When Will The War End?

From: jbwaring [mailto:jbwaring@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007

Dear Mr. Zimmerman:

My mother always told me that there are two sides to a story. One question I have to you is what Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting did you attend? To say that the Sons of Confederates Veterans down plays the South's role in it role in slavery is an out right lie. Robert E. Lee said that slavery was a moral evil. I am a proud member of the SCV and agree with Gen Lee's view of slavery as a moral evil. As far as the down play of segregation and Jim Crow laws is another misstatement about the SCV. I don't know a soul in the SCV who wants to return to Jim Crow Laws and is of the belief to keep a person of any race down. Blacks in America were done a great wrong but so were all Southerners black and white. For me to go over all the wrongs and crimes that the US Government has done the South it would take a large book.

I know HK Edgerton and consider him a friend. He speaks the truth and knows his history. He could run rings around most people on the subject of the South. If any school or civic group denies him to speak they are doing it because are afraid of a black man that has a higher intellect and fear the truths he has to offer.I would be proud to stand by his side in fighting bigots of any stripe. HK Edgerton knows the truth. He fought racial injustice when he was President of the Ashville chapter of the NAACP. He has fought all forms of bigotry his whole life. If the Confederate flag went away tomorrow it would not end racism. The anti Confederate flag issue started in most recent times by race card con artist who have demonize the CSA Flag for a cash cow. It is true that the KuKluxKlan flies the CSA flag at the disapproval of all decent Southerners. It is also true that the Klan flies the United States flag and the Christian flag. I don't see an outcry to ban those flags. It is the victorious North's version of history that has left out many true facts of the War Between to cover up their own crimes. It is not Southern ignorance which is the problem but Northern victors denial. It is irresponsible journalism that report half truths and spin the stories. Many journalist and reporters have their own political agenda. A few journalist today will lie to sell a story. They don't care who they hurt or the individual's life they destroy. When journalist take it upon themselves to be another branch of goverment they are violating there own mission. This war will not end until lies and distortions against all Southern people cease. The truth will set you free Mr. Zimmerman try it sometimes. You may find it more honorable.

Sincerely,

John B. Waring

In response to:

When Will the War End?

Sunday, Feb 18, 2007 - 07:16 PM

David Zimmerman

For one rural Floyd County high school it’s all about identity. Red, white, and blue is everywhere you look.

At Allen Central High School it’s all about the "stars and bars." The rebel flag is painted on the gym wall, on the gym floor, there are rebel flag shirts for sale at games, and it’s painted in the front hall of the school.

One student put it this way, “It’s just part of our heritage.”

But it’s not a topic Lorena Hall, the principal at Allen Central, wanted to talk about. She wouldn’t go on camera to talk to Action News 36 about her school’s controversy.

Superintendent Paul Fanning did talk about the subject. “There has been no racial intent to offend anyone."

Fanning has spent the better part of two months playing the role of mediator. Early in December, an opposing high school basketball coach from David Independent boycotted a game against the Rebels because of their flag.

David Principal Emma Kriz blames her coach for the controversy. His story has since changed. "My students all say they did not vote to boycott", said Kritz. After hate mail was sent to David students, the game was postponed, then rescheduled and played inside a closed gym, away from fans and the news media.

The Confederate battle flag controversy didn’t end with one game, or one school's symbols. African American Studies Director at the University of Kentucky Nikky Finney said, "This is southern history, but they don't say what else it is."

Finney explains that much of the rebel flag, and its symbolism, is tied to the harshest racism directed toward African-Americans in the south. When she recalls her upbringing in South Carolina, "violence, hatred, separation" are the words that come to mind. "The Confederate flag is behind every, or most, of the division and hatred between blacks and whites in the south."

Allen Central High School principal Loren Hall did ask a group to come to her school to discuss the issues of the flag, and its southern roots.

The president of a group called Southern Heritage 411 spoke with Action News 36, and called slavery a positive event in our country's history. H.K. Edgerton is an African-American. Edgerton was accompanied by “Sons of Confederate Veterans,” a pro-Confederacy organization who glorifies the Civil War, and downplays southern involvement in the harsh treatment of African-Americans throughout the Jim Crow South.

Hall turned away these groups at the last moment, because she would have been forced to let a civil rights activist from Louisville address her student body as well.