent status" for at least one fiscal year, they would qualify for the SCV's J.O. Shelby Award/Medal.  Can you think of a better award to win?... one named after Missouri's own J. O. Shelby!  To qualify this award, a member would need to download the form from the SCV website, complete it and submit it to the awards committee as instructed on the form.  What a great incentive to go out there and get some of those members who have let their memberships lapse.

Good luck during the dues process and let's do our best to keep our members, we are VERY near having 500 members for the first time in many years.

Darrell Maples - Cmdr.
MO Division - SCV

An Open Report & Open Letter

Dear Ms. Lunelle,

As I stood posing for a picture with young William Thomas Tarrant the 6th, and his beautiful sister Jade who would tell me that she wanted to ask me several questions about the War Between the States, but was reluctant to ask because not too long ago she had been disciplined by her teacher and Principal for asking a question about Afghanistan. I told her to put forward her question.

Was not the Southern States within its rights under the 10th Amendment to secede from the compact made with the Northern Federal government? Before I could answer, Jade went on to say that the10th amendment was written to put to rest the fears that the Federal government could exceed the powers not given to it in the Constitution, basically denying the misnomer of implied powers and was not formed to take away States Rights. And from her perspective this made it more plausible that the Southern States had a right to secede from the Federal Government because of the impositions being placed upon them by unfair taxation.

My first thought was; Oh Lord, another young Southern baby girl to deal with. I told her that the cousin to the Honorable Thomas Jefferson, Supreme Court Justice John Marshall who believed in the Hamiltonian train of thought of the supremacy of the Federal Government, and who had a disdain for democracy, had ruled in a court case; McCulloch vs the State bank of Maryland; that the Federal Government was supreme in any theater that it operated in, and that it was granted implied powers in the Constitution as argued by Hamilton. And furthermore that the State had no right to tax the Federal Bank that had been established in Maryland.

My conclusion, I would tell her is that the Supreme Court is antiquated, and whose rulings are politically motivated , and now should be revaluated in a Constitutional Convention of the people. Jade would give the same look that I had seen on the faces of so many of my Southern baby girls who would sooner than later make a Stand in Dixieland . Let us pray. God bless you.

                                            Your brother,

                                                HK