Warner Todd Huston, "Breitbart," pro-Confederate writings to appeal to banal white nationalism.

UPDATED 2/16/2017 Editing mostly. I am not going to change the title, but I think that the appeal to white nationalism isn't so "banal" but is more open.

Recently the city of Charlottesville, VA has voted to remove the Robert E. Lee statue from downtown by a vote of 3 to 2. The following is an article about it.

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2017/feb/10/charlottesville-votes-remove-lee-statue/

Warner Todd Huston writing for Breitbart has had two articles on the story.

The first is here:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/07/virginia-city-removes-nearly-100-year-old-statue-confederate-general-robert-e-lee/

The title is "Virginia city removes nearly 100-year-old statue of Robert E. Lee."

It is a report on the events except at the conclusion of the article when Huston makes essentially an editorial comment:

"Whitewashing Confederate history is ingoing effort for cities throughout those areas where civil war battles were waged 150 years ago."[Term "ingoing" in the original.]

This statement doesn't make sense. The term "whitewashing" means "to gloss over or cover up" something bad. Keeping the statue of Robert E. Lee representing Lee as a hero rather as a negative figure in history who was a racist and fought for slavery and white supremacy is whitewashing. Removing the statue is putting an end to whitewashing.

It might be argued that Huston was complaining that the statues being removed across the South weren't being re-located into museums or history exhibits showing how at one time the cities in which they original stood to show how white supremacy dominated these cities understanding of the Civil War. If so he does not state this or indicate this.

Perhaps Huston meant to say that history was being erased across the South. However, monuments are erected to literally monumentally endorse an individual and set of values. History is learned by reading the historical record and otherwise using other historical sources such as video instruction or reading material in the archive, or visiting museums which have an accurate and contextual explanation of artifacts and records.

A lot of people bring up terms like "erasing" or "whitewashing" history to pose as high minded defenders of history and avoid representing themselves as who they really are, that is defenders of the Confederacy and possessing a sort of instinctual white nationalism. This may explain why the title emphasizes the age of the statue to make the statue a historical object to be defended.

Of course I don't know what motivates Huston and this could merely be a badly thought out article. In the beginning of the article however Huston refers to Lee as "the Confederate hero" instead of referring to "the Confederate general" or "the Confederate leader" which would be a value neutral reference. So this would rule out that Huston is complaining that the statues need to be re-located and contextualized as showing how white supremacy once dominated Charlottesville. It suggests that Huston meant "erased."

Huston's 2nd article referring to the statue removal is:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/11/after-vote-to-eliminate-confederate-statues-city-decrees-liberation-and-freedom-day/

The title is, "After vote to eliminate Confederate statues, city decrees 'Liberation and Freedom Day.'"

The article suggests opposition to the Robert E. Lee statue as being driven by "Black Lives Matter ideology" and persons who are opponents of Pres. Trump.  Breitbart elsewhere has suggested that the Black Lives Matter movement is a terrorist movement.

Huston writes;

"During the discussion, some residents said the election of Donald Trump proves racism is alive and well and that the city needs to "transform" its history to conform to a Black Lives Matter ideology." 

Opponents to a Robert E. Lee statue are likely not to be supporters of Pres. Trump and probably are supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement or at least sympathetic to it. It is very likely indeed that as Huston wrote "some residents" said these things. However, there has been opposition to Confederate statues for decades prior to the election of Donald Trump as president and prior to the Black Lives Matter movement. What did other residents, besides these "some residents" referred to by Huston, say to support the removal of the statue is not stated.

Huston reports that the Charlottesville Daily Progressive, a student paper, also reported that "some in the meeting" saw the election of Trump as representing racism and white nationalism. What others might have said again isn't reported.

Huston refers to residents being concerned about "whitewashing" history and "excise" it without critically reviewing these arguments.

The judgment of Univ. of Virginia professor Schmidt is questioned since she argued for removing the statue which Huston writes is "despite the town's deep civil war history." Again in the 2nd article, as in the first article, "Civil War," isn't capitalized, in this quote and in another instance in this 2nd article. Neo-Confederates reject the term "Civil War." It has to be asked what name for the Civil War would Huston capitalize?

Huston also writes:

"The professor also suggested that the town's history should better reflect the current black lives matter trend of historical revisionism."

I rather doubt that Schmidt specifically used the word "revisionism." I suspect that the concept of "black lives mater trend of historical revisionism" is a concept invented by Huston. Huston quotes Schmidt whose argument was that the statues should be removed so "we can change our history's narrative around race." Concern to have an accurate historical record in general, and in regards to race, predates the Black Lives Matter and the 2016 election. The issue of whitewashing in American history has been long understood as the obscuring of the history of race in the United States.

Nowhere in Huston's article is it reported that there was opposition to the Robert E. Lee statue because the Confederacy was an effort to preserve slavery and maintain white supremacy as explained by Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens in his infamous "Cornerstone" speech. We are told what "some residents" said, but we don't know what the other arguments presented against the statue were. Almost invariably in discussing the Confederacy the issue of the Confederacy being an effort to preserve slavery and white supremacy is brought up. The topic is missing from Huston's article.

(Incidentally, there is a new neo-Confederate argument that Stephens made a mistake in the speech. Stephens did think he made a mistake in the "Cornerstone" speech in his criticizing of the American Founders, but not the white supremacy and pro-slavery sections. Stephens gave similar speeches at other times.)

So both articles suggest or imply that opposition to Confederate statues is driven by Black Lives Matter "ideology" and persons who are against Pres. Trump. Huston positions the opposition to the Confederacy to be an opposition to Breitbart conservatism and Pres. Trump to be related and not just coincidental.

Huston then discusses the "Liberation and Freedom Day" decree supported by Charlottesville Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy. The article explains that this day, March 3rd, is now to be celebrated by the city as the day "in 1865 when the Union Army entered the city." Yes, the Union Army arrived liberated Charlottesville, just as American armies liberated Europe at the end of World War II.

Huston doesn't discuss "Liberation and Freedom Day" except one sentence to mention what it is and instead devotes much of the remaining article to attack Bellamy for things such as "his antics over 'racism.'"

Huston states that the city has "deep connections to civil war history," again avoiding capitalizing "civil war," elaborating more on his argument against professor Schmidt's reasons to remove the Lee statue, and states "federal forces invaded" the region in rejection of the idea of Union armies liberating the region and bring freedom to the region.  This terminology is a rejection of Liberation and Freedom Day,This would be consistent with a mentality in which the human worth, the lives of African Americans didn't really mat

The two articles write Confederate nationalism into American nationalism and maps the struggle over  the Confederacy into contemporary political struggles.

Huston doesn't directly say that he is pro-Confederate or admires the Confederacy. Instead the article represents the opponents of Confederate statues as wrong headed persons whose wrong headedness is manifest by their being supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and opponents of Pres. Trump; are enemies of history, and are really driven by an agenda against conservatism and Pres. Trump.

Huston articles work to validate the idea that opposition to Pres. Trump, Breitbart conservatism, and Confederate statues are the same.  Further articles like this can effect a change such that it becomes a reality that these three things become overlaid and the same thing.

From other articles in Breitbart this does seem to be the agenda of this publication to make these three things the same thing.

Breitbart in defending the Confederacy and attacking those who are trying to get rid of the glorification of the Confederacy is pushing a white nationalist agenda and race conflict.


http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking-the-white-nation.html

#BlackLivesMatter in history and historians who don't get this.

#BlackLivesMatter is a hash tag used in regards to public policy and practice involving policing and the justice system where obviously Black lives don't seem to matter much. The choking death of an African American man in a arrest involving the sale of a few loose cigarettes in New York City is an example where it seems that Black lives were disposable.

In the last few days I began to realize that #BlackLivesMatter could also be a call to change the practice of historians, to study and write history understanding that #BlackLivesMatter.

For example biographers and historians who minimize the racist policies of Woodrow Wilson are those for whom Black lives don't matter.

More specifically among those involved in Civil War history for whom Black lives don't seem to matter it would be those avoid recognizing the racial agenda of some of those involved in Civil War history. It would be those who make excuses for the Museum of the Confederacy and its historical practice. It would be calling neo-Confederate groups "Southern heritage" groups. It would be being involved in commemorations at Confederate monuments. It would be those Civil War historians that seek to minimize slavery as the cause of the Civil War.

It would also apply to some of our public school textbooks.

It would certainly apply to those use minimizing language over conflicts over Confederate symbols, like journalists who use terms like "flag flap." Would they every use the term "history hissyfit" over holocaust denial, absolutely not.

It would apply to churches that host neo-Confederate groups.

It would be for those who don't have necessarily a hostility towards African Americans, but for whom African Americans don't count for anything, for whom they are a nullity.

It would be those for whom African Americans are "them" and not a part of "us."

I think one reason that for some Black lives don't matter is that in the teaching of history all too often Black lives don't matter and people internalize this message.

I call upon all historians to take the stand that #BlackLivesMatter in the writing of history. To not be silent when other historians' practice of history shows that for them Black lives don't matter. The hashtag would be #BlackLivesMatterInHistory.

For related reading www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm.

"Los Angeles Times" article about Abraham Lincoln uses term "Black Lives Matter."

It seems that the concept that "Black Lives Matter" might be getting more use in the historical profession. John Barr, author of "Loathing Lincoln" has posted this on his Facebook page.

The Op-Ed is titled, "How Abraham Lincoln said that Black Lives Matter," by Martha Hodes. The link follows:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0301-hodes-lincoln-second-inaugural-20150301-story.html

Hopefully people who are concerned that human life matters will perceive historians who in their thinking Black lives don't matter.

Martha Hodes' website is http://marthahodes.com/.

An earlier blog I had on the topic about Black lives matter in history is at:
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/search?q=matter#.VPJXs_nF_UU

"Breitbart" and the Confederacy. They aren't the "Southern Partisan." They are banal white nationalists with a policy destructive to American nationalism. "Breitbart" reporting could be an aid to Russia

I had said earlier that Breitbart was a modern day Southern Partisan, They are not. After printing out maybe about 100 articles and scanning them and reading for the last few weeks closely what they say I am beginning to see what their strategy is.

The Breitbart view of the Confederacy will please and displease neo-Confederates.

On one hand Breitbart will publish articles like this.

For example this series about the Houston Independent School District in Texas getting rid of Confederate names for schools.

In this article Breitbart claims they are erasing history.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/03/22/more-texas-school-district-seek-to-erase-confederate-past/

This article says that taxpayers are complaining that changing the name is a waste of money. How many taxpayers isn't mentioned.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/05/03/changing-name-of-texas-school-will-cost-500k/

Again another article about irate taxpayers, which means that there are at least 2.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/08/11/taxpayers-slam-multi-million-dollar-plans-rename-houston-schools/

On the other hand Breitbart invokes the Confederacy to condemn Democrats and liberals.

