SCV Urges President Obama to Send Wreath to Arlington Monument May 23, 2009
For Immediate Release:
The Sons of Confederate Veterans urge President Obama to continue the long standing tradition of sending a wreath to the Confederate Monument in Arlington Cemetery. This tradition began with President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 when he spoke at the dedication of the monument and should be continued as it is an important part of the civic and memorial life of the nation.
There has recently been a letter circulated urging President Obama to forgo the practice of sending a wreath to the monument in Arlington. That letter is filled with false conjectures and absolute lies about the history of the Confederacy and the remembrance of it in our nation. It is signed by supposed “academics and scholars”. Two of the signers of this letter are Bill Ayers and his wife, once members of the radical Weather Undergound who have admitted their part in conducting terrorist bombings against the police and government facilities of the United States. Furthermore others that signed this letter are avowed Marxists who are enemies of the American way of life.
Beside long standing tradition, President Obama should send a wreath to the Confederate Monument at Arlington Cemetery because all Confederate Veterans have the status as American Veterans as well.
Several acts of Congress, which are listed below, have defined Veterans of the Confederate States of America as Veterans of the United States due the same benefits and honors as any other American Veteran.
End Release
On Background:
Organizational Contacts:
Commander in Chief Chuck McMichael 318-963-9892
Lt. Commander in Chief Michael Givens 843-252-1860
Chief of Staff Chuck Rand 318-387-3791
Head of Public Relations Jeff Davis 770 297-4788
Three of the laws referenced in the release:
P.L. 38, 59th Congress, Chap. 631-34 Stat. 56) U.S. Public Law 810, Approved by 17th Congress 26 February 1929(45 Stat 1307 - Currently on the books as 38 U.S. Code, Sec. 2306)
This law, passed by the U.S. Congress, authorized the “Secretary of War to erect headstones over the graves of soldiers who served in the Confederate Army and to direct him to preserve in the records of the War Department the names and places of burial of all soldiers for whom such headstones shall have been erected.”
U.S. Public Law 85-425: Sec. 410 Approved 23 May 1958(US Statutes at Large Volume 72, Part 1, Page 133-134)
The Administrator shall pay to each person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War a monthly pension in the same amounts and subject to the same conditions as would have been applicable to such person under the laws in effect on December 31, 1957, if his service in such forces had been service in the military or naval forces of the United States.
U.S. Code Title 38 - Veterans’ Benefits, Part II -
General Benefits, Chapter 15 - Pension for Non-Service-Connected Disability or Death or for Service, Subchapter I - General, § 1501. Definitions: (3) The term “Civil War veteran” includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term “active military or naval service” includes active service in those forces. Posted by Chuck Rand at 8:11 PM
Well the SCV certainly is free to do what they want the same as SHAPE. As I have said before neither Obama nor any of the scholars who signed have earned the right to lick the mud off my Confederate ancestors boot. I don't need these people to tell me I should be proud of their effort for one day and they the next day tell me they were traitors. To see the SCV cave in to these people is just one more reason why I am not a member. Just my POV.
As predicted back on May 20th, the SCV released a statement urging President Obama to send wreath to the Confederate Arlington Monument. One has to beleive they did this as looking at the over-all big picture. The wreath reprsents the American people as a nation, paying honor to our ancestors. The current president we all have issues with but there are things he must do as Commander-in-Chief that are greater than himself. If he refuses to honor ALL of the American fighting men, on this National Day of Rememberance, he is not doing his job.
One can only "hope" this is the reason for the SCV position on this issue.
i hope this is worded correctly. after reading the post on the issues of the letter sent to obama it seems to me that the scv is being blamed for not doing enough. should we fault other southerners for any effort in preserving our heritage and wanting the confederate soldier to be honored. kinda like brother against brother all over again. i spoke with the scv commander in chief yesterday at a confederate memorial in keachi, la. he informed me that more is being done than meets the eye about the incident with the council member removing of the confederate flags in the cemetary. the letter written to obama is to make sure that the confederate soldiers are honored as they damn well should be. the way i see it is that wether obama or anyone else dont want a wreath layed at the monument it should be done and let the oppresive people deal with it. it is a slap in the face to them who dont want it done. this is just my thoughts on this and is not intended to offend anyone.
It all depends upon what considers "doing enough" for (y)our ancestors. Is begging recognition from the illegitimate federal tyrant and his government doing something for your ancestors? I certainly don't think so and the letter I crafted and you posted says that quite clearly.
