Vanity Plates
From: Arleigh Birchler - abirchler16@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, Oct 21, 2010
Subject: Vanity Plates
To: “HK Edgerton” - hk.edgerton@gmail.com, “Stephen Jones” - xlingua@hotmail.com, “John Storms” - missipemudbug@yahoo.com, Mary Mac Motley - marymotley@charter.net, “Bill Konkle” - bkonkle@gmail.com
Mr Edgerton and others;
I have been following your discussion with interest. When I first read the phrase "vanity plates" I thought you were talking about the official North Carolina license plates with the Battle Flag emblem of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the kind that I have on my car. When I heard that the foreman of the roofing company removed the plate I realized that we were probably talking about one of the decorative plates that anyone can buy to put on the front of a vehicle. I must admit that when I see a car with one of those I usually wonder how much the driver actually knows about the Confederacy.
For several years I lived near the Confederate Cemetery located the furthermost North in the Nation. It is in Madison, Wisconsin. Each year I would take part in ceremony at both Confederate Rest and Union Rest on Memorial Day. The ceremony is always planned in such a manner as to honor all of those who are buried there from the many wars of our nation. I took issue with some local politicians who I supported fully, but who would leave before the ceremony at Confederate Rest. I found it very disrespectful.
We all need to learn more about our own history. I learned something new about North Carolina History earlier this Summer. While it was a new "fact" it fit with what I already knew. On July 4, 1863, the day after all of those deaths of men from North Carolina who made that one mile march from Seminary Ridge to Cemetery Ridge a large rally was held at the courthouse of a county in the Uwharries. The group listened to patriotic speeches and sang patriotic songs. There was something different, however. The flag they ran up the courthouse flagpole that morning and flew all day was the Union flag.
This should not surprise anyone. Much of he Uwharrie region is near a thousand foot elevation. The Confederacy generally only existed below a thousand feet in the Coastal Plains or along the Mississippi and Missouri River. Mountain folks were mostly pro-Union and anti-Confederacy. Zebulon Vance was no exception. He did his duty for the Confederacy, but he politically opposed virtually everything Jefferson Davis did.
We live in a complex world that is never a simple matter of black and white (neither in regard to race or the color of printed words on a page of paper.) There has never been, and never will be, a "Solid South." States are not Red or Blue. Every group of people consists of a varied mix with folks favoring very different agendas. I had two ancestors who were neighbors, in-laws, and friends living in Southwest Virginia just before, and in the events leading up to, the Revolution. One was a staunch Whig and is honored by the Sons of the American Revolution. The other was a staunch Tory. He spoke out proudly in defense of the King of England in a community of revolutionaries. Many of his neighbors marched down to Kings Mountain. One of them became a General in the Army. After the Revolution the General personally protected the staunch Tory against political persecution.
A couple of years ago I traveled to Kansas City to take part in a Daughters of the American Revolution ceremony to honor the wife of my Tory ancestor. Any of her descendants, and therefore the descendants of this staunch Tory, are eligible for membership in either the Sons or the Daughters of the American Revolution. The families of both the Whig and the Tory remained close friends, traveling first to Tennessee and then to Missouri together. Many of their children married each other, further strengthening the ties between the two families. Descendants of both men fought for the Confederacy.
My wife and I have stood proudly with others wearing our Confederate re-enactor uniforms to protest against rallies held by the Ku Klux Klan at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg. The KKK's attempt to claim the legacy of the proud Confederate Soldiers from North Carolina who died on those fields dishonor the men buried there. Those who are proud of their Southern ancestors need to do everything they can to oppose those who would tarnish our fallen heros memory by attempting to use their image in support of any twenty-first century political or social ideology of hatred and divisiveness.
Arleigh Birchler
McGee Crossroads
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