By Robert Stacy McCain THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published June 27, 2004 ------------------------- The plaque in the foyer of the Texas Supreme Court cited a commander's praise for the fighting ability of the Lone Star State's troops. "I rely on Texas regiments in all tight places, and fear I have to call upon them too often. They have fought grandly, nobly." The words of Gen. Robert E. Lee, praising Hood's Texas Brigade, which at various times included regiments from Arkansas, South Carolina and Georgia, are no longer displayed in Austin. The plaque was one of two Confederate markers removed from the state Supreme Court building in June 2000. The Sons of Confederate Veterans blame George W. Bush, governor of Texas at the time. "It wasn't until the governor ran for president that those plaques became an issue for anybody," says Texas SCV spokesman Marshall Davis. The order for the plaques' removal "came from the governor's office, without going through the legislature, the people of Texas or the Texas Historical Commission." The state NAACP raised objections to the plaques in January 2002. Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called the plaques "hate symbols." That demand was initially rebuffed by the governor's office. "These symbols and emblems reflect the history and diversity that make Texas unique," an executive assistant to Mr. Bush wrote in a February letter to NAACP. But a month later, Mr. Bush told reporters he was "looking at that issue." Then, on a weekend in June 2000, in what one Texas SCV member at the time called "a back-door ploy in the dark at night," the plaques were removed without any public comment from the governor or from his presidential campaign. A spokesman for the governor's office issued a press release saying the change was meant to "help assure all Texans that our courts provide fair and impartial justice." The SCV is pursuing a lawsuit against the state over the removal of the plaques from the Supreme Court building, which was built in 1954 with revenue left over from Texas' Confederate Pension Fund. In March, a district judge ruled against the SCV, which is appealing. The 2000 order to remove the plaques was surprising, Mr. Marshall says, considering Mr. Bush's stance on the Confederate flag in South Carolina. "I believe the people of South Carolina can figure out what to do with this flag issue," Mr. Bush said Jan. 7, 2000, drawing cheers and applause from Republicans at a presidential debate in West Columbia, S.C. "I was impressed by Governor Bush," Mr. Marshall says of the South Carolina remarks. "That's states' rights. That's what the whole war was about." Laura Bush also defended the flag in January 2000: "It's not a symbol of racism to me. I grew up in the South, like everyone else here in Texas. And it's just a symbol of a time in our history that we can't erase really, the Civil War." Mr. Bush's decisive South Carolina primary win over Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, was crucial to the Texas governor's Republican nomination campaign. In contrast to Mr. Bush's position, Mr. McCain offended some Confederate heritage activists. "The Confederate flag is offensive in many, many ways, as we all know. It's a symbol of racism and slavery," the Arizona Republican told CBS News on Jan. 9, 2000. In Texas, Confederate heritage is still under attack, Mr. Marshall says, citing plans by the University of Texas to relocate several monuments at the entrance of its Austin campus. Statues of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and other Confederate leaders were erected in the 1920s with a $250,000 bequest from university trustee George Littlefield, who had been a Confederate cavalry officer. "I think the pendulum of political correctness is way past the center," Mr. Marshall says. "I think the current administration is not taking strides to correct that."
They are traitors, but certainly not for removing this plaque, which is a very uncharacteristic move for Bush. I mean, they wouldn't even meet with the NAACP, as is customary with every new administration.
It had nothing to do with giving into the NAACP, it was a political move. It assured Bush that his opponents would not be able to use the incident against him. And if you notice, he couldn't care less about the NAACP as proven by him breaking with tradition and not addressing them when he was elected, he also did not address them during the 2004 campaign. Same with his comments about the South Carolina issue, purely political, I don't think Bush cares either way.
He caved in to some racist idiots trying to say things about him. If he was a real Texan, then he would have stood up and told them to screw off. He would have pointed out to them that the plaques had nothing to do with racism or slavery or whatever the hell they were trying to talk bs about and just exposed them for the racists that they were.
We live in country were freedom of speech if protected. I believe that flying the confederate flag is protected as a form of that speech. Let it fly. Let the Klan march and say whatever they want. But... Let the Black Panthers march with there AK47's. Let the Nazi do the same. Let the Nation of Islam speak on the Blue-Eyed Devils and how they were the creation of an evil big headed scientist. Every so called hate group should be given a platform. The flag doesn't preach hate just because it was represents a time in this country were slavery was legal. Neither does the Black Panthers. They represent a time when blacks were just protecting themselves from evil white police officers. The Nazi have a valid arguement. They feel that because of there low IQ's that anybody with a 3rd grade education is taking there beloved country away from them. They think the Jews are evil because they own everything. If a state government is gonna fly a flag that represents negative times for people - no matter the race - what does it say about that government?
What makes them traitors to Texas? Maybe to the slave loving, mexican killing, john wayne wanna be Texas. BUt texas as a whole? How?
Negative times for its people? Must be why slavery was legal in the USA before during and after the war? Must by why Lincoln wanted to deport every black out of the USA and into Liberia Haiti and Panama? Must by why Lincoln offered up a constitutional amendment defending the institution of slavery in the south, while blocking the spread of it west as a means to keep the west the pure white society that was the basis of his 1860 Republican platform? Must be why the Emancipation Proclimation was signed in 1863, two years after the war started, and only 'freed' the slaves in the 'rebellious territories' instead of any of the slaves within the USA? Must by why proud northern states such as Illonis made it illegal for blacks to exist within their state boundries? Must by why blacks were gladly accepted into the Confederate militias while they had race riots and lynchings in the north when they first allowed blacks into their army? Then again must by why blacks weren't origionally allowed into the real army as they were seen as inferior beings not worthy of fighting alongside the white man, thus they had to create a special army for them to be conscripted into? Get your bullshit yankee propaganda out of here. George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales are traitors to Texas and her heritage. They are little pansies who cower away from racist hate groups.
The more I read about this issue, the more I have to admire Bush. For those that ask, "What has Bush done right?", this is one. The Confederacy ostensibly stood for state's rights, but really it was all about the right to abuse humans as a labor force, in opposition to the constitution. The North won, and the slaveholding pigs never got over it, fuck them.
Hey look another idiot that doesn't know anything about what actually took place but just takes yankee propaganda and attempts to run with it.
Though the north did sodomize the hell out of the south after the war. That doesn't exactly leave them in a good mood. The south never did like carpetbaggers. The Reconstruction would have been a lot more gentle if Lincoln had been left alive.