On the other hand, for those who are still held in the "thrall" of the understanding that "federal recognition" is necessary to validate you and your heritage, I can understand why they would see my "take" on the situation in an entirely different light.
I will be posting on another thread, a letter received by Chuck Demastus newsletter Southern Heritage News and Views which speaks very strongly against my sentiments. I will also be posting a letter that I sent to this person in response along with a cc to Demastus and this George. I think that you will understand the differing viewpoints here. Unfortunately, the person who wrote the original letter was certainly not very generous in her comments given that one supposes she thought that the person with whom she disagreed was a champion of the South. It would be better if, agree or disagree, we had the good manners to treat each other decently - but that may be too much to ask. Yankee influence, I guess.
Obama will not discontinue the long tradition of sending a wreath to Arlington Cemetery's Confederate Memorial on Decoration Day, despite a petition from Marxist historians and other Lincolnites. Leaving aside the fact that Arlington is the illegally confiscated family farm of non-slave holder Robert E. Lee, it does seems appropriate to honor Americans who died fighting the invaders of their country.
Obama will not discontinue the long tradition of sending a wreath to Arlington Cemetery's Confederate Memorial on Decoration Day, despite a petition from Marxist historians and other Lincolnites. Leaving aside the fact that Arlington is the illegally confiscated family farm of non-slave holder Robert E. Lee, it does seems appropriate to honor Americans who died fighting the invaders of their country.
i hope this is worded correctly. after reading the post on the issues of the letter sent to obama it seems to me that the scv is being blamed for not doing enough. should we fault other southerners for any effort in preserving our heritage and wanting the confederate soldier to be honored. kinda like brother against brother all over again. i spoke with the scv commander in chief yesterday at a confederate memorial in keachi, la. he informed me that more is being done than meets the eye about the incident with the council member removing of the confederate flags in the cemetary. the letter written to obama is to make sure that the confederate soldiers are honored as they damn well should be. the way i see it is that wether obama or anyone else dont want a wreath layed at the monument it should be done and let the oppresive people deal with it. it is a slap in the face to them who dont want it done. this is just my thoughts on this and is not intended to offend anyone.
Gator,
Obama has taken the United States to a new low with his policies and actions. He represents everything that the Southern soldier was fighting against. His big hero is Lincoln. No do we really need this sort of fellow honoring our ancestors? I think not.
Why not just for once give it back to the liberal Marxist who are ruining this country and tell them just because Obama is president doesn't mean he has earned the right to honor a veteran of any period. Remember he want all vets and active duty men to provide their own insurance in case they were wounded? Should I die tomorrow, and if Obama was to want to attend the funeral, I had rather be left out for the buzzards than have him there. . I think it is disgraceful for the SCV to beg Obama to lay a wreath that should be automatic from the United States. That is what the letter is all about --- he has not earned the right.
Now for the SCV, UDC, SHAPE or any other group, we can and should do more know your SCV camp is active, but look at the camp over here by me, they do little or nothing. That is the reason I am not a member.
I am posting this becauee it relates to memorial Day and vets.
GP
Subject: OBAMA IS SURPRISED VETS DON'T WANT TO PAY THEIR OWN MEDICAL
OBAMA IS SURPRISED VETS DON'T WANT TO PAY THEIR OWN MEDICAL HERE is Obama's RESPONSE WHEN HE BACKED OFF FROM HIS DECISION TO LET THE MILITARY PAY FOR THEIR WAR INJURIES........ Bad press, including major mockery of the plan by comedian Jon Stewart, led to President Obama abandoning his proposal to require veterans carry private health insurance to cover the estimated $540 million annual cost to the federal government of treatment for injuries to military personnel received during their tours on active duty. The President admitted that he was puzzled by the magnitude of the opposition to his proposal. "Look, it's an all volunteer force," Obama complained. "Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice ? It doesn't compute.." "I thought these were people who were proud to sacrifice for their country," Obama continued. "I wasn't asking for blood, just money. With the country facing the worst financial crisis in its history, I'd have thought that the patriotic thing to do would be to try to help reduce the nation's deficit. I guess I underestimated the selfishness of some of my fellow Americans." I guess OBAMA just doesn't get it that the American people love and appreciate our military guys and gals who lay their lives on the line so we can lay our heads down at night in peace. That's because he is not an AMERICAN at heart. That much is obvious. Why in the world people voted for him I'll never know, but we all will surely pay the price and rue the day that he took office. America is getting change but not the change they were looking to get. - - -Surely this indicates the naivity or insensitivity or ignorance of Ø. He is willing to give free med and other services to illegals but not to the military. This tells more than all his speaches.