In this article Ian Hanchett quotes Charles Krauthhammer saying that the supporters of Sanctuary cities, cities where the police don't go after immigrants, are using "the language of the Confederates."
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/12/05/krauthammer-sanctuary-cities-speaking-the-language-of-the-southern-segregationists/

Then there is this article in which the California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon is condemned as neo-Confederate. As I blog earlier on, I didn't see exactly how Rendon was neo-Confederate and I am fairly good on determining neo-Confederacy.

http://www.breitbart.com/california/2016/12/05/rendon-speech-neo-confederate-editorial/

Condemning a speaker, writer, author, columnist, politician, celebrity by claiming that they have some element or feature or similarity to the Confederacy is also a condemnation of the Confederacy. Denouncing some statement, policy, position paper, or resolution claiming that it has elements of the Confederacy is necessarily a condemnation of the Confederacy.

Saying that something is bad because is like or similar or derives from something else, necessarily means that the something else is bad.

More interesting is that Breitbart reporting implies neo-Confederate ideology is bad, since it condemns certain thinking as having Confederate affinities or components or elements.

However, if anyone tries to get rid of a Confederate monument or holiday or place name Breitbart is entirely against it. It might seem contradictory and a person might think that it is just that Breitbart has no coherent ideology and is just a maniacal rage machine. Just because it is a rage machine doesn't mean they are stupid or don't have a strategy.

Breitbart supports a banal white nationalist America. So for issues in the present it supports a strong national government in pursuit of its agenda.

However, in the past, all fighting white Americans are held to be heroic and pulling down one statue to one white American might lead to another statue of a white American being pulled down. The Civil War of Breitbart seems to be the Civil War of the 1950s or earlier, a "romance of reunion" Civil War, a white solidarity maintained by the idea that the Civil War was an avoidable mistake or was only about preserving the union, but wasn't about slavery or race, and in any case the Civil War demonstrated white bravery.

Breitbart's concept of patriotism, a white nationalism, is dangerous to the United States, since white nationalism can't be the basis of a strong American national identity in a multiracial America, and instead will work to undermine America.

And there are foreign powers which will be glad to exploit the situation. It has already become clear that Russia is aiding both left wing and right wing nationalist groups, both California and Texas secessionists. They are aiding both left wing and right wing groups in Europe also. Their policy is a pragmatic realpolitik to attack Western democracy and to undermine their geopolitical opponents.

They will be very quick to seize on strategies of exploiting racial nationalist groups. With their support of neo-Confederates and Texas secessionists already supporting white nationalists. The Russians must be reviewing what other racial nationalists that they can support.

National sentiment is always provisional. With a change in a situation individuals will reevaluate their national identity. This is demonstrated by the current secession movements where both left wing and right wing groups feel that they have no prospects of their agenda in the current political unit being successful.

If the Trump administration is dragging hundreds of thousands or even millions of Hispanics out of their homes and dumping them in Mexico where these individuals end up in camps where they are starving there is bound to be a Hispanic nationalist movement. The United States did steal the Southwest United States as President Ulysses S. Grant as explain in his memoir:

"I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day, regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory." 

Surely some Hispanic nationalist will want to quote this.

As the Trump administration undermines civil rights and voting rights and shows an indifference to cases where police officers shoot African Americans and the Trump administration expresses a hostility towards the Black Lives Matter movement surely some Black Nationalists will seek to capitalize on the situation.

In 2016 the situation regarding reckless and wrongful shooting of African Americans came dangerously close to getting out of control as some individual African Americans sought to take revenge by shooting police officers and some neo-Confederate groups sought to have counter protest at Blasck Lives Matter protests.

I think with Trump being elected we are likely  to see right wing white groups show up with guns at Black Lives Matter protests. At Black Lives Matter protests there are already African American groups parading with guns. A few days ago a young person with guns fired shots in a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. because of some lunatic right wing news story that the Clinton's were using its back rooms for child sex slavery. These protests with white nationalists, black nationalists, and the Black Lives Matter protesters, some carrying guns, will be combustible.

All we need to have is two groups at a Black Lives Matter protest shooting at each other and the situation could spiral out of control. It might not even be that the two protesting groups set it off, a third party, a lone individual, might decided to shot one of the protesters to set things off.

In any deteriorating situation Black Nationalism will seek to capitalize on the situation.

Then there is the situation of native Americans. How well has the American nation treated these groups historically? Not very well.  We still have Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Surely the Russians will find some opportunities.

All racial nationalisms share the same reactionary understanding of nationality. They only differ in which group they see themselves as advocating for. So it won't be that difficult for a white reactionary nationalist Russia to support minority nationalisms in America. They will find that in many ways they think very similarly.

Also, it should be understood to have your movement backed by a major world power gives it credibility.  Also, a major world power has ways of impressing a separatist movement.

When visiting nationalists are hosted by important officials in prestigious buildings the visiting nationalists are certainly impressed and given confidence and faith in their movement. When the nationalist group sees their leader hosted by important officials in an impressive historic building they can't but imagine what they are doing is important since important people with real power see it as important. The photos of these meetings certainly will give the movement credibility.

Our nationalist elites still see separatism as amusing and a novelty and don't take it seriously. This is because they are in many ways vacuous and an intellectually inbred set of people.

It is time for the government to wake up and start counter measures against separatism. As I stated earlier it needs to be NOT oppressive, but a strategy informed by a critical understanding of the theory of nationalism.

Also, government actions and policy needs to be reviewed such that nationalists are not encouraged. This is not to say avoid certain policies because you are afraid to aggravate some separatist nationalist direction, but to make sure that some policy doesn't needlessly enable separatist nationalism when it could easily have been avoided.

I suggest Michael Billig's "Banal Nationalism," and Donald Mitchell's "Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction." These books are available on the used market. They are not big books, and reading the both of them will give a fairly comprehensive view of the topic and provide most what a an anti-separatist program needs to know.


My paper on banal white nationalism.
http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking-the-white-nation.html

One of the persons who shot at the Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis has the Bonnie Blue Confederate flag. UPDATE:

One thing that persons sympathetic to the Confederacy do and think it is clever is fly the Bonnie Blue flag. It is a lesser known flag of the Confederacy.

It has a deep blue field with one large five pointed white star in the center. Most people don't realize it is a Confederate flag and so it is a way of signaling Confederate sympathies in plain view to other Confederate enthusiasts without the public knowing about it.

Well, until now.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203983484164732&set=pb.1151731044.-2207520000.1448488049.&type=3&theater

This is a picture on the Facebook page of a Lance Scarsella. Reports says that from information on the page it seems to indicate that this is the same Lance Scarsella arrested in the matter of Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis. The comment by Scarsella is that it isn't the flag of Somalia.

As reported in Gawker activists found this Facebook page and noticed the Bonnie Blue flag.

http://gawker.com/minneapolis-protest-shooting-suspect-has-a-confederate-1744627811

After today if you think you are going to fly the Bonnie Blue flag and not have people realize it is a Confederate flag, you are very wrong.

With friends like this, the Confederacy doesn't need enemies.

The Confederacy was a violent insurrection over white supremacy and slavery, it shouldn't be surprising that persons who are violent and white supremacists fly the Confederate flag.

Also, there is a fraternity which I have seen flying the Bonnie Blue flag in Dallas and I wonder if they will continue to do this.

UPDATE:

http://www.startribune.com/county-attorney-gets-deadline-extension-for-charges-against-men-accused-of-shooting-north-side-protesters/353970681/

There was a video on YouTube which has been taken down showing the white group involved filming the #Black Lives Matter group, including one of the shooters, saying all sorts of racist trash with two Confederate flags.

Confederate Thin Blue Line Flag, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Black Lives Matter movement

I was able to obtain the Confederate thin blue line flag.

When the Black Lives Matter movement started up in 2015 the Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) started to have part of his reports discussing what was to me obviously the Black Lives Matter movement and in opposition to it.

I am going to use this flag as a starting point to discuss the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their writings which I think applies to the Black Lives Matter movement.

I think that this will make it very clear what the SCV and Confederate Heritage is about.

With enemies like this you don't need friends. "Citizens Matter" campaigning for the Confederacy and against police accountability

This is the website for Citizens Matter, a local group.

http://www.citizensmatter.us/index.php

This group is mobilized to defend the Confederacy and abolish the Police Review Board for the City of Dallas.

They have raging maniacs with paranoid fears of Muslims.

The Dallas Observer has a recent article about them.

https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/real-question-in-police-review-board-debate-is-race-11523932

I couldn't design a better group to be the supporters of the Confederacy to give neo-Confederacy a bad name.

Crazed groups like this is the natural evolution of neo-Confederacy as more and more people decide to give up the Confederacy the residual of supporters will be people such as Citizens Matter.

The head of Heritage Defense is Walter Donald Kennedy of the Kennedy twins. This is again a sign that neo-Confederate groups are shifting to ever more overt radicalism.

The thin blue line Confederate flag and the neo-Confederate opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement

I did a VLOG about the thin blue line Confederate flag that is being sold by the Southern Legal Resource Center and Cooter's Place.

https://slrc-csa.org/shop/blue-lives-matter-3x5-confederate-battle-flag/

https://cootersplace.com/collections/poly-flags/products/blue-lives-matter-3x5-confederate-flag-polyester

The link is  https://youtu.be/Mnz-U1Z8VRs

United Daughters of the Confederacy realizes that they are an embarrassment to the churches

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) has realized that they are an embarrassment to the churches. They are going into stealth mode.

If you view this web page http://www.ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html today (3/16/2014) about the North Carolina Division of the UDC you will notice that they are planning on having a church service for their 2015 reunion at a church in downtown Raleigh, NC.

However, if you go to the Internet archive and view their web page as it was on Jan. 1, 2014:

https://web.archive.org/web/20131109190519/http://www.ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html

The above link stopped working, try this link below.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130611041742/http://ncudc.org/2015GeneralConv.html

You would see that they are planning to have their memorial service at Edenton Street United Methodist Church.

I have a printed out Google Cache page showing that as late as Jan. 22, 2014 the web page mentioned Edenton Street United Methodist Church. http://esumc.org/

Edenton Street United Methodist Church also runs The Gathering which is at this link. http://estreetgathering.net/ They are current with the trends, they are multiracial, and it might be that they are sharing space occasionally with the UDC.

The Edenton Street United Methodist Church has a concert for Black History Month:  http://esumc.org/news-item/concert-for-black-history-month/ and they were listed as the church for the North Carolina Division UDC.

There is no reason that the UDC would hide the fact that they are meeting at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church unless they realized their accommodation by the Edenton Street United Methodist Church would be an embarrassment to the Edenton Street United Methodist Church.

It might be argued that the church name was dropped from the North Carolina UDC web page for the 2015 reunion so Ed Sebesta wouldn't know about it. Certainly that is one reason. But if the UDC's presence at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church wasn't embarrassing my writing to the church would have no effect and my being aware of this reunion at Edenton Street United Methodist Church would have no effect. If the Edenton Street United Methodist Church thought hosting the UDC was a good thing they would put it on their website.

