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Odessa, Texas – December 13, 2007



Thursday morning, December 13,2007, along with Mr.Mark Wilkins , I would
arrive at a local radio station in Odessa, Texas, whereby I would be
interviewed by two very nice men, one of whom just happened to be a Yankee
from Ohio. However, he made it very clear that his family had come to
America long after the unpleasantness of the War Between the States, and
furthermore, after studying the events before, during and after the war; his
sympathies were for the South, because she, and her people appeared to have
been wronged from nearly every venue.(please forgive me for not having the
call letters of the station, I am writting this report without my notes)

Nearly every listener that would call into the station on this day, would
thank the two men for having me on their program, and thank me for taking a
position to present to a nation another side of a story that is not told
about an honorable people who had made a courageous stand against the
insurmountable odds and forces that would be brought against them; aided in
kind by an Indian Nation who broke the treaty with the Federal Government in
the North to be at their side, and most importantly a man who they not only
called slave, but family and friend stood fast also beside him as train
cadre of slaves on plantations all across the South, made the implements of
war( from gunpowder to gun to garment ), served as cooks, bridge builders,
sailors, body servants and many , many other capacities, with unwavering
loyalty. The saddness for me, I would tell those listeners, is the twelve
year period of (Negro Rule)Reconstruction; a time when the Jessee Jackson
and Al Sharpton’s of the day were used against Southern White folks, and
loyal Blacks had to pay the price for what they would do, as the relations
and love they had formed between each other was slowly strained and far too
many instances put asunder as the Union League ran rampant forcing honorable
Blacks to commit shameless acts from the house to the polls that we in our
lack of knowledge are still paying the price for. It was my hopes, I would
tell them, that on this day, White folks of the South would find forgiveness
in their hearts for all that wrong, and look to the piles upon piles of
honor that folks who look like me had earned alongside them in the body
politic of the South, and that Black folks would look to their ancestors and
find the peace and love that they found for a man they called master,a man
who would have and was ready and looking for ways to do right by him, had
they both been just left alone.

Alongside Mr.Wilkins, I would later carry this very same message to the
Midland School, where I and Mr.Wilkins would speak to the 6th and 12th grade
classes and be asked by the History teacher to come back after lunch to
speak to another group of his students. Later in the afternoon, alongside
several of my brothers in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a local
newspaperman and his photographer who I would lovingly chide as we made a
march into dowtown Midland to the Midland where I would speak later in the
evening; for not taking pictures of the hugs I was receiving from the Black
folks along the way, especially from an elderly Black lady in a gas station,
who expressed her pride in me for having the courage to speak out for a man
that history had written off. I must say that I had to sustain myself
somewhat, for the young reporter had pushed the button many times in his
questioning of me, that would lead me to believe that another South bashing
story would appear in the paper the next day. Arriving at the Midland
Center, I would hold another press conference , greet the wonderful officers
of the law and public who had gathered to includ the beautiful UDC President
who would join us.

That evening I would deliver a speech to some very kind people who had
gathered to here me speak of the love for my Southland , and the honor and
dignity that a man who looked like me had earned in defense her during a
very troubling time for this nation, and the hope that she and her people
someday would find retribution from a national wrong.

Commander Krevit would later present me with the Texas Republic Flag that
had flown over the Midland Center when I arrived. I would return to my hotel
suite, and cry in the confines of my thoughts. I had spoke of it, tried to
describe it, but unquestionably had found the love that exsisted between a
man’s son and daughter that had been bestowed upon my Great, Great
Grandmother Hattie.

HK