Frankly, Obama is a symptom, the end of a long line of losers in the White House with the occasional pearl among the swine. Starting with Lincoln and going on down the line, President after President has taken this nation further and further away from the founding principles. Even Teddy Roosevelt, whom I had admired has been rightly identified as the first "progressive" President. Roosevelt believed that it wasn't enough that money was earned honestly - it had to be "fair" too. That meant that you couldn't have too much if your neighbor had too little - even if you worked your butt off and your neighbor sat on his all day! Wilson permitted the Federal Reserve and himself bemoaned the fact that he had destroyed America in the process. Then there was the other Roosevelt whose administration had almost as many commies as Stalin's government. Truman was a good man, a man of the people who had the cojones to drop the bomb and spare countless hundreds of thousands of American (and Japanese) lives. Eisenhower is also undervalued. He spoke out against the "military industrial complex" that has had far too much influence over the years. Kennedy was terrible. Like Lincoln, only his death has spared his memory. Nixon was an admitted "big government conservative" which is like saying a square circle and, of course Jimmy Carter... well, we won't even go there. Reagan was a shining light in a gloomy scenario but even he had to let the Dems have their welfare spending in order to rebuild the military that Carter had virtually destroyed. And we won't go into the ones I mention in my letter on the other thread.
And while we're at it, the Congress and the Supreme Court are no better. The Congress under Lincoln was a rubber stamp - and worse and the Court hid its head up its butt just as Roberts and today's Court has done with the question of Obama's credentials. No wonder the "Chief (In)Justice" choked when he gave the Kenyan the oath of office. He should have been hit by lightning.
No, the whole damned thing is too corrupt for salvation and it's moving further and further into absolute tyranny. At least in Germany, the Weimar Republic was very young. Germany came from a monarchy and only had a republic for a short time. In the case of the United States, we had not quite 100 years before the institution of the federal tyranny.
One oif the worst ruling of of the Surpreme court was Chase's opinion on secession. That one ruling gave the feds a chance to make anyone disagreeing with them a target.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will send a wreath to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day, rebuffing a petition from academics urging him to cease the decades-old tradition.
The petition, organized by Dallas-based historian Edward Sebesta, says signers want to end glorification of the Civil War and recognize the Confederacy's links to slavery.
The tradition "legitimizes the Confederacy, so the loss of this wreath would convert this monument into a relic," Sebesta said.
Arlington National Cemetery confirmed Saturday that the Obama administration will send a wreath to the Confederate Memorial, among other monuments at the national burial ground, a tradition set by President Woodrow Wilson and continued by presidents since.
Sebesta, an editor of the book Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction, said the petition had 66 signatures when he sent it to the White House on Friday. White House officials did not confirm that they were aware of the petition.
Sebesta said that news of Obama's decision is "very disappointing" but that the president still had time to reconsider. Should Obama send a wreath this year, Sebesta said he will resubmit the petition next year, and he hopes to garner 500 signatures.
Among the signers are James McPherson, a prominent Civil War historian at Princeton University, and Bill Ayers, an education professor at the University of Illinois made famous by his involvement with the radical group the Weathermen in the 1960s.
Jane Durden, president general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy – the group that erected and maintains the monument – said the controversy over the wreath reflects a misunderstanding that the Civil War was a defense of slavery rather than a patriotic call to arms.
"I am not totally shocked and it's not just with Obama, but with a lot of the American public," Durden said. "This is a very controversial subject – we realize that. But all we ask is: I respect your views on things and I expect the same in return."
The potential symbolism of the nation's first black president withholding the wreath was not lost on the participating academics. Conversely, some, like Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights advocacy group, believe neo-Confederates will be invigorated if Obama doesn't break with history.
"Should Obama send the wreath, it very likely would give a kind of shot in the arm to the neo-Confederate movements," Potok said.
Kirk Savage, an art history professor at the University of Pittsburgh who wrote a column in The Washington Post on the issue, said he never expected Obama to buck the trend.
"It would be a really big statement not to," Savage said. "It's one thing to start a tradition and it's another thing to stop it."