There are two important things in this recent development.

1. The UDC has realized it is an embarrassment to churches. They are starting to pull the names of the churches from their schedules to spare the church embarrassment. The UDC is acknowledging that they are an embarrassment through their actions and demonstrating through their actions that they realize that a large fraction of the public has a negative perception of them and that their public association with a church would undermine the church's reputation. Also by keeping the name hidden of the church they plan on meeting at they communicate to the membership that they are undesirables.

2. The UDC has listed what churches they will be meeting at as one of the positive features of their conventions. If they stop listing the church they give up a selling point of the convention.

3. As they cover up their involvements with churches they start writing themselves out of the historical record.

At some point the UDC will be pulling the name of the churches from their published schedules for the upcoming conventions and won't be mentioning the churches in their reports for the convention.

Additionally once they start sneaking about to have their memorial services at a church they then make the church a collaborator. It can't be imagined that the church leadership would be unaware that the memorial service is being conducted in such a way to avoid pubic scrutiny as the church leadership observes that their church name is not listed on the UDC schedule and as the topic of churches' hosting neo-Confederate groups becomes more and more a matter for discussion among the public. The church leadership thus transitions from being an witting passive host to being an active supporter of the UDC.

Also, if something is being done covertly, secretly, isn't it a mystery, a subject of interest? Isn't their a potential of an expose'? Doesn't it become a dirty secret?

Also, if the UDC knows that there is a developing controversy over this matter, but they conceal it from the church they plan to meet at, how will the church feel when they find out that they were kept uninformed?

Has the Edenton United Methodist Church cancelled the North Carolina UDC memorial service at their church? I don't know. I got an unsolicited email from someone claiming to be a member of the church. Later he said that the church had cancelled, but the person wasn't using one of the church's email addresses. When I asked that there be confirmation by the church I didn't hear back. I emailed the same person at his official Edenton United Methodist Church email and I didn't hear back. So I sent a certified letter asking him to confirm the emails sent. So far haven't heard back but it is too soon to say whether I am going to hear back or not.

However, the North Carolina UDC convention website does mention that it is going to be  local church. If the UDC was actually rejected I think that neo-Confederate would be complaining all over the Internet.

If I don't hear back I am writing the staff of the church by certified mail. I will also be giving reasons why they shouldn't host the UDC.

At this time I can't say whether the North Carolina UDC convention will be happening at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church in 2015 or not, but I have I have a long time between now 2015 to find out.

So far I am not hearing much back from the churches except when they want to tell me they aren't involved, or won't be involved. Except in one case, I am not getting anyone defending the practice of hosting neo-Confederate groups. If the churches thought it was a good thing they would be defending it. They know it is a dirty secret also. (I will be blogging about the church leader who defended the practice.)

I will be blogging on the Edenton United Methodist Church matter as things develop.

I am already winning in this campaign. The campaign is documented at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.

"Confederate Identity Extremists" and elastic definitions

On Dec. 16, 1773 a group boarded a ship and threw the cargo of tea into Boston Harbor.

Were they Colonial Identity Extremists?

Years ago, when I graduated and I was living in an urban old style apartment building, we saw a tall person drag a smaller person into a doorway in the alley way and started to beat the person severely. Back to the alley way were the kitchen windows to the apartments and we, me and my neighbors started calling out, "We are calling the police!" so to get the criminal to run and stop the beating. Imagine our surprise, when the tall person held up a police badge and was rather smug about it.

At the time there were no smart phone cameras or smart phones or digital cameras at all. There was nothing we could do to document it. No one called, because you didn't want thugs in blue calling on you. So it essentially never happened except in stories related by me and other residents.

Christopher Daniels who goes by the name Rakem Balogun in the heat of anger said some really bad things about the shootings of police officers in Dallas and Memphis. This article by the Dallas Morning News (DMN) which got published rather late sometime after Daniels was released from prison details his statements on Facebook.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/05/14/black-activist-celebrated-murders-police-social-media-says-feds-targeted-political-views

I raised the issue whether the DMN would cover this story at all which was getting global coverage. I discuss the rather delayed reporting in one of the numbered sections below.

This is The Guardian coverage of the story.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/rakem-balogun-interview-black-identity-extremists-fbi-surveillance

This is the Aljazeera coverage of the story.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/judge-orders-release-black-identity-extremist-180504115412408.html

I am quoted in another story where I create the term, "Confederate Identity Extremist."

There are multiple issues raised here.

One

First, the statements made by Daniels are not acceptable. Five officers didn't come home that night. They had people that loved them. They were just people trying to do their job.

These type of statements are the type of thing that results in mob violence and lynch law where rage sweeps respect for the law aside.

Of course appealing to the rule of law when videos keep surfacing of law enforcement officers not following the law and abusing their authority makes my position seem foolish to some. Where is the law it could be asked?

Further the courts seem to be unable to convict police officers when they murder someone and the evidence is obvious. Prosecutors seem to be all fumble fingers on these prosecutions, because I think they don't want to do what is necessary to successfully prosecute the case.

Again, with the videos and the failures of prosecutors to do their job, appealing to the rule of law makes my position seem detached from reality and self-serving.

However, situations come up where rage threatens us to be pulled into a vortex of violence. I think we must resist making statements like this. I had a real fear at the time of these shootings that there would be a chain reaction of violent actions and violent actions in response that could spiral out of control. Down in Baton Rouge there was another individual who went on a murderous rampage.

Recently in Balch Springs a teen was murdered by a police officer. There are indications that it was fairly clear this officer had menacing rage and should have been removed the police force some time ago. However, the problem officer was tolerated and it resulted in a young teen murdered. The trial is coming up this June 2018.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2017/12/20/murder-trial-cop-killed-jordan-edwards-pushed-back-june

I suspect that one way or another the police officer will either have a hung jury, get off, or have a ludicrously light sentence.  At that point the DMN will report the usual vetted "leaders" making pious statements. There will be discussions of how the trial went wrong or some proposed changes. It will be treated as some aberration in the law rather than the systematic problem it is. Lots of local ministers will ask for prayer, but it will be a substitute for engaging the question. I am not taking a position against prayer, I am just saying that a call for prayer can be an opportunistic move to avoid an issue.

I think that for some in Dallas all this will be "blah, blah, blah" and the belief in the rule of law will seem ridiculous.

The opinions in this blog posting will seem like babbling in the reality of a nation of murders by a society in which Black lives don't seem to matter very much.

What is worse is that though it might be a "few bad apples" who do these deeds, time and time again it is revealed that other officers gave the bad actor a free pass. And these officers murdering individuals act with the expectation that their behavior would be tolerated.

For people to believe in the rule of law we actually need to have the rule of law and not excuses or expressions of ain't it awful.

Regardless of the above, the officers killed were people going to their jobs, and there needs to be police for society to function, and they were killed by a delusional individual and that night there were people who loved these officers who realized they were never coming home.

The descent into savagery which we see nations and places descend into is because the humanity of individuals is forgotten. We must take action to avert going down a path which leads into this descent.

Since the above sounds like some treacly thing some local leader might say on TV so we all feel good about the situation so let me restate it.

The killing needs to stop, and it needs to stop soon, and those who kill need to be punished. While this problem exists we need to consider our actions.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans Commander-in-Chief has done writing in which never mentioning Black Lives Matter by name, has in his columns in the Confederate Veteran, had writing which I think is very clearly about the police shootings and Black Lives Matter and which attempts to represent the whole protest movement against the police shootings as wrong and the result of some nefarious movement.


Two

There are racist and reactionary political factions who like to portray calls for accountability in police behavior as somehow as an attack on the police. Everyone is accountable for their actions and this includes the police.

What is more disturbing is the assertion that lawless action by police is needed to preserve public order.

These racists are looking hard for any pretext to move the conversation or distract the conversation from the issue and to make it look like it is about attacking the police. In this environment Daniels's statements enable the opposition. Though I don't know how much a person is responsible for self-serving and dishonest actions of another.

Three

Looking at the pictures of Rakem Balogun and associates, I see khaki outfits and guns. What it reminds me most is This is Texas Freedom Force. I did look up the word Balogun and I think it means "war lord" in Nigerian. I have been to Scottish Highland festivals also. It all reminds me of Cosplay.

As a cultural geographer you realize that people in the late 20th century and in the 21st century consume identity. If you want to sell someone something sell an identity with it.

Nationalism is also a component of this movement which has names derived from Africa.

Nationalism is a European ideology with which the Western European nations created themselves as very powerful nations, and which many ethnic groups in Eastern Europe saw the means to wrest power from the Russian, German, Austrian, and Ottoman Empires in the late 19th and early 20th century.

It was seen as a means to achieve independence from European empires across the globe in the 20th. The idea of nations is the globally triumphant ideology such that we have trouble recognizing that it is an ideology and thinking outside of its concepts.

I think its ideological success comes from the fact that it has allowed dispossessed groups to achieve power.

Nationalism is what led to violent war in the 20th century. With World War I and II the 20th century is the century of violence. There were calls to have a conflict with Russia, there could have been a World War III, but it was realized that it would be a war of total destruction of of the Western world if not the radioactive poisoning of the Northern hemisphere. Nagasaki and Hiroshima with the small 20 and 40 kiloton bombs gave insight as to what 10 and 20 megaton bombs might do. Nationalism and violence seem follow each other in history.

Nationalism is a time worn strategy to create a state or to coalesce an identity to fight for rights, particularly when the dominating society is demeaning your identity. That is why there are parades or festivals in the United States for so many groups. We have Christopher Columbus day for Italian Americans, St. Patrick's Day for the Irish Americans, other groups have parades and days also. Solidarity in politics works.

Though now that persons with Irish ancestry are part of the dominate group and most white Americans and maybe most African Americans have some Irish ancestry, St. Patrick's day means green beer. Which is another thing about identities, they are put on like clothes when needed.

So these Black nationalist groups are latching on to a strategy which works for other groups.

Of course sense nationalism is imagined, a nationality can exist if you convince people of its existence. This creates an inherent instability. Is it Great Britain or Scotland and England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and what about Cornwall, and then you can pull maps of the distant past and image further more nations. What about the Heptarchy? The success of a nationalist project depends also by suppressing other possible nationalisms.

Nationalistic difference within a state is separatism and thus threatens social unity. That is why the national American metaphor is the "melting pot" and there historically have been speeches against "hyphenated Americans."  However, the quickest way to get rid of "hyphenated Americans" is to truly eliminate prejudice against a group which is being hyphenated. Black nationalism exists since there really isn't a post-racial society in America and the "melting pot" is seen as a deceptive fiction.

You won't be very credible saying were are all in this together, when there is an ongoing pattern abuse by the police and others which make it very clear that we aren't.

