To the Editor:

We take issue with the title of a recent article, “Local Confederate Monuments Still Standing.” By the author using the word, ”still,” it gives an odd impression. “Still standing,” as in you prefer them not to be? “Still standing,” as these few remaining are what’s left to be taken down? What is meant by this statement?

Recent events have created a rapid movement to seek removal of anything Confederate. We are appalled by such suggestions and would like to share excerpts from an article by Chuck Baldwin* that correctly summarizes how many of us feel:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that what we see happening in the United States today is an apt illustration of why the Confederate flag was raised in the first place. What we see materializing before our very eyes is tyranny: tyranny over the freedom of expression, tyranny over the freedom of association, tyranny over the freedom of speech, and tyranny over the freedom of conscience.

“History revisionists flooded America’s public schools with Northern propaganda about the people who attempted to secede from the United States, characterizing them as racists, extremists, radicals, hatemongers, traitors, etc. You know, the same way that people in our federal government and news media attempt to characterize Christians, patriots, war veterans, constitutionalists, et al. today.

“The only people in 1861 who believed that states did NOT have the right to secede were Abraham Lincoln and his radical Republicans. To say that southern states did not have the right to secede from the United States is to say that the thirteen colonies did not have the right to secede from Great Britain. One cannot be right and the other wrong. If one is right, both are right. How can we celebrate our Declaration of Independence in 1776 and then turn around and condemn the Declaration of Independence of the Confederacy in 1861?

“People say constantly that Lincoln “saved” the Union. Lincoln didn’t save the Union; he subjugated the Union. There is a huge difference. A union that is not voluntary is not a union. Does a man have a right to force a woman to marry him or to force a woman to stay married to him? In the eyes of God, a union of husband and wife is far superior to a union of states. If God recognizes the right of husbands and wives to separate (and He does), to try and suggest that states do not have the right to lawfully (under Natural and divine right) separate is the most preposterous proposition imaginable.

“Why don’t our history books and news media tell the American people the truth about Lincoln and about the War Between the States? It’s simple: if people would study the meanings and history of the flag, symbols, and statues of the Confederacy and Confederate leaders, they might begin to awaken to the tyrannical policies of Washington, D.C., that precluded southern independence — policies that have only escalated since the defeat of the Confederacy — and they might have a notion to again resist.

“Look at what is happening now: in one instant — after one deranged young man killed nine black people and who ostensibly photo-shopped a picture of himself with a Confederate flag — the entire political and media establishments in the country go on an all-out crusade to remove all semblances of the Confederacy. The speed in which all of this has happened suggests that this was a planned, orchestrated event by the Powers That Be (PTB). And is it a mere coincidence that this took place at the exact same time that the U.S. Supreme Court decided to legalize same-sex marriage? I think not.

“Combine the current attacks against Biblical and traditional marriage, the attacks against all things Confederate, the attacks against all things Christian, and the attacks against all things constitutional and what we are witnessing is a heightened example of why the Confederate Battle Flag was created to begin with. Virtually every act of federal usurpation of liberty that we are witnessing today, and have been witnessing for much of the twentieth century, is the result of Lincoln’s war against the South. Truly, we are living in Lincoln’s America, not Washington and Jefferson’s America. Washington and Jefferson’s America died at Appomattox Court House in 1865.

“Instead of lowering the Confederate flag, we should be raising it.”

Like mentioned, I did not write this article, though fully concur as many of my family and friends in the community do as well. We would add that instead of looking to remove any Confederate monuments we should look to educate others on why they were put there to begin with.

Jonathan Varnell
Franklin

•Article referenced, “The Confederate Flag Needs To Be Raised, Not Lowered” Published Thursday, July 9, 2015: http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3336/The-Confederate-Flag-Needs-To-Be-Raised-Not-Lowered.aspx