Two things: first, Chase made that decision AFTER the War of Secession when he was Chief Justice. He was also a member of the Lincoln administration during the war, so what do you expect. However, Chase ALSO said:
"If you bring these leaders to trial, it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution, secession is not rebellion. His (Jefferson Davis) capture was a mistake. His trial will be a greater one. We cannot convict him of treason." Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice 1867
As for the original thread: someone with the proper credentials must take this "petition" and study it closely, refuting the bad scholarship and making points on our side. This whole thing can then be published with some REAL history contained therein. It's a real opportunity if we can find academics on our side who are willing to do the work. It's pointless having no-names like myself. Why should anyone believe me? We have such people but now they have to "step up to the plate" as they say.
"This whole thing can then be published with some REAL history contained therein. It's a real opportunity if we can find academics on our side who are willing to do the work. It's pointless having no-names like myself. Why should anyone believe me? We have such people but now they have to "step up to the plate" as they say."
Exactly and that is the project I want to get started. We do not need any scholars to researchactual fact we can find it ourselves. We need someone willing to step forward and take charge of this projject. Anyone willing ???
Why should anyone not believe you if they can't prove you wrong?
Obama heads to Arlington cemetery for Memorial Day
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama sought to dodge racial controversy on Memorial Day, sending wreaths to a monument for Confederate soldiers and other flowers to a memorial honoring more than 200,000 African-Americans who fought for the Union during the Civil War. Obama, the nation's first black president, planned to continue tradition and have aides leave a wreath at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, the 600-acre site that once was Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's estate. But the White House also will send a wreath to the AfricanAmerican Civil War Memorial in Washington's historically black U Street neighborhood.
Presidents traditionally visit Arlington to personally leave a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a marble structure housing the remains of unidentified U.S. military members who died during war. Presidents then have aides deliver wreaths to other memorials or monuments, generally including the Confederate memorial.
But a group of about 60 professors last week sent a petition to the White House asking Obama to avoid a memorial for Confederate military members who died during the war between the North and the South.
"The Arlington Confederate Monument is a denial of the wrong committed against African-Americans by slave owners, Confederates and neo-Confederates, through the monument's denial of slavery as the cause of secession and its holding up of Confederates as heroes," the petition said. "This implies that the humanity of Africans and African-Americans is of no significance."
Among the professors who signed the letter is 1960s radical William Ayers, a University of Chicago education professor who helped found the radical group the Weather Underground that carried out bombings at the Pentagon and the Capitol. Republicans tried to link Obama with Ayers during the presidential campaign; the two lived in the same neighborhood and served on a charity board together.
The African American Civil War Memorial had been discussed as a compromise in recent days.
"President Obama, why not send two wreaths?" Kirk Savage, an art history professor at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post. "One to the Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery and another to the African American Civil War Memorial in the District, which commemorates the 200,000 black soldiers who fought for liberation from slavery in the Union armed forces."
The White House hoped to sidestep the distraction and spend Obama's first Memorial Day as president speaking in honor of the nation's veterans and their families. He scheduled a private breakfast at the White House with family members who had lost loved ones in war.
In person, Obama planned to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and then speak about the nation's military members who died in battle.
"This is not only a time for celebration, it is also a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world," Obama said during his weekly radio and Internet address ahead of the holiday.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, have made veterans and military families a priority during his young administration. Obama's budget proposed the largest single-year funding increase in the last three decades to revamp the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Our fighting men and women — and the military families who love them — embody what is best in America. And we have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us," Obama said during his radio address.
"And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve. That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear — and all who have worn — the proud uniform of our country."
The president also plans to send flowers to the USS Maine Memorial and the Spanish American War Memorial.
Obama sidestepped a controversy? He dodged actually having to take a position.... again! Obama Marks Memorial Day at Arlington, Sidesteps Racial Controversy Over Confederate Monument ABC News' Karen Travers reports: President Obama honored America’s fallen servicemembers at Arlington National Cemetery this morning and said that the men and women who choose to serve their country are the “best of America.”
But he did not make reference to his decision to send a wreath to the Confederate Monument at the cemetery, despite an appeal for him to end the presidential tradition dating back to Woodrow Wilson.
As a compromise, Obama sent a wreath to a monument honoring African-American soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
Also I strongly suggest we tone it down a little. We are not here to judge or critique other Southern Heritage Groups such as the SCV and UDC. Not saying this for any reason other than I think it’s the right thing to do. I personally believe, and I am not trying to carry water for either, without the SCV and UDC and their accomplishments both past and present we would all be in a world of hurt.
