I would like to respond to Pastor David Epps' article [The Citizen Review, Jan. 28] concerning the Confederate flag. The article brought back some old memories to me.

It sounds as if Pastor Epps and I have a lot in common in our childhood experiences involving the flag of our ancestors who were citizens of the country of the Confederate States of America. Now that we have grown up, we are miles apart on the issue.

Pastor Epps is willing to cave in to a liberal press, a politically correct and history revisionist society. With 14 great- and great-great-grandfathers having served in the Confederate States armies, I'm not so easily swayed and will never be willing to trade off the honor and dignity of these men who shed their blood, and some buried on the battlefields where they fought and others in cemeteries of northern prison camps of the Great War of their day.

No, not to pacify the heathens of today who condemn them for self-serving reasons. I am even less ready to surrender the flags and other symbols of my Southern heritage to the KKK, neo-Nazis, skinheads or any other such obnoxious groups.

I also have seen the KKK marches and demonstrations by these groups. Yes, they were waving the Confederate flag along with the U.S. and Christian flags; some were even carrying Bibles. For some obvious reason, the TV cameras only focused on the Confederate flags.

If Pastor Epps is a fair man, I'm sure he would want to change or do away with the present U.S. and Christian flags. And then what do we do about the Bible?

Pastor Epps closed his article with a quote from Gen. Robert E. Lee and I will as well. In 1870, a few years after Lee made the statement Pastor Epps posted in his article, Lee made this statement concerning the inhumane treatment that Southern citizens received during reconstruction:

“If I had foreseen the use those people (Yankees) designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no, sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in this right hand.”

David E. Corley
Newnan
Georgia Commander, Col. Robert P. Taylor Chapter 245 Military Order Of The Stars and Bars

Back to Opinion Home Page | Back to the top of the page