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An Open Letter & Open Report / Stubee for Congress / Hunley Awards / Lakeland / Pepin Academy
APRIL 9, 2018
Stubee for Congress / Hunley Awards / Lakeland / Pepin Academy
Miss Lunelle,
I was honored to attend alongside yourself and the Honorable attorney, David McCallister, the meet and greet for the Honorable Greg Stubee for Congress affair
on Thursday, April 5, 2018. I believe his wife was as impressive as was he, and I wish him success in his run for U.S. Congress.
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FL Sen. Steube at Campaign Event
I would meet Ms. Ann K. Bouchard, Ed.S Director of Pepin Academies – Brandon Campus, at the aforementioned event, and be asked to speak to her students at Pepin at a
living history class event.On Friday morning, April 6, 2018, Attorney McCallister and I would attend the ROTC Awards Ceremony at Hillsborough High School in Tampa as presenters. Mr.
McCallister would award the Sons of Union Veterans Award, and I would present the Sons of Confederate Veterans CSS Hunley Award.Later that evening of April 6, alongside yourself, we would attend the Festival in the Park event in Lakeland, Florida, where the Cenotaph of the Confederate soldier
now finds itself on the chopping blocks by a city council who refuses to adhere to the wishes of the majority of its constituents to leave it in place.We would pass out a fact sheet that gave a complete history of the Cenotaph that included that Attorney General Park Trammel of Lakeland (son of Lakeland’s 1st Mayor),
who became a Florida Governor, dedicated the Cenotaph to the sacred memory of our gallant dead and, furthermore, the South and North, as a reunited people are one
Country, and under one flag.On every occasion that I have entered Munn Park, and had the opportunity to speak to the many citizens and visitors of the city gathered and sitting about, all have
spoken quite fervently about keeping the monument where it is. And while you and several dedicated men tried to post the street signs that read “I Love the Munn Park Monument,”
don in the uniform of the Southern soldier, I would make my way through the streets with the Southern Cross in hand, stopping briefly to pose for many a picture, or to
hand out a history lesson, and the reason why I came as I did.Among those who would stop me was a young man who exited a vendor’s tent of the NAACP. He was surprisingly friendly and cordial. However, I did lay some education
on him, to include the tragic fact that his organization was no better than the carpetbaggers who came South during reconstruction with the intent to divide Southern
Blacks and Southern Whites with their message of hate and lies in order to fill their personal and organizational coffers. He would refuse my business card, but took it
like a decent Southern man as I laid it on him.
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At “First Friday” in Lakeland with NAACP Official
I was somewhat disheartened when Lakeland’s finest told you that we had to remove our signs from Munn Park because those in charge of the event complained that we did
not have a vendors permit for the festival. The officers who brought the message did say that myself and the gentleman who carried the 1st National flag could remain, but
we left as well. However, on Saturday morning of the next day, Mr. McCallister’s men would surround the city with the beautiful signs that touted, “I Love the Munn Park
Monument!”On Sunday morning, April 8, 2018, alongside Commander McCallister and several members of the Judah P. Benjamin Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp, in
recognition of the upcoming Confederate Memorial Day, we would post the Southern Cross on the graves of our fallen soldiers in Oaklawn and Woodlawn cemeteries.On Monday morning, April 9, 2018, don in the uniform of the Southern soldier, I would accept the invitation of Ms. Bouchard and speak to my babies at Pepin Academy
in Brandon, Florida. I was almost brought to tears as I listened to the applause given to me and the standing ovation I received as I ended my presentation with a
rendition of Dr. Michael Bradley’s (past Commander of the Tennessee Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans) poem titled…”I Am Their Flag “! God bless you!Your brother,
HKHonorary Member
Longstreet Zolifer Camp
Sons of Confederate Veterans