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PatchWork by Joyce Whitis |
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PatchWork by Joyce Whitis |
“You think those folks over there in South Carolina are having a bad time
trying to take down that flag. Well, you just
wait ‘till they start messin’ with Texas!” Made me want to jump straight up
and try out my best Rebel yell. I’d like
to explain to all those people out marching and making speeches that the way to get
somebody to do something is not by using force. This
fact is especially true here in Texas where nobody tells anybody else what to do. What those who want the flag to come down
ought to do, is act like they don’t see it. Then,
if nobody cared whether it was flying or not, why then it would be hauled down faster than
a barefooted race through a grassburr patch.
My friend, Katie Scarlett, gave me a copy of Lewis Grizzard’s masterpiece,
“Southern by the Grace of God.” Of
course I consider Grizzard’s other books masterpieces too, ‘specially the one
called, “Elvis is Dead and I Don’t Feel So Good Myself.” If you’ve missed his great paperback,
“Shoot Low Boys, They’re Riding Shetland Ponies”, you ought to grab it up
and set down for some heavy stuff. Well,
anyway, I’ve been reading “Southern” every day this week and the words have
helped lighten the burden of what appears to be a mass effort on the part of some. These folks want to remove every semblance of the
Confederacy from every building, park, school, wall, courthouse and everywhere else.
Just as there are those who are determined to erase history or else twist it into
unrecognizable shapes, there are those (including me) who are more determined to remember. We have a right to teach our children the
true history of that war, the causes that led up to it and the principals involved. This should not offend anybody.
Grizzard tells a true story illustrating the silliness this “offended”
trail has led us to. It seems that a auto
plant in Illinois asked its employees to come up with some suggestions for the cafeteria
cooks to offer more variety to the workers. So
the cafeteria people decided on some Southern cooking for one day. They picked the wrong day. The menu they picked for a Friday was the Friday
before the Monday that was the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
birthday. The cooks were planning to serve
barbecue ribs, black-eyed peas, grits, and collards.
Two black employees at the plant protested that such a meal just two days before
King’s birthday, was a stereo-typing of black dining habits. They threatened to boycott the meal so meatloaf
and egg rolls were served instead! Do you
realize what happened here? A boycott of
FOOD. Good Southern cooking has been eaten
by both blacks and whites for 200 years. Watch
out all you cooks. Don’t serve meatballs
and spaghetti on Columbus Day. The Godfather
just might make a call on you.
And another thing about this flag business, not that we haven’t way too much
all ready. If any flag that flew while there
was slavery going on should be taken down, let’s get the old Star Spangled Banner. George Washington had slaves as did General
Ulysses S. Grant. Yes, the same General Grant
who led the Yankees was also a slave holder who did not free his slaves until the 13th
amendment. When asked why he had slaves he
said, “Good help is so hard to come by.”
In the Southern camp was General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a distinguished
Confederate cavalryman who freed his slaves
before going off to war! He had both slaves
and freedmen fighting in his army and said of the black soldiers, “These boys stayed
with me and better Confederates did not live.”
As to the War Between the States, both sides had negroes free and slave fighting
for them. Dr. Walter Williams, nationally
syndicated columnist who happens to also be black, wrote in the Washington Times,
“Black civil rights activists and their white liberal supporters who are attacking
the Confederate flag have committed a deep, despicable dishonor to our patriotic black
ancestors who marched, fought and died to protect their homeland from what they saw as
Northern aggression.”
It is a wonderful coincidence that the last Civil War veteran to die was a one time
Confederate soldier also named Walter Williams. Williams
died in 1959 at his home in Houston. He was 117. The war had been over for 94 years.
But that’s not actually true. The
war has never been over because like a brush fire, some little spark keeps setting it off. A flag waves.
Someone takes offense. Erect a
monument. We don’t like it. Offer a piece of watermelon. He’s insulted.
There are some things Southerners didn’t surrender at Appromattox
Courthouse and among them are the right to sing, “Dixie” and the right to
remember and honor our ancestors by waving our flag.
This is our heritage.
One hundred and thirty-nine years ago today, Texans voted to ratify the Secession
Ordinance and join the Confederate States of America.
The Confederate flag is one of the six national flags that have flown over the
great state of Texas. The Confederacy is part
of our history. The Supreme Court Building in
Austin was constructed with funds left from the Confederate Widows fund and the plaques
inside are there because that building is a monument to the Confederate soldiers. Protest all you want, folks, but you can not
change history nor our southern heritage.