Edgerton: Another Encounter on Highway 9

An open report by H.K. Edgerton, President of Southern Heritage 4-1-1

Monday morning, July 11, 2011, as I made my way up Highway 9 towards the Continental Divide with the Southern Cross in hand as I do most mornings before entering the offices of the SLRC on my 9 mile stroll, I would be stopped by an elderly white woman who unleashed a small tirade .

“We don't need that around here” she exclaimed, pointing to my flag.  “You're are a disgrace and an insult to the good Colored people of this community. You ought to be carrying the American flag, after all it was the one that freed your people. And with all the tourists from the North who come here and spend good money in this town , not to mention who live here are as insulted as I am.” “Ma’am,” I said, “you must be a Puritan like Harriet Beecher Stowe. This flag is a symbol of the people of the South. It encompasses our morals, our mores, our religious values, and not to mention the honorable stand made by the Southern people Red, Yellow, Black, White, freed or indentured, against those who would illegally invade our homeland and derail the process of social vertical mobility that the African people were surely on before the likes of you came here with your Yankee Avarice ways.” “I am finished talking to you,” she said and pulled away.

Not more than five minutes later as I made my way onward, I could see the car approaching again. This time it stopped beside me, and an elderly white man got out. Oh God, I thought, I hope he don't shoot me; even though that woman had gone off on me, I had been a total gentleman in the course of our interaction. “Sir,” he said with his hand extended, “You must be Mr. Edgerton.” We shook hands. “I've been following you for years now, and have wanted to meet you for a long time. That woman is my wife. She came home ranting about how she had gotten you told, and didn't particularly like what you said to her. I've been married to her for now over forty years, and yes, she is a Yankee, and yes I've been trying in vain to tell her that the beautiful flag you're carrying is as much the Southern black man’s as it is the Southern white man’s. I brought her back here to apologize to you for her behavior. Get out the car, woman, and apologize,” he said to her. She got out came over to me and mumbled something that he nor I could understand. “You can do better than that,” he said. “I apologize for the way I talked to you.” I had a feeling that she didn't really mean it.  The gentleman reached in his pocket and handed me $15.00, and asked me to have breakfast on them. Before I could say “no, it was not necessary,” he gave me a hug that was just love. As got in the car he turned and said to me: “Mr. Edgerton, you're right, she is a Puritan, but less after today.”  I was delightfully surprised as they both waved and pulled away. Now I was no longer walking, I had my downtown strut going on. Then I heard the Rebel Yell as several young white boys shouted out “HK!” I thought as I would be later told by Commander Gary Johnson of the Sons of Marion, Alabama  as I recalled the events of the morning to him: What a great way to start your week, HK.

Please don't forget to send a donation to our champion, young Candice Yvonna Hardwick of 2942 Hunter Way, Dillon, South Carolina 29536. (Candice Yvonne Hardwick is a student and Southern activist who was badly injured when her car tire came off on the freeway; this is believed to be the result of vandalism amidst a rash of vandalisms and harsh pranks played upon her by opposing activists.)

Letter from a Common Individual for the Family of America

This editorial was graciously submitted to the Political Spectrum by one of its readers.  Reader submissions and questions are always welcome.  To submit anything for consideration by the Political Spectrum, email Zach Foster at politicalzachfoster@gmail.com.

We have come a long way as a family in this country. Most of you know of our history, each of us has a family, but few I believe think of this Country in that way.

Sometimes families break apart and never settle things till something traumatic happens to bring them back together.  Some never do, but in the back of their minds they know that someone in that family still cares and wants to mend those differences.

Then there are those external things that seek to keep members of that family apart, it feeds off this rips the core of the family apart, using guilt, tragedy, remorse, and loss to keep up and build walls brick by brick. It lies and whispers and exploits till nothing of what once was is gone. Bit by bit it is like a drug; it deceives making members think that was is wrong and what it offers is good.

It says ‘follow me and I can give you what your family can not; I will be your new family as long as you give all to me.’ 

Now some will say that this is the Devil. Some will say this is just a very convincing evil person with a charismatic personality.  It uses loss to foment resentments, it uses resentments and fears and makes what once worked, even though it was not perfect, look bad and unfair. It says ‘I can give you this perfection’ and makes it look easy and that is the appeal of it. It’s easy to grab a hold of, but in life what is supposed to be easy, things that are of worth in life are not easy to attain. But when one finally attains it one realizes it’s worth and takes care to protect and cherish so that others can build and make their own attempts at improvements. It is a foundation, because when one builds something, if you do not have a good foundation, it falls apart and no amount of shoring up can keep what is built up.

Over the past years families have experienced loss. It is a hole; for most it has been the loss of a service member, for others it has been for other reasons, for me the loss has been my wife.

I was once one of those who had been deceived at first I chose the easy path thinking that others were always to blame, for it was easier to do that easy because then I did not have to look at myself. I used others to do the same as it did; instead of working and building on the strong foundation I too shored up what I had built on sandy soil and it came crashing down. So I have had to go back to the foundation and rebuild what I have allowed to be torn down. What is it I am trying to tell you? Well look, look at the mirror, look at what we as a family are about to lose.

Can you honestly look in that mirror and tell yourself that what another can promise to give you is better and of more worth than of what you can work to attain for yourself and family?

Look at what is happening around us to our family. We are told ‘give all to me and I will make sure that others get what I receive from you!’ But this is a lie that takes and takes. At first it makes it look like a choice—that is the deception—it eventually takes without choice but the family is blind to this.  It is by force, and when one or two of the family members see it, they try to warn the others, but it has gotten a strong hold on the others by this time and tells the others ‘what I have given you is best,’ and because the others are so reliant on what they do get, it makes them a hostage to it and because of this fear they cast out and ridicule the others and allow it to take away more and more control breaking and destroying the foundation of the family brick by brick.

Now some of you will think I am talking about Obama, and Socialism and/or Marxism or Communism! Well yes in part, if one honestly looks at history one can see, but it uses history as a tool also. It says ‘look at how bad things were then and now look at how good I have made it for you.’ Was it really responsible for this? Or was it because of what the family could do for itself but didn’t?  And on the surface, yes