I can see nationalism being used to keep from being co-opted by the system by being separatist, but I also see it as leading to carving out worlds of nationalist fantasy in which you can live inside.

In 2018 I see that with the Baloguns that African nationalism is still seen as a strategy.

All of the above is to explain that I find nationalism dubious, but I also find that these nationalists are the least accommodating of racism. So I think that they will continue to find follows.


Four

The Aljazeera article was on May 5th, the Guardian article was on the 11th, and the DMN didn't report it until the 14th after it was becoming an issue locally on Facebook. The DMN is still the Dallas Managed News. This is an important national story with a local connection. The DMN has a past history of doing things like this hence their nickname.

People in Dallas are somewhat annoyed, including myself, that the DMN does stuff like and I posted links here and there so that the story would be known and I was testing to see how the DMN would respond.

They just did a court report type article. No insight at all.

But never fear there is this article form the DMN.
https://www.guidelive.com/bars-and-cocktails/2018/05/15/waste-away-margarita-mile-app-dallas-new-cocktail-crawl#_ga=2.112256132.1647958528.1526036106-1544550825.1491865227

Four

The most serious thing about this whole "Black Extremist Identity" is that it seems elastic. In this article below I point out that you could create a classification "Confederate Identity Extremist."

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/05/15/federal-judge-finally-releases-man-fbi-targeted-black-identity-extremist-now-hes-job-home/

Also, there seems to be selective enforcement involved.

It seems that the FBI combed through Daniels' past to find something on which to prosecute his ownership of a gun, though it is fairly apparent to anyone that this detailed going through Daniels' past was based on what Daniels' statements in the present.

Though one neo-Confederate group has said some quite threatening things online I haven't seen the FBI acting on them.

I pointed out the comments of Miss. State Rep. Karl Oliver who called for the lynching of opponents of Confederate monuments. Did the FBI visit him?

As frequently is the case, the government overreaches and threatens constitutional liberties with a case where the defendant is unpopular with the public, has done something where sympathy is little, and has limited support.

The Aesop fable of the small tree being surrendered to the woodsman resulting in the destruction of the great trees of the forest applies here.

I think that the FBI acted out of anger and once this BIE thing got started no one was willing to critically examine it, maybe because it was not politically tenable to ask questions. Maybe the FBI wanted to prosecute an African American so they could look "fair" when they went after white supremacists. Regardless, they have made themselves look less credible and look like they were influenced by Info Wars, a really ridiculous conspiracy website.

The Democrats are the party of James Buchanan

The Democrats are the party of James Buchanan.

The Republican Party was explained to be the party of Jefferson Davis explicitly by former Republican Mississippi U.S. Senator Trent Lott and also less directly by former Republican Texas U.S. Senator Phil Gramm in interviews in Southern Partisan.  Southern Partisan declared the Republican Party to be a Confederate party with its T-shirt.

However, when it comes to fighting against Confederate monuments and flags the Democrats have proven to be the party of James Buchanan. They hope to shake loose a few electoral votes in the next election by avoiding the topic.

In Louisiana the Republicans were fairly active in supporting the Confederacy. Former Republican Louisiana Gov. and one-time presidential candidate Jindal spoke out against removing the Confederate monuments. The Louisiana Republican House Reps voted for a bill to block removing Confederate monuments.  In other states Republicans are active in finding ways of blocking the removal of Confederate monuments.

One reason they are succeeding is that there really isn't much of an opposition by the Democratic Party. There are some Democratic elected officials fighting, but it is largely elected African American Democrats.

The policy of the Democratic Party seems to be that African Americans if they don't like the lack of action of the Democrats have no place to go.

This policy of not engaging on the issue of Confederate monuments is not confined to just centrist Democrats. It ranges across the liberal/left as well as centrist Democrats. Some of it is that among liberals and leftists there are many who  have the delusional thinking having an attachment to the Confederacy is not incompatible with being progressive. They are banal white nationalists. Other Democrats don't want to get in a fight with them.

A lot of it is calculation by the Democrats to get those extra white nationalist votes.

They will avoid engaging the issue by arguing that it is a matter of priorities or some other rationalization. The fact of the matter is that they don't want to face the issue.

Yes, there have been occasions, such as in 2015, where the Democrats did engage the issue, but we will not go forward getting rid of the monuments if the only time the Democrats act is right after a massacre.

I think a start is that unless a candidate has a position against Confederate monuments and symbols you don't support that candidate. Certainly you don't campaign for that candidate or donate money. It might result in a bad candidate being elected, but if we give in to this tactic of Democrats where they point out how scary the opponent is so that you vote for their flawed candidate the tactic will continue and there will be no progress in getting rid of Confederate monuments.

Also, to find out if a candidate has a position, you need to ask, and if they don't, ask that they take a position. If the issue starts coming up in candidate forums, I think that others hearing your question will start thinking about it as well and perhaps start asking the question themselves.

Another thing is that tables or lists need to be maintained on local candidates where they  stand. We need to divide the candidates into Pro-Confederate, anti-Confederate, and dough faces. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doughface

Refusal to respond to a questionnaire should be understood as supporting the statue quo and if the status quo has Confederate monuments you know how that candidate stands.

In some localities monuments aren't coming down without a sustained effort and an effort where Democrats will realize that they will be held accountable. It will mean writing letters, asking candidates to take a stand, appearing at public events. It won't take a lot of effort. A team of five with a few hours a week devoted to the effort could affect a real change in the political climate.

Presidential Elections and secession

Currently it looks like apparent Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump is going to lose the election. He may not even get the nomination. The Republican Party is realizing that besides losing the Presidential election Trump might bring down the Republican party and they could lose both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and lose several governorships.

The effort to just deny Trump the nomination is in progress.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-delegate-revolt-224634

I am sure at this point all the Trump delegates are aware of these efforts and will attend the Republican National Convention in a state of anxiety that this might happen. It could be really tense. I would not be surprised if there is a riot of delegates when the attempt to deny Trump the nomination occurs.

There are two scenarios here.

1. Trump does get the nomination and he loses in the general election and takes down a lot of Republicans with him at the local, state, and federal levels. The Democratic Party is in charge at the federal level and at many more local and state places.

The Trump supporters and the cranky faction of the conservative movement realize that within the American democratic system they have no future and that the political landscape is going to evolve to be more adverse towards their goals.

2. Trump is just denied the nomination and the Republican party crashes in the general election and Trump supporters are totally alienated from the political system.

In general some will look at Trump's ouster and the Democrats superdelegate system and lose faith in the political system. Again the cranky segment of the conservative movement will realize that they have no future in the political system.

In either scenario the cranky conservative faction will be looking for success in what avenues they can find. Secession, creaking a local polity where you are in the majority will be immediately obvious though also seen as facing some challenges. However, when the crankies don't have any options in the system, they will be forced to pursue what options are available.

Texas secession movement will take off. There will be other secession movements.

The polling for secession was fairly substantial among Republicans after the 2012 elections and at that time Republicans controlled the House and Senate and had hopes. After 2016 they won't have hopes.

Secession will become more a real thing in American politics.

Also, I really think that people need to stop quoting Supreme Court decisions against secession as if they mattered. These legal rulings and laws really don't count much in the matter of secession. National identity is a matter of the heart, or as Lincoln referred to the "mystic chords of memory." In modern cultural geography we state that "nations are imagined."

Once a group of people decided to leave by a good margin at some point they have a good chance of leaving. Unless it is a really small place. In the South we have populations that would be inherently against secession so secession once it is realized to be a serious threat will receive a serious opposition from substantial portions of the public and will not be able to go anywhere. There is the prospect of conflict though.

This is the anti-Secession Facebook page for Texas.

https://www.facebook.com/TexansTruetotheUnion/

UPDATE ON RICHMOND VISIT

Was interviewed yesterday, Thursday, July 17, 2015, by the Richmond Free Press. If there is an article I will post a link to it.

Thursday we traveled to Monument Avenue and we did photos of the monuments with me having a "The Heritage is Hate" sign. Interviewed people.  Also took the sign to where the flaggers in front of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts were.

Talked to the flaggers to get their viewpoints. It was really sort of sad. I think they are self-indulgent, but they have lives in which it seems they only have the Confederacy.

They didn't seem to be belligerently racist or anything, I think it is more a matter that black lives don't matter enough to them to critically review their attachments to the Confederacy.

I think they are taking themselves down a dead end avenue.

Who is Stephen Bannon?

Given Breitbart's pro-Confederate writing and that its editorial policy seems to be directed by Stephen Bannon, I have been trying to learn what I can about Bannon.  Bannon is in the White House in a prominent position where he can defend the Confederacy.

Breitbart isn't simply neo-Confederate. Breitbart articles regard Lincoln favorably and recently there was an article about Frederick Douglass. These are thing that neo-Confederates would find an anathema.

It might be argued that Breitbart is just a grab bag of incoherent rage, and it might be to some extent. Maybe Lincoln is respected since not to would be lethal to Breitbart's influence.

This article certainly represents how some Breitbart articles are just concatenations of rage.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/12/21/walmart-drops-black-lives-matter-bulletproof-clothing/

To review the whole article's lack of logic would be lengthy but this extract should give a good picture of Breitbart's writing.

Micah Xavier Johnson, the Nation of Islam sympathizer and former Houston New Black Panther member who gunned down 11 police officers in Dallas in July said he wanted to kill cops, especially white cops, as reported by Breitbart Texas. Johnson started shooting at the close of a Black Lives Matter protest. A BLM activist thanked the cop killer on Twitter. Bill O’Reilly called Johnson “a hater and a terrorist.”

But Michael Xavier Johnson was in no way a member of any BLM organization and it turned out that radical African American groups thought he was crazy. So Bill O'Reilly's statement that Johnson was a terrorist is very correct, but not relevant to discussing the BLM movement.

Additionally, there isn't an official BLM national organization, it is more of  a movement. So the statement of a person who is "A BLM activist," without a name given doesn't mean much as an isolated incident. Even if it was an officer of an organization, we would have to see if the person was expelled from the group.  Large groups often have individual members saying things that the organization rejects, sometimes these offending members are expelled or censored.

It seems that BLM is a group of people who don't want to see African Americans indiscriminately shot by law enforcement. I don't think any group would stand for that.

However, thinking of Breitbart as being completely an incoherent rage machine I don't think is correct. I think there is very likely an agenda, and possibly a very reactionary pre-modern agenda.

I have read these articles:

https://qz.com/898134/what-steve-bannon-really-wants/

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/steve-bannon-books-reading-list-214745

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/02/bannon-trump-muslim-travel-ban-breitbart-generation-zero/ Jacobin is a socialist magazine, but at least it is not filled with the Democratic Party line.

Of course Quartz is the publication of the globalists and I think Politico is likely to be so.

It is proving really hard to find out who Bannon is given the extreme polarization on reporting on him.

