Monument says more about today than yesterday



Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Nice title. However, this person doesn’t seem to understand what remembrance
and pride are all about:

On June 14, 2005, I was meandering along back roads near an imaginary line
that separates West Texas from East Texas, past Cross Plains and Rising Star.
This is lovely country with green hills that grow progressively more forested
as you travel east. Gradually the land and the culture become more Southern
than Southwestern.

A few miles past Sipe Springs, on a very rural road, I stopped at a gravel
pullout where a Confederate flag was flying on a tall flagpole. Near the road
was a four-sided stone pyramid, 10 or 11 feet tall, with a small cannonball
on top, painted black. On the side of the pyramid was a large bronze plaque
with this inscription:

“Following the war between the states (1861-1865) many Confederate veterans
who had so faithfully fought to defend their homes and country against the ravaging
yankee invaders found little left on their return and set out for a new life
in Texas. During the 1870’s these courageous pioneers settled northwest
Comanche County. These veterans established farms, schools and churches and
brought the blessings of Anglo-Saxon civilization to the frontier. To the honor
and memory of these brave patriots this memorial is dedicated by their grateful
descendents on the 3rd day of June, A.D. 2005, at Sipe Springs.”

He makes three observations about the monument:

“Ravaging yankee invaders:” A deep sense of grievance persists.

Yes, people don’t like to be invaded. And they tend to remember things
like that. Call it human nature.

“Blessings of Anglo-Saxon civilization:” The sense of exclusion
is unmistakable.

Every people has the right to exist, and to continue their heritage into the
future. Carrying on a cultural heritage means loving and perpetuating those
things that make us what we are, and rejecting those things that diminish our
uniqueness. An intimate underestanding of one’s role in the story of one’s
people gives meaning and direction to our lives. Look, for example, at Israel.
Every year, the Israeli Defense Force and Israeli youth groups gather at Masada,
the site of a battle and mass suicide of the Jewish defenders against ravaging
Yankee Roman invaders 2,000 years ago. Today, those cultural heroes are honored
by modern-day Jews who swear that “Masada shall never fall again.”
Now, if the Zealots who resisted Roman invasion had passively accepted conversion
into multicultural, polytheistic Roman subjects, Jewish faith and culture might
have vanished. Instead, they rejected the invitation. A culture that does not
exclude foreign invaders will die.

Finally— and this is the part that sent a mild shiver along my spine
_ this monument isn’t a relic from the past that was erected during, say,
the ‘60s, in reaction to forced integration. It had been dedicated less
than two weeks prior to my visit.

Yes. Southern pride is on the rise, and there’s a reason. The meaning
of “American” becomes more meaningless with every new Third-World
colony that Rome-on-the-Potomac imports. Southern heritage, on the other hand,
has a definite, powerful identity that has endured invasion, conquest, subjugation,
and relentless persecution. As multicultural decay erases the old “America,”
our Southern character becomes more distinct—and more vital. Get used
to it.

On The Web:
http://leagueofthesouth.net/rebellion/index.php/site/monument_says_more_about_today_than_yesterday/