A young man asked me why do they want to change the carving at Stone Mountain Park?
The question should also be why do some people continue to try erasing history? There is a petition drive to change the beautiful historic carving at Stone Mountain Memorial Park near Atlanta, Georgia? See link below of news story from 11 Alive of Atlanta, Georgia including their interview with me. A special thank you to Mr. Dan Coleman who participated in the debate that followed: http://www.11alive.com/news/article/290674/3/Petition-wants-Stone-Mt-Confederate-carving-removed
Read what I said including, “Like previous campaigns criticizing other Confederate Memorials, he sees the petition to remove the carving of Jefferson, Lee and Jackson as an attack on the truth.”
An online poll currently shows 95 percent of the people want to keep the Stone Mountain Carving of our heroes Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as it is.
Let me caution you with this poll that we also won most of the polls for the 1956 Georgia “Soldier’s Memorial flag” our official State flag of Georgia conceived by Judge John Sammons Bells that was unceremoniously taken down in 2001. They did not listen to the people of Georgia back then.
Mississippian’s however were allowed to vote on their 1890s State flag, that also includes the Confederate Battle flag in the design, and they chose to keep it. Georgian’s were allowed to vote on a State flag but their 1956 flag with the Confederate flag it its design, was excluded in the vote. Democracy was at work in Mississippi but not Georgia.
Stone Mountain has been filmed many times including in the 1954 movie “A Man called Peter” starring Richard Todd as Reverend Peter Marshall and Jean Peters as his wife.
Take the time to learn about the South’s President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson who died 150 years ago on May 10, 1863 and share with your family.
Jefferson and wife Varina Davis adopted a Black child, Jim Limber Davis, in February 1864 and…
Booker T. Washington, America’s great Black-American Educator wrote in 1910, 'The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson."
Let’s not erase history!
Read more about Confederate History and Heritage Month at: https://www.facebook.com/ConfederateHeritageMonth
Calvin E. Johnson, Jr.
Kennesaw, Ga.
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Revisionist historians are the bane to human existence. It is the epitome of political correctness run amok. The very idea that the Confederate States of America's only platform was the premise of slavery already shows you just how revised history has become.
Federal troops were sent south to enforce trade conditions with the North and to prevent secession from the Union. At the time, there was an equal amount of slavery and indentured workers North and South. Stone Mountain and it's grand sculpture is testament to an under-industrialized, poorly-armed but completely State's Rights oriented portion of our country. Stone Mountain memorializes the leadership of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson who organized what we now would consider a rabble into the most frustrating militia Federal troops had yet to encounter. Too much cotton, grain and liquor came from the southern states to allow secession and Washington decided to enforce it's will on a part of the country where a man was measured by his actions and not his rhetoric. To deface Stone Mountain in the name of political correctness would be heinous.
Revisionist historians have already changed the origin of the term "redneck." It is my understanding, originally, the South had few uniforms except for officers. Arms were furnished by volunteer soldiers using the same rifles they had used to hunt dinner all their lives. No butcher shops for the South and very few general stores. At the beginning of the War Between The States, Federal troops displayed the same lack of imagination as the "red coats" had dismally demonstrated in the American Revolutionary War. Southern men and boys, totally out numbered, used guerilla tactics to maintain a level playing field. And since there were no uniforms, the best marksmen and sharpshooters were given red bandanas to delineate their specialty. Ergo the term "redneck" came into existence. In later years, the term was used for other reasons, but it started in the South.
Political correctness has gone too far, from everyday life to Stone Mountain's possible defacement. The fact it took so many decades for the carvings to be completed demands it stand "as is, where is." It would not surprise me at all if Mount Rushmore was altered to make room for our current president, if only for the sake of political correctness. History is false if it can be changed on a whim.
And just in case you believe me to be a Southerner, you'd be wrong. Born and bred in St. Louis, educated in three universities in the "North," I have been made to feel welcome and a part of southern society since I migrated South. I have even been allowed to drop the "damn" from Yankee (after a period of 20-or-so years). Does this make me a sympathizer? On the contrary, it makes me a realist. Southern history is resplendent in firsts, origins and particularly manners. The Southern states are more than just the Stars-and-Bars. And for those Georgia legislators who are ashamed of their legacy and heritage, you are more to be pitied than scorned. Enough is enough. Leave Stone Mountain alone.
David D. Fihn
Hixson
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Adding to the thoughts of Messrs. Johnson and Fihn, a quote from General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell : "Illegitimati Non Carborundum". Albeit from a different era and different war, the quote does seem pertinent both to the cause and to the mountain itself.
Hutch Smith
Signal Mountain