A lot of web newsites are full of the worst junk. Slate actually published this rubbish.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/20/donald_trump_s_horrifying_signature_is_a_cry_for_help.html

Ironically Slate had in the past published an article debunking signature analysis. In this article the history of what the Slate article calls a pseudoscience is given and debunked.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/explainer/2013/01/jack_lew_s_loopy_signature_how_much_can_you_tell_about_someone_from_handwriting.html

As a scientific person this is especially dismaying. With new pseudo-sciences coming into being you would hope that some of the old ones would die out. They don't.

So Slate at the present time is just grasping for anything at hand. Maybe tomorrow they will have an article about the examination of entrails and tell what it signifies for the Trump administration.

This stuff and nonsense isn't confined to the globalists. I was astonished earlier this week when a Trump supporter told me with all seriousness, that newspaper political editorials that were biased were illegal in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

Understanding Bannon's ideology is important. It is just proving to be difficult to do so. It might be that he is a believer in the "Dark Enlightenment," a neo-Reactionary, or it might not.

I see from Generation Zero movie trailer that Bannon believes in historical cycles. It is a common enough failing. There are historians who try to press history into some mold. But I am not sure this movie actually explains where he is coming from.

Perhaps figuring out who Bannon is will take some time. What I mean by this, is finding out where he fits in the political taxonomy. Or maybe I will focus on outputs, behaviors and leave it at that. I will have to see what information there is.

Hollywood, Florida moves to change Confederate street names.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article159552129.html

The above is a link to an article about the name change, to drop the Confederate general names for three streets, in Hollywood, Florida. According to the article the streets, "lie in the heart of the city's African American neighborhood."

The measure passed 5 to 2.

The streets were named after Confederate generals Nathan Beford Forrest, Robert E. Lee and John B. Hood.

Vice Mayor Traci Callari, who voted against the measure, tried to propose a "dual-naming" of the streets for two years so people could get adjusted to the name change.  That wasn't passed. However, Traci Callari has revealed her white nationalist self to the city. She also has made a laughing stock of herself.

What is interesting about this article is why did it take until 2017 for this to happen. Surely people knew who these street names were named after going back generations to when the African American neighborhood formed.

I think the reason that the community in Hollywood moved forward and made their demands is that New Orleans has set an example that it can be done. I think also in African Americans communities if their leadership won't lead the way, they will find leadership that will. I don't know this for a fact, but I just suspect that is the case. I think that since New Orleans has shown it can be done, they will ask why their leadership isn't trying, and really trying to get rid of the monuments.

I have commented on this earlier.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/04/new-orleans-confederate-monuments-begin.html#.WV0TFojyuiM

I think also the police shootings of African Americans and protests by the Black Lives Matter movement is at some level raising a concern that African Americans matter in history also. You may not be able to convict an officer who blatantly capriciously shoots an African American man, but you can get the street names changed.

These change of street names will inspire other communities to look at their street names.

I think as more and more cities work to remove their monuments the citizens in Baltimore will have to ask why their monuments are still there? When those questions are asked, and it becomes in an issue in the news, and leadership is criticized for not getting the monuments removed, it will provide a conceptualization for other cities to understand why their city hasn't gotten rid of Confederate monuments, why their leadership isn't effective at getting rid of monuments.

By the way look at the interesting wording in this article.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/hollywood/fl-sb-confederate-streets-hollywood-drama-20170703-story.html

I have been very busy working on a project and hope to announce it when it is completed.

Neo-Confederates exploit ebola concerns Update. Update 2

In our globally interconnected world with its rapid transit it was likely that an ebola patient would sooner or later show up in the United States as with Thomas Eric Duncan who is currently getting better in a Dallas hospital. http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/04/health/ebola-us/

Update: New report is that Duncan is struggling for his life. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/us/ebola.html?_r=0

Update 2: Thomas Eric Duncan has died.

After some initial bungling, such as Texas Presbyterian Hospital sending Duncan home when he came in for treatment Duncan did receive treatment.  The City of Dallas having difficulties finding a crew to do clean up of vomit at the apartment complex has gotten a crew and they have cleaned up the mess. The state of Texas and the Federal government need to make sure their regulations regarding the transport of this waste are compatible. That is being worked out.

Thomas Eric Duncan got ebola when he forsook his own safety to rush a pregnant women to the hospital and then bring her back because the hospital was over flowing. The stories coming out of West Africa are heart breaking of people following their heart to take care of others and paying the ultimate price.

There are heroic stories of burial workers staying at their jobs even though they are forsaken by their own communities and have to sleep outside and often are paid late and have to run the risks. In the hospitals nurses have died while caring for others.

However, there are some who only see this as an opportunity to exploit for their own agenda. These are the neo-Confederates.

This League of the South blog posting decides that it is a big laugh and useful to advance their agenda on immigration.

http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2014/10/reader-comment-of-week.html

Quoting:

Who could fear anything so colorful? 

"No matter what happens we must resist ebolaphobia. These viruses are simply coming here for a better life, to do jobs that American viruses refuse to do." - Southron, in response to this post.

www.lewrockwell.com is claiming to know something about medical matters are and is hyping up hysteria over ebola.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/no_author/ebola-death-camps-coming/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/tess-pennington/dont-trust-the-feds-for-ebola-info/


http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/no_author/ebola-immigration/


http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/tyler-durden/feds-ordered-160000-ebola-hazmat-suits/


The credibility of www.lewrockwell.com can be evaluated by considering their other medical articles.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/bill-sardi/is-a-cancer-cure-being-suppressed/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/edward-group/6-facts-about-colloidal-silver/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/no_author/death-by-almonds/

The Council of Conservative Citizens wants to exploit ebola also.


http://topconservativenews.com/2014/10/obama-regime-openly-admits-that-liberians-are-flooding-the-usa/

http://topconservativenews.com/2014/10/confirmed-ebola-patient-is-a-liberian-citizen/

http://topconservativenews.com/2014/09/is-obamas-2011-liberian-amnesty-responsible-for-ebola-case-in-texas/


Hysteria and misinformation is always a real danger in a health crisis. The neo-Confederate actions fanning hysteria are not of help, but since they are largely without influence they are not able to do much damage.

In their actions these neo-Confederates hope to advance their agenda. One of the neo-Confederate hopes is that there will be a crisis which discredits the establishment and they will have an opportunity to get public support.

The neo-Confederate might not admit it, but I think they will feel let down when ebola doesn't turn out to be a pandemic in the United States.

For some useful information about preventing ebola you can go to this website of the Center for Disease Control.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/prevention/

Note the first item is wash your hands with soap and water. Which is the first line of defense against any pathogen. You should be doing this anyways.

I did have some concerns about the initial response. Primarily the bungling and delays, but I think that this first case has helped get the USA ready for ebola. Hospitals will probably be much less likely to send ebola patients home. Cities are probably making sure that they have hazardous waste crews ready to clean up after ebola and not have crews that refuse to show up. In general institutions are making sure they are prepared.

The public is more educated as to what precautions to take.

One benefit might be that affluent nations will realize that working on tropical diseases needs to be a higher priority and there needs to an effort to develop vaccines for these diseases. If all the hospital workers and other health workers in West Africa had been vaccinated last year it would have made a huge difference in stopping Ebola.

If you see the images of the outbreak in Liberia you see the misery and horror. It isn't a matter for snarky jokes and exploitation.

Kanye West, Obama, Bill Clinton, slavery and selective neo-Liberal outrage

I review Breitbart routinely since I feel they represent White House ideology generally and also in monitoring Breitbart I get a fairly good idea of the Trump supporting right wing ideas and positions on issues relating to historical memory. I have discussed this before in this blog.

So recently I have been printing out all the Breitbart postings about the controversy surrounding Kanye West and West's statements regarding slavery. I initially wasn't thinking that much about it, but I noticed that there was a tremendous amount of condemnation of Kanye West but also, it was interesting that other pop cultural figures came to West's defense, such as Justin Bieber.

Something about the outrage over Kanye West got me thinking.

Former president Bill Clinton wrote three letters of congratulations to the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The neoliberal press and the media that is just  furious about Kanye West has never been interested. Democrats have given me all sorts of rationalizations over the years.

Hillary Clinton had her infamous "super predator" remarks some time back, but that doesn't seem to be a concern.

Then there was the 2009 letter sent to former president Barack Obama asking him not to send a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument.  Letters were later written asking Obama to put an end to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) handing out of neo-Confederate awards at the U.S. Military Academies. Additional letters were sent about the Arlington Confederate. Never got any response to any of the issues about neo-Confederate involvement in the federal government.

https://arlingtonconfederatemonument.blogspot.com/

In 2009, prior to Obama sending a wreath to the Arlington Confederate Monument the neoliberal press mounted an effort to sideline the issue and rationalize Obama sending the wreath. The Washington Post took a leadership role in this with the New York Times in a supporting role.

When Obama spoke at the Arlington Cemetery in 2009 what references that were made to the issue sounded like he was channeling former president Woodrow Wilson. At the end I was somewhat glad that Obama's speech didn't involve any history written with lightning. Democrats had all sorts of rationalizations for Obama and it was made really clear that the letter was not welcome. The persons who had supported the effort lost interest. Obama did send a wreath to the African American Civil War Museum in DC and that was supposed to make it okay and I was told, "Let's declare victory and move on."

Of course there was the Obama "Beer Summit" which occurred before cell phone cameras and social media had advanced such that police abuse and murder of African Americans was routinely captured on video and shared online in social media and new online media websites.

Regarding Confederate monument removal you read here and there in the neoliberal media that being active against Confederate monuments is supposedly falling into some trap that Trump is setting.

I am not seeing a lot of interested by the Democratic Party in the Black Lives Matter movement or discussion about Confederate monuments.

The operating policy of the Democratic Party is that African Americans have no place to go so if they don't like the Democratic Party policies they can lump it.

Meanwhile there a desperate searching for some magic formula to shake loose a few more white votes for the Democratic Party. Progressives are lectured in the neoliberal press to stop being concerned about Democratic candidates positions on issues, that the winning of elections is paramount.

So into this situation comes Kanye West openly admiring president Donald Trump and saying slavery was a choice.  West's views and behavior suggests that African Americans do have the Republican Party as an alternative.

Kanye West is a major entertainment figure and has a substantial base of fans. On Twitter he has 28.2 million followers. (The story that he lost 10 million followers is incorrect, twitter had a glitch and when corrected there was no loss of 10 million followers.) This number of Twitter followers is after all the controversy over West and any supposed lost.

A short tweet, "free thinking is a super power," on May 8th, by West gets 5,100 comments, 46,000 retweets, and 180,000 hearts.

On Facebook there are various pages for him, with hundred or millions of likes. One page which is just a topic page has over 9 million likes. West currently has his Instagram account shut down, but the number of comments about Kanye West are over 5 million.

What is worrisome to the Democrats is that their program of civil rights is not very substantial and West might be validating to African Americans that African Americans should consider the Republican Party of Donald Trump.

David A. Love had an article in the Atlanta Black Star titled, "Should the Kanye West MAGA Debacle Remind Black People That It's Time to Hold Democrats and Liberals Accountable?"

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/05/06/kanye-west-maga-debacle-remind-black-people-time-hold-democrats-liberals-accountable/

Nice sentiment, and good luck with that.

Chance the Rapper was chastised for a tweet in support of Kanye West but had this to say:

My statement about black folk not having to be democrats (though true) was a deflection from the real conversation and stemmed from a personal issue with the fact that Chicago has had generations of democratic officials with no investment or regard for black schools, neighborhoods, or black lives,” he said. “We have to talk honestly about what is happening and has been happening in this country and we have to challenge those who are responsible, as well as those who are giving them a pass,” the rapper concluded. “If that happens to include I love, someone who is my brother-in-Christ and someone who I believe does really want to do what is right, it’s not my job to defend or protect him. It’s my job [to] pick up the phone and talk to him about it.” (Taken from David A. Love's article.) 

It is not just leftists or political economists who are realizing that the Democrats policy on civil rights is the general idea that African Americans have nowhere to go and a Democratic candidate needs to search for a Sistah Souljah moment, or speak out and tell those African American men to pull up their pants to validate themselves with white voters.

But also, I sense there is a little bit of panic. I don't think that the general public really cares about what the Washington Post or New York Times has to say on West. I don't think the neoliberal press will have that much affect on West's fan base.

I live in Oak Cliff section of Dallas, and I notice that there are a lot off African American male pants not pulled up. Maybe I should tell them that Obama says pull up their pants and see what the reaction is. I wonder what the response would be? (I am being sarcastic and ironic and in no way would I do that.)

In short the fan base of of Kanye West largely isn't going to care about the fulminations of the neoliberals. Justin Bieber realized his fan base doesn't care either and came out in support of Kanye West. I am not hearing a lot of condemnation from Hollywood figures either who I think realize that West does have a lot of fans who would not be sympathetic to such a condemnation of West.

Remember when the National Review put out an issued devoted to the single topic of condemning Donald Trump and it had no impact on politics? I think that is what might be happening here. Neoliberals go thunder your Bull against West.

Of course Kanye West career might be on the way out, but pop stars are like meteors. They flash across the sky and blaze in the heavens and vanish. I don't think his career is going to be that much impacted. What will happen to it will not be that impacted by this. In a month West might be focused on something else and the media will be on some other topic. West's career might go one way or another and these recent remarks will have little impact.

Basically I think that the reaction to Kanye West's statements is in some sectors of the press, selective outrage. Bill Clinton sends letters to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and bringing up the topic is dismissed with annoyance. Obama sends a wreath to the Arlington Confederate monument and bring up that as a topic is dismissed with annoyance. Kanye West saying something about slavery being a choice, and all hell breaks loose.

I think the neoliberals see the Trump presidency as some type of inter period. The Blue Wave will come and if they can just keep the Progressives under control everything will be restored to the earlier status quo. Even better they will have sunk the Republicans and thus defeated the neoconservatives as competitors for establishment support.

However, I see the situation as fluid. One of the things that I was taught in ancient history is that when the Western Roman Empire fell it took a while for people to realize it was really over. The empire had lost provinces and restored itself many times before. Maybe the old political regime is gone forever. This doesn't necessarily mean that Trump is the future, but we are entering a new situation.

The Democratic narrative is that with time demographics will mean the doom of the Republican Party. Tomorrow belongs to them is the thinking. The Blue Wave is one idea of inevitable triumph. However, with Kanye West maybe some demographic groups are not locked up after all.

Labor market shows signs of tightening also. Articles talk about companies dropping drug testing for marijuana so they can find more workers, others about wage increases in fast food. Economics counts for a lot in elections and I don’t think the Democrats crediting it to the previous administration will have much effect.

Trumph has invited Colin Kaepernick to the White House. Would a Democratic president do such a thing? I doubt it. Obama invited police officers who had abused Louis Gates. Has Hillary Clinton met with Kaepernick? No. Nor is it likely that would ever happen. Yes, Trump uses the term “Bigly,” and neoliberals can be disdainful, but he did defeat both the Republican and the Democratic establishments with very little money or campaign apparatus. I think he has a type of cunning.

By the way here is another neoliberal lecture being given to Kaepernick for bringing up that the Democratic Party is missing in action about the issue of Black Lives Matter. Kaepernick crime was pointing out Clinton’s comments about “super predators.”

https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/opinions/where-kaepernick-lost-me-cane/index.html

It seems that these lectures to African Americans are becoming a regular thing.

The Democratic Party is out of power, neither controlling either house of Congress or the presidency. The neoliberals in particular are out of power, and so they can't necessarily punish dissenters as they might. I think people are realizing that being scolded by the New York Times or the Washington Post isn't quite the thing it used to be.

The whole matter with Kanye West might be just a blip, or it might be the beginning of a trend of African Americans realizing that the Democratic Party doesn't really care that much about their rights. If it is a new trend, in five years it will be proclaimed as an obvious beginning of a new trend, by various pundits and historians, like those who would write for the Washington Post, but I don't really know. I do think that the neoliberals are afraid that it could be a trend, that the African American vote won't be locked up.

Remember the victory in Alabama over Roy Moore? It was due to the Democrats getting an extremely high percentage of the vote of African Americans men, 93%,  and African Americans women, 98%, which gave a sort of nothing Democrat Doug Jones a small percentage win. Of course Roy Moore was a neo-Confederate lunatic and that helps.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/glanton/ct-met-alabama-black-women-dahleen-glanton-20171213-story.html

If the percentages for Doug Jones by African American women had only been 95% against Roy Moore, an African American men 90%, Roy Moore well might be in the U.S. Senate today. Even a small loss of African American votes to the Republicans could have severe consequences to Democratic Party fortunes.

The Democrats have come to depend a lot on extremely high percentages of the African American vote falling their way. Of course it remains to be seen what Doug Jones' election means for African American women.

Well actually it doesn't. Read this article.

https://www.theroot.com/doug-jones-and-the-democratic-party-just-screwed-black-1823802570

That didn't take long.

What the Democrats should be concerned about is that low turnout for voting in the African American community is driven by the fact that voting for Democrats has had limited benefits for the African American community as pointed out by Chance the Rapper quoted above.

As for “choice,” the idea of slaves choosing suicide to avoid slavery goes way back in history. If I remember the accounts of ancient slavery in Pierre Dockes, “Medieval Slavery and Liberation,” Roman slave owners had punishments of throwing slaves into pits of moray eels or crucifixion because slaves were quite willing to commit suicide or get themselves killed to escape the brutal horror of ancient slavery and so death had to be really horrific to be a punishment.

There is in popular culture the whole idea of the captured African committing suicide rather than being a prisoner or slave. The character Killmonger does it in the movie Black Panther, Toni Morrison has a character who does it, in the movie Amistad there is a scene where a woman jumps overboard with a baby to prevent them from being enslaved.

What does this say about those who didn’t commit suicide. Those who survived and those from whom the present generation of African Americans are descended?

This is somewhat a modern and American historical problem. Slavery in the Caribbean and Brazil mostly meant being worked to death as did slavery in most places in most historical times. There sometimes weren't too many survivors. Slaves in mines just died and largely didn't have surviving generations.

The other issue is that race marks out African Americans as being descended from slaves. There were English slaves, villain is derived from the term villianage a type of bondage in early and medieval England. You can't tell among modern day English who was likely descended from slaves. Some of these ideas about choice have a consequence of potentially stigmatizing African Americans.

There are various classes of bound labor also, serfs, peons, etc. What are we saying about their survivors?

Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” He was a slave owner. In ancient history soldiers who were captured were enslaved as an alternative to death and this was part of pro-slavery ideology. Are there historical roots of pro-slavery ideology in the narrative of dying rather than be a slave?

I am not saying that one should live under any circumstances. The idea of suicide being a sin is a Christian and Western idea. Japanese and other cultures don’t have a horror of it. I don’t know what the many African cultures thought in the past or think in the present about suicide.

I think that this whole thing about slaves committing suicide hasn’t been thought through.

It could be that with 2016 the neo-liberals win the U.S. House and in 2018 the U.S. Senate and the White House, and we do live in an inter-period and neo-liberalism will be restored but I am not so sure that is the case.

I am not saying that the future will be where Trump or others like him continue in power either. It could be that politics will have a new structure and new contenders and new alliances and configurations. There won't be a restoration of the pre-Trump political world.

Letter to the Historic Richmond Foundation

The Historic Richmond Foundation unfortunately lent their Monumental Church to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in 2014. The Richmond Free Press ran an article on the story.

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2014/nov/07/confederates-hold-service-downtown-church/

This is my certified letter in 2015 asking them not to lend the church to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). I also discuss their lending their facilities to the UDC and the irresponsibility of doing so.

I copied it extensively using proof of mailing.. I think that they won't lend their facilities to the SCV for the reason is that it is bad publicity.

     January 26, 2015

                                                                   Edward H. Sebesta

                                                                   edwardsebesta@gmail.com

Mary Jane Massad Hogue

Executive Director

Historic Richmond Foundation

4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C

Richmond, VA 23219

Dear Ms. Hogue:

Please find enclosed a copy of the Richmond Free Press article about your allowing the neo-Confederate group, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), to Monumental Church at their annual national convention in 2014 and your responses. [Matthews, Joey, “Confederates to hold service at Downtown church,” Richmond Free Press, Vol. 23, No. 45, Nov. 6-8, 2014, pages A1, A14.] It is available online at:

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2014/nov/07/confederates-hold-service-downtown-church/

Also, please find enclosed an article published in Black Commentator about the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) which I think to any reasonable person documents their racism and extremism. It is also available online at:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

I am an investigative researcher regarding the neo-Confederate movement. I have had two books published by university presses and articles in peer-reviewed academic journals. I enclose a copy of my online curriculum vitae which is also online at http://templeofdemocracy.com/curriculum-vitae.html. Additionally there have been other articles published at Black Commentator also accessible from my online curriculum vitae.

In addition to my research I am also an activist. My recent concern is the enabling of neo-Confederate organizations by mainstream institutions. In 2013 I got major corporations to stop donating to the SCV through the We Care website. After learning that they were supporting the SCV major corporations started contacting We Care and in a matter of days We Care dropped the SCV. You can read about this campaign at Black Commentator at this URL:

http://www.blackcommentator2.com/527_cover_scv_donation_loss_sebesta_guest.html

After getting major corporations to stop supporting neo-Confederate groups I have been writing churches asking them not to enable neo-Confederate groups. It hasn’t been entirely unsuccessful so far, but I have found that the temples of Mammon were much more willing than the churches of Christ not to support neo-Confederate organizations.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans are planning to have their 2015 national convention in Richmond, Virginia.  You can read about it at this website: http://www.jebstuartcamp.org/jebstuartcamp.org/2015reunion/.

I am writing you to make two requests:

1)   Do not allow the Sons of Confederate Veterans to use any of your facilities for their 2015 national convention or for any other activity either now or in the future.

2)   Do not allow any other neo-Confederate organization, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy, to use your facilities for their activities either now or in the future.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy has a lengthy history of supporting white supremacy going back to the early 20th century shortly after they had finished organizing. You can see many primary historical documents regarding their racial attitudes at www.confederatepastpresent.org and use the search term “daughters.”

However, I think documentation shows that these racial attitudes are not confined to the past. This is an organization that currently runs a Red Shirt Shrine to glorify a violent white supremacist group in 19th century South Carolina and of which they are proud of as documented in the June/July 2001 UDC Magazine article, pages 23, 24, and the cover of their magazine. In an article in the Dec. 2012 UDC Magazine, pages 11-14, is an appalling racist article in which the infamous post-Civil War Black Codes of the former Confederate states are defended, African American men are represented as having been potential rapists, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is argued to be misguided, freed African Americans are asserted to have been incompetent to be citizens. The article asserts, “Newly liberated Negroes were not prepared for their freedom…” These are but two contemporary examples of the UDC’s attitudes towards race. Documentation enclosed.

In allowing neo-Confederate groups you make yourself an enabler of their agenda which in regarding race is clearly documented by their own record.

Another question raised by your allowing the UDC to use Monumental Church in 2014 is whether the Historic Richmond Foundation’s purpose is to construct a racialized landscape, or more precisely a white racial landscape.

The question is whether your efforts serve to construct Richmond, Virginia as a Confederate theme park, a Confederate capitol of the imagination, or otherwise stated a sacred place of a metaphysical Confederacy with your buildings are points of pilgrimage by neo-Confederates and others would are perhaps “Gone With the Wind,” who dream of the Confederacy. It doesn’t really matter whether the Historic Richmond Foundation does this on purpose, ignorance or with reckless indifference.

In the August 2014 issue of UDC Magazine, page 19 there is the following section on the use of Monumental Church for their national convention in Richmond (documentation enclosed):

Newly-restored Monumental Church, designed by Robert Mills and opened in 1814, almost pre-dates Richmond’s founding. Newly restored to its original appearance, this was the church of Chief Justice Marshall. Many events of Confederate history passed its doors during the War years. [Bold face added.]

As you can see the UDC saw the use of this church as an opportunity to imagine the Confederacy. You did allow the work of the Historic Richmond Foundation to be used in the imagining of Richmond as the capitol of the Confederacy, to be a Confederate theme park, a Confederate fantasyland. I think that it would be obvious that they would do this, it is not like their purpose is secret. Their purpose is clearly in their name.

Jonathan Leib in his chapter “The Witting Autobiography of Richmond Virginia: Arthur Ashe, the Civil War, and Monument Avenue’s Racialized Landscape,” in the book, points out that:

As a former capital of the Confederate States of America, Richmond’s landscape has the densest concentration of memorials to the Confederacy of any large Southern city, ranging from a sixty-foot-tall monument to Robert E. Lee to a downtown street named after his horse Traveller. [From page 188, Chapter 10, “Landscape and Race in the United States,” edited by Richard H. Schein, publisher Routledge, 2006 (New York)]

The chapter discusses how the landscape through monuments and other efforts worked to construct the Richmond landscape as a white landscape and support values of white supremacy and how the controversy over the Arthur Ashe monument made this explicit and obvious.

An organization which hoped to contribute to a modern American city, the type of city which strives to value all members of society regardless of race and to be an inclusive multi-racial democracy, would certainly not support neo-Confederate groups or identifying with the pro-slavery and pro-white supremacist Confederacy.

Any restoration work in such a Confederate saturated landscape as is Richmond’s would seem to require care by any organization concerned with not perpetuating a white landscape. Yet your comments in the Richmond Free Press article reveal a total indifference to the issues of landscape and race and an arrogant refusal to recognize that you are aiding neo-Confederates and a racial agenda.

The president of the Historic Richmond Foundation, Andrew K. Clark, is a donor to the Museum of the Confederacy. This raises the question as to whether the Historic Richmond Foundation really has any real concerns not to embrace Richmond’s Confederate past as an ideal.  

In particular I wish point out one of your statements. “I don’t know much about their organization,” in reference to the United Daughters of the Confederacy. They have a substantial building as their national headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. As I stated earlier, their purpose is clearly stated in their name, United Daughters of the Confederacy, they exist to honor an attempt to form a state to defend slavery from emancipation and to preserve white supremacy.

If the Historic Richmond Foundation is irresponsible regarding race and the landscape and neo-Confederate groups, then I think that it is obvious that the Historic Richmond Foundation works towards ill for the city of Richmond and works to restore more than buildings from the past, but also racial attitudes form the past.

Further for those who choose to support the Historic Richmond Foundation if the Foundation’s practice continues to preserve racial attitudes from the past and enable neo-Confederate groups they reveal their real racial attitudes and are pernicious undermining civil rights. Businesses who support the Historical Richmond Foundation, when the foundation practice is such, certainly bring into question any personnel policies they have for the work place regarding non-discrimination.

I ask you to avoid preserving past racial attitudes when you preserve buildings and to not support neo-Confederate groups by allowing them the use of your facilities for their activities.

                                                          Sincerely Yours,

                                                          Edward H. Sebesta

[NOTE: I sent copies of this letter to the staff of the Historic Richmond Foundation, NOT the staff of the Museum of the Confederacy as indicated in this CC. See following table.] Cc: This letter was copied to the staff of the Museum of the Confederacy; the trustees of the Historic Richmond Foundation; the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Immediate Past-President of the Historic Richmond Foundation, the Junior Board of the Historic Richmond Foundation; the Board of Advisors of the Historic Richmond Foundation; Active Members of the Council of Historic Richmond; Sustaining Members of the Council of Historic Richmond; Mayor of Richmond; Richmond City Council; corporate donors for the restoration of the Monumental Church. The detailed list follows and will be sent in the original letter to the Executive Director of the Historic Richmond Foundation, however, those who have received copies are referred to www.templeofdemocracy.com in the interest of conserving paper where the entire letter will be online.

No.	Name	Title	Affiliation	Address
1	Mary Jane Massad Hogue	Executive Director, Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond	Historic Richmond Foundation	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
2	Andrew K. Clark	President	LeClairRyan	LeClairRyan, Riverfront Plaza, East Tower, 951 East Byrd Street, Eighth Floor, Richmond, VA 23219
3	Coleen A. Butler Rodriquez	First Vice-President	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
4	David I. Meyers	Secretary	Troutman Sanders	Troutman Sanders, Troutman Sanders Bldg., 1001 Haxall Point, Richmond, VA 23219
5	Daniel P. Healy	CPA, Treasurer	Manager and Partner at the Guggenheim Partners Genworth Financials	Genworth Financial Inc., 6620 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23230
6	Hunter A. Applewhite	Trustee	President Dominion Foundation	Dominion Foundation, 120 Tredegar St., Richmond, VA 23219
7	G. William Beale	Trustee	Union Market Bank	Union Market Bank, 1051 East Cary St., Suite 1200, Richmond, VA 23219
8	Michael J. Bogese, Jr.	Trustee	The Bogese Companies	The Bogese Companies, 113 South 12th Street, Richmond, VA 23219
9	Robert E. Comet	Trustee	BCWH Architects	BCWH Architects, 1840 West Broad St., Suite 400, Richmond, VA 23220
10	Tracy Scott Doherty	Trustee	MeadWestvaco	501 South 5th St., Richmond, VA 23219-0501
11	Betty M. Fahed	Trustee	Wills Financial Group	Wills Financial Group Inc., P.O. Box 18338, Richmond, VA 23226
12	Susan S. Fisher	Trustee	Long & Foster	Long & Foster Companies, 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA, 20151.
13	Todd R. Flowers	Trustee, Member Junior Board of Historic Richmond	Dominion Resources	Dominion Resources, 120 Tredegar St., Richmond, VA 23219
14	Roy B. Goodman	Trustee	Luck Stone Corporation	Luck Stone Corporation, P.O. Box 29682, Richmond, VA 23242
15	Mark A. Herzog	Trustee	Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc.	Mark A. Herzog, 737 N. 5th Street, Suite 103, Richmond, VA 23219
16	C.N. Jenkins, Jr.	Trustee	Virginia Circuit Court	400 North Ninth Street, John Marshall Courts Bldg., Richmond, VA 23219
17	Kathy Ashby Merry	Trustee	The Harmonia Group	The Harmonia Group, 2020 Kraft Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24060
18	Robert S. Mills	Trustee	Commonwealth Architects	101 Shockoe Slip, 3rd Floor, Richmond, VA 23219
19	Gregory H. Ray	Trustee	Altria	Altria, 6601 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23230
20	Carol L. Robbins	Trustee	Suntrust	SunTrust Bank, P.O. Box 85024, Richmond, VA 23285-5024
21	R. Scott Ukrop	Trustee	3north	201 West 7th Street, Richmond, VA 23224
22	Robert A. Vallejo	Trustee	PricewaterhouseCoopers	PricewaterhouseCoopers 1021 E Cary St Richmond, VA 23219
23	Harold J. Williams III	Trustee	Dickinson Williams & Co.	1209 East Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23219
24	Steven R. William	Immediate Past President	McGuire Woods	McGuireWoods, One James Center, 901 Est Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23219-4030
25	Elise H. Wright	Life Trustee	Curator Valentine Richmond History Center	1015 East Clay Street, Richmond, VA 23219
26	Jane H. Armfield	Member Board of Advisors	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
27	Jonathan Bliley	Member Board of Advisors	Williams Mullen	Williams Mullen Center, 200 South 10th St., Suite 1600, Richmond, VA 23219
28	Nancy N. Cheely	Member Board of Advisors, Sustaining Council Member Council of Historic Richmond	Joyner Fine Properties	2727 Enterprise Pkwy,  Richmond VA 23294
29	Lilliboo Rawles Cronly	Member Board of Advisors	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
30	Karen S. Emroch	Member Board of Advisors, Sustaining Council Member Council of Historic Richmond	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
31	Thomas E. Fahed	Member Board of Advisors	Realtor Small and Associates	5413 Patterson Avenue, Suite 200; Richmond, VA 23226
32	John Owen Gwathmey	Member Board of Advisors	Troutman Sanders	Troutman Sanders, Troutman Sanders Bldg., 1001 Haxall Point, Richmond, VA 23219
33	Douglas J. Hanson	Member Board of Advisors	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
34	Kenneth D. McArthur, Jr.	Member Board of Advisors	DurretteCrump	1111 East Main Street #16, Richmond, VA 23219
35	Alice Reed McGuire	Member Board of Advisors	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
36	Robert W. Miller, Jr.	Member Board of Advisors	Miller & Associates	116 East Franklin Street #103a, Richmond, VA 23219
37	Kevin B. Osborne	Member Board of Advisors	Altria	Altria, 6601 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23230
38	Burt Pinnock	Member Board of Advisors	BAM Architects	101 South 15th Street #200, Richmond, VA 23219
39	J. Sargeant Reynolds, Jr.	Member Board of Advisors	Reynolds Development	6641 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23230
40	Mary Harding Sadler	Member Board of Advisors	Sadler & Whitehead	726 West 33rd Street, Richmond, VA 23225
41	Elizabeth Carrington Shuff	Member Board of Advisors, Sustaining Council Member Council of Historic Richmond	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
42	William S. Tate	Member Board of Advisors	Attorney	2100 East Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23223
43	Lynn C. Purdy	Member Board of Advisors, Sustaining Council Member Council of Historic Richmond		Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
44	Barbara B. Ukrop	Member Board of Advisors	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
45	Harry J. Warthen, III	Member Board of Advisors	Hunton & Williams, LLP	951 East Byrd Street Richmond, VA 23219
46	Martha A. Warthen	Member Board of Advisors	Hunton & Williams, LLP	951 East Byrd Street Richmond, VA 23219
47	Catharine Whitham	Member Board of Advisors	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
48	Lorna Wyckoff	Member Board of Advisors	Community Volunteer	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
49	James W. Klaus	Additional Board Member	Children's Wear Digest, Inc.	3607 Mayland Court, Richmond, VA 23233
50	Paige C. Anderson	Secretary, Junior Board of Historic Richmond	Hunton & Williams, LLP	951 East Byrd Street Richmond, VA 23219
51	Ms. Taylor R. Boyle	Treasurer, Junior Board of Historic Richmond	MeadWestvaco	501 South 5th St., Richmond, VA 23219-0501
52	Zachary D. Cohen	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	ThompsonMcMullen	100 Shockoe Slip, Richmond, VA 23219
53	Charles A. Coulomb	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Virginia Holocaust Museum	2000 East Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23223
54	Trevor S. Cox	President Elect, Junior Board of Historic Richmond	Hunton & Williams, LLP	951 East Byrd Street Richmond, VA 23219
55	Franklin Cragle	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Hirschler Fleischer	Post Office Box 500, Richmond, VA 23218-0500
56	Anna S. Curran	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond		Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
57	Nancy Hull Davidson	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond		Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
58	Danielle Dick	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Virginia Commonweath University	Department of Psychology, 806 West Franklin St., P.O. Box 842018, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284-2018
59	Kate Fraser-Orr	Co-Special Events Chair, Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Retail Merchants Association	5101 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230
60	Juellisa Gadd	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	VCU Massey Cancer Center	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
61	David S. Galeski	Co-Special Events Chair Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond		Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
62	Meghan Gehr Hubbard	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	McGuire Woods	McGuireWoods, One James Center, 901 Est Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23219-4030
63	Chelsea Jeffries	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Chesterfield County	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
64	Elizabeth Kennan	Co-Membership Chair Junior Board of Historic Richmond	Capitol One	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
65	Rebecca R. Lupesco	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Release The Hounds	315 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220
66	Katharine F. McDonald	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	American Red Cross	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
67	Zachary Means	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Divaris Real Estate	1111 East Main Street #801, Richmond, VA 23219
68	Keith Murphy	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	3north	201 West 7th Street, Richmond, VA 23224
69	Ronald A. Page, Jr.	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond		Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
70	Michael Phillips	President, Junior Board of Historic Richmond	Virginia Clean Cities	Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
71	Kristin P. Richardson	Immediate Past President, Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Williams Mullen	Williams Mullen Center, 200 South 10th St., Suite 1600, Richmond, VA 23219
72	Leslie A. Rudzinski	Junior Board Member of Historic Richmond	Kaplan & Frank, PLC	P.O. Box 2470, Richmond, VA 23224
73	Adam Trusner	Co-Membership Chair Junior Board of Historic Richmond	Morgan Stanley	For the rest of the entries in this table, Historic Richmond Foundation, 4 E. Main Street, Suite 1-C, Richmond, VA 23219
74	Danielle Worthing	Quoit Club Chair Junior Board of Historic Richmond	Dutton & Associates
75	Madeleine Bennett	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
76	Buffy Bickford	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
77	Laura Bland	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
78	Susie Bogese	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
79	Betsy Booth	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
80	MacKay Boyer	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
81	Debbie Brooks	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
82	Lisa Caperton	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
83	Betsy Coffield	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
84	Kim Condyles	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
85	Christine Corbin	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
86	Stacie Cornett	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
87	Susan Dameron	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
88	Joan Debiasi	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
89	Jennifer Fergusson	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
90	Barbara Flatin	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
91	Deborah Fulk	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
92	Sara Garza	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
93	Page George	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
94	Mary Anne Griffin	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
95	Jeanine Hinson	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
96	Victoria Hoskins	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
97	Patricia Hunter	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
98	Sarah Hurst	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
99	Eucharia Jackson	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
100	Lally Jennings	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
101	Molly Johnson	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
102	Maureen Leipertz	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
103	Beth Ludden	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
104	Sheila Macfarlane	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
105	Mary Beth Metcalf	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
106	Carol McKnight	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
107	Katherine Meyers	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
108	Cheryl Miller	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
109	Joni Moncure	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
110	Victoria Morahan	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
111	Maryann Moulton	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
112	Darcie Nelsen	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
113	Shirley Parker	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
114	Trudy Porter	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
115	Cara Rogers	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
116	Debbie Scott	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
117	Stacy Smith	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
118	Kerry Svoboda	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
119	Allison Woodward	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
120	Lucie Yudkin	Active Members Council of Historic Richmond
121	Margaret Bacigal	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
122	Karen Berkness	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
123	Anne Boeve	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
124	Pat Campbell	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
125	Janis Carrell	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
126	Joan Clement	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
127	Anne Dawson	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
128	Kathy DeLoyht	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
129	Cheryl Fockler	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
130	Deb Galeski	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
131	Debbie Gibbs	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
132	Susan Gibson	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
133	Ann McLean	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
134	Libby Marth	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
135	Anita Purcell	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
136	Martha Rhodes	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
137	Mary Roach	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
138	Gaye Steinmetz	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
139	Dee Dee Sutton	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
140	Lizzie Wallace	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
141	Del Warthen	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
142	Cabell West	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
143	Mary Wick	Sustaining Member Council of Historic Richmond
144	Sarah Matheson	Development Assistant Historic Richmond Foundation	Historic Richmond Foundation
145	Sally Mooney	Development Assistant Historic Richmond Foundation	Historic Richmond Foundation
146	Emily Davis	Director of Marketing & Communications	Historic Richmond Foundation
147	Catherine Dameron	Wedding Coordinator	Historic Richmond Foundation
148	Ceil Baxter	Office Manager	Historic Richmond Foundation

No.	Name	Title	Affiliation	Address
1	Dwight C. Jones	Mayor	City of Richmond	Mayor's Office, City of Richmond, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 201, Richmond, VA 23219
2	Charles R. Samuels	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
3	Ellen F. Robertson	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
4	Jonathan T. Balilies	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
5	Chris A. Hilbert	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
6	Kathy C. Graziano	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
7	Parker C. Agelasto	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
8	Cynthia I. Newbille	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
9	Reva M. Trammell	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
10	Michelle R. Mosby	Member City Council	Member City Council	Richmond City Council, 900 E. Broad St., Suite 305 Richmond, VA 23219
11	Terry McAuliffe	Governor	Virginia	P.O. Box 1475, Richmond, VA 23218

No.	Name	Title	Affiliation	Address
1	Thomas F. Farrell	Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer	Dominion Resources Inc.	120 Tredegar St., Richmond, VA 23219
2	Afton & Melissa Johnson	Owners	West View Companies	P.O. Box 21, Oilville, VA 23129
3		Will address to "Director"	Universal Leaf Foundation	P.O. Box 25099, Richmond, VA 23260
4		Will address to "Director"	Bon Secours Health System	1505 Marriotsville Rd., Marriotsville, MD 21104
5	Luca Paschina	Winemaker	Barboursville Vineyards	P.O. Box 136, Barboursville, VA 22923
6	Alex Wotring, Vince Riggi, Brian Marks	Founders	Belle Isle Craft Spirits	615 Maury St., Richmond, VA 23224
7	Louis R. Rogers	President and CEO	Capital Square Holdings	10900 Nuckols Rd., Suite 200, Glen Allen, VA 23060
8	Mitch Haddon	President and CEO	ColonialWebb	2820 Ackley Ave., Richmond, VA 23228
9	Martin J. Barrington	Chairman & CEO	Altria Group Inc.	6601 West Broad St., Richmond, VA 23230
10	H. Randolph Holmes Jr.	Senior Principle & President	Glave' & Holmes Architecture	2101 East Main St., Richmond, VA 23223
11	Eric McKay & Patrick Murtaugh	Founders	Hardywood Park Craft Brewery	2408 Ownby Lane, Richmond, VA 23220
12	Joe Sparatta, Emilia Sparatta, Matthias Hagglund	Co-owners	Heritage	1627 W. Main St., Richmond, VA 23220
13	Matt Brophy, Kristi Croxton, Jonathan Staples	Partners	James River Distillery	2700 Hardy St., Richmond, VA 23220
14	Robert E. Moritz	US Chairman and Senior Partner	Pricewaterhousecooper LLP	300 Madison Ave., 24th Floor, New York, NY 10017
15	Dr. R.P. Sowers	Founder and Chairman	Patient First Corp.	5000 Cox Rd., Suite 100, Glen Allen, VA 23060
16	Craig R. Smith	Executive Chairman of the Board	Owens & Minor, Inc.	9120 Lockwood Blvd., Mechanicsville, VA 23116
17	John Mason L. Antrim	President & CEO	Middleburg Trust	111 West Washington St., Middleburg, VA 20117
18	Albert R. Counselman	Chairman & CEO	RCM&D	4200 Innstake Dr., Suite 303, Glen Allen, VA 23060
19	Michael Sparks		Michael Sparks Design	205 Hull St., Richmond, VA 23224
20	George Keith Martin	Managing Partner	McGuireWoods	One James Center, 901 East Clay St., Richmond, VA 23219
21	Michael L. Hern	President and CEO	LeClairRyan	Riverfront Plaza, East Tower, 951 East Byrd St., Eighth Floor, Richmond, VA 23219
22	John S. West	Managing Partner	Troutman Sanders	Troutman Sanders Bldg., 1001 Haxall Point, Richmond, VA 23219
23	G. William Beale	CEO	Union First Market	Union Market Bank, 1051 East Cary St., Suite 1200, Richmond, VA 23219