SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS Lt. Commander-in-Chief on the deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police

In the March/April 2015 issue of the Confederate Veteran, page 8, Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Lt. Commander-in-Chief Thomas V. Strain Jr. has the following commentary one what is obviously about the recent cases where African Americans have died at the hands of the police.

The United States are enduring some very troubling times currently. We have young men with no guidance attacking law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officers in the streets of this country. Moreover, when the officers do what is necessary in many cases to remedy the situation and protect the innocent, they are being called murderers. Following this, we have people taking to the streets, rioting and looting local businesses all in the name of "peace and tranquility." This is after the officers are investigated and all the facts prove they had no other recourse than to use deadly force to resolve the situation. After such findings, the riots and looting commence once again. This is not a black-and-white issue: it is a right-versus-wrong issue. 

To make matters worse, a certain group of self-appointed leaders, who wish to prosper from the very people they claim to be helping, don't speak of peace, and instead call for riots and more violent acts. When the few people who have the courage to stand and speak against these actions and offer truly peaceful solutions, encouraging all concerned to sit down and discuss the real problems, they are automatically labeled a racist. 

Then Lt. Commander-in-Chief Strain says:

You are probably wondering what this has to do with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the answer is a simple one.

The question occurs to me, how is this an issue of Confederate heritage? Strain Jr. explains as follows:

Reconstruction is where the very seeds were planted for such situations and in those years is found the root causes of where much of this began. Once all power was usurped from the States and transferred to a central government which would later take the form of a "direct democracy," it was expected this same government would use the power of its vast centralized offices to create a form of dependency -- in return for votes, of course. And, as Thomas Jefferson said in his notes on the State of Virginia, "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition." 

This should tell people that the SCV is a right wing political organization and not just an organization of historical sentimentalists. Before news media and legislators they may talk about "heritage" but these excerpts should make it obvious that the SCV has a political agenda.

And I suppose it is sort of obvious, but the SCV doesn't seem to be getting the message that #BlackLivesMatter.

Sons of Confederate Veterans Lt. Commander-in-Chief on Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

Sons of Confederate Veteran (SCV) Lt. Commander-in-Chief Thomas V. Strain Jr. in the March/April 2015 issue of the "Confederate Veteran" magazine, official publication of the SCV on pages 8-9, is contemptuous of the #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

Strain comments:

"The United States are enduring some troubling times currently. We have young men with no guidance attacking law-abiding citizens and law enforcement officers in the streets of this country. Moreover, when the officer what is necessary to in many cases to remedy the situation and protect the innocent, they are being called murderers."

Strain feels that the police are vindicated by government investigations. The real problem Strain feels are leaders in the African American community and others demonstrating against these deaths.

Strain asserts:

"This is not a black-and-white issue: it is a right--versus-wrong issue."

Strain then complains about civil rights leaders and writes:

"To make matters worse, a certain group of self-appointed leaders, who wish to prosper from the very people they claim to be helping, don't speak of peace, and instead call for riots and more violent acts."

Strain doesn't mention the #Blacklivesmatter campaign by name but it is very clear in the article that he is talking about that campaign.

Strain then writes:

"You are probably wondering what this has to do with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the answer is a simple one."

Indeed people might ask the same question.

Strain explains:

"Reconstruction is where the very seeds were planted for such situations and in those years is found the root causes of where much of this began."

Strain explains that Reconstruction usurped the power of the states and resulted in a centralized state with "direct democracy" which results in dependency and social problems.

The rest of the article goes on to claim that Reconstruction was an oppression of the South and for SCV members to fight for the historical truth about the Confederacy and Reconstruction.

Yet, though it is quote clear that the SCV has a racial agenda and isn't just a "heritage" organization, there are those Civil War historians who insist on calling the SCV a "Southern heritage" group and deny that there is a neo-Confederate movement.