The first secession from the United States, 2015

Today, 11 JUL 15 at 10:00 am, the American flag was lowered from the eight acre plot of land on the southern tip of Dorchester County in the state of Maryland. The Flag was lowered as taps played in the background. The owners neatly folded the Stars and Stripes and laid it to rest in the homeowner's museum, colloquially referred to as the attic.

At 10:15 am, while Elvis Presley's American Trilogy played in the background, the Confederate flag took its place formerly held by the Stars and Stripes.  The owners of the eight acres of land formally announced their secession from the Union.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...

Of everything ever written by our Founding Fathers, surely that one paragraph from the Declaration of Independence has to be the most scariest (yes, I know that's grammatically incorrect) words to the folks in DC and even to the folks in our state and local governments.  Those words defined a founding principle and basic civil right of the people, a principle and right that couldn't be taken away by future generations unless we want to admit our country was founded on criminal terms.  The people have the right to alter or abolish a government that no longer serves the people, but instead chooses to rule them.

To recap the last few weeks: a kid with mental problems and a past drug habit shot nine Black people at a Church in South Carolina.  Within hours, news reported the shooter as a White supremacist and published pictures of the shooter holding a Confederate flag.  Forces across the nation mobilized to force South Carolina to take down the Confederate flag from the state capitol.  National/international retail outlets like Wal Mart, Amazon, eBay, and Sears announced they would no longer carry merchandise bearing the likeness of the Confederate flag. 

Some states, like Maryland, have pushed to erase the Confederacy from their borders by renaming parks.  The folks in DC have passed a bill to erase the Confederate flag from the tombs of Confederate soldiers.  One hundred fifty years after the end of the Civil War, Blacks, perhaps out of ill-informed understanding of the Civil War, and Whites, perhaps out of White guilt, have taken it upon themselves to rewrite history in a sanitized fairy tale, one that explains how the good witch from the North rode in on White stallions to free the enslaved and oppressed from the wicked witch of the South cracking a whip on the Black backs of the good people who built the South with their blood, sweat, and tears.

Even our President, one of the folks in DC who fears the words from the Declaration of Independence and the Confederate flag that represents those words, tweeted pride in the latest destruction of the South:

South Carolina taking down the confederate flag - a signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future.
 -President Obama's tweet 10 JUL 15 (@POTUS)

Now quick, President Obama and any supporter of the demise of the Confederate flag reading this, name at least three victims of the SC shooting.

Oh yeah, in the rush to kill the Confederate flag, no one really paid attention to nor cared about the victims of the shooting.  Most people can name one victim (probably The Hon. Rev Clementa Pickney), fewer can name two, and almost none can name more than two.

Despite polls showing an even split or slight edge in favor of the Confederate flag being a symbol of Southern history, heritage, and pride, the decimation of anything Confederate continues.  The polls also show the Democrats are leading the charge against the Confederate flag.  This is important because now we can see the power play going on amongst the folks in DC who want to cement their power control over the people.

In the perennial battle of Democrat vs Republican, liberal vs conservative, the Confederate flag has emerged as a new weapon.  Anyone who views the Confederate flag in terms other than it being a racist symbol must be a racist.  We have a big election coming up so any opportunity to paint the other side as a bad guy is seized upon.  Republicans overwhelmingly view the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern history, heritage, and pride and so the Democrats are quick to demonize the symbol, perhaps in hopes they'll gain favor in the 2016 elections.



The good ol' boys defend what's right.
Those desiring control denigrate the
symbol as something evil.

We shouldn't give a muskrat's patootie about party politics.  The facts of history is what matters.  When Tomas Jefferson, who owned over 600 slaves in his lifetime, wrote that "all men are created equal", he predicted a bloody solution to the institution of the slavery that contradicted his words.  It took almost a hundred years for that bloody solution to materialize.

But the Civil War wasn't the fairytale war being described today.

The Civil War wasn't fought by "...forces in rebellion against the United States of America on behalf of secessionists who sought to perpetuate slavery," as Baltimore County executive Kevin Kamenetz wrote in a email to Baltimore City lawmakers asking for a change in the name to a county park.  The Civil War was fought to put a cap on the powers of a strong, centralized government in DC who decided they weren't there to serve the people, but to rule them.  Nothing more; nothing less.

If the South had won the Civil War, perhaps we wouldn't have such nonsense as the Affordable Care Act - a law that tells you what product every American has to buy else pay severe penalties, but it's legal because it's not a tax despite it's enforcement being given to the IRS. 

If the South had won the Civil War, perhaps we wouldn't have a government amassing data on how American citizens are using the Internet or who they are calling.

If the South had won the Civil War, perhaps we wouldn't be subject to walking through metal detectors or subjected to strip searches as we move about the country.

If the South had won the Civil War, perhaps we wouldn't be under the watchful eye of hundreds of cameras waiting to catch us going a bit over the speed limit or running a red light or simply watching us without us knowing for what purpose and how the recorded data is being used. 

If the South had won the Civil War, perhaps we wouldn't have a police force armed with cameras that can "see" in your house despite the police having no warrant to "look" into your house.

If the South had won the Civil War, perhaps we wouldn't have a giant blimp in the sky watching our every move with a second giant blimp planned to be launched.

And that is why the owners of the eight acres of land on the southern tip of Dorchester County, MD have retired the American flag and seceded from the Union.  Their move is only symbolic, but an important symbolic move.  Every landowner should plaster the nation coast to coast with the Confederate flag as a reminder to the folks in DC and our folks in our state and local governments that the people are here to be served and not ruled. 

State's rights and, by default, local identity is what our Confederate soldiers fought for - honorably - over a hundred and fifty years ago. 

Do we really want to declare the Civil War over and allow the folks in DC to dictate national standards, allow national/international corporations to dictate the face of our landscapes with their cloned shopping centers and dictate our buying habits - and through their combined efforts, allow us all to be molded into the Stepford Citizen?


For the TL;DR folks:
If you bought into the lie that the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism, you missed the fact that our treatment of minorities, particularly Black citizens, has always been and is currently abominable and has been executed under the American flag - not the Confederate flag.  It's time to put a stop to a strong, centralized government in DC whose influence has permeated into our state and local government's mode of operation.

Related Links:
A month's journey circles back to the Talbot County Commisioners
Maybe Union soldiers aren't welcomed in Talbot County
Maybe Union soldiers aren't welcomed in Talbot County
Why did the NAACP let the Yankees die?
On the road to irrelevancy
NAACP and Mr. Potter fighting to tear down the Vietnam War Memorial
Only time will reveal the true motives of Talbot Boys detractors
Final thoughts on the Talbot Boys
No to trash-talking our veterans
The Great Confederate Purge of 2015
The insolence of youth
An open letter to Talbot County
Letter to the House in SC
The cultural cleansing

For your listening pleasure:
Elvis is the only performer I know who combined all three songs from the North, South, and Neutral states into one inspiring medley.  There are others, but Elvis performed the most musically inspiring version.  Glen Campbell came close, but the piccolo solo in Elvis' version won this spot.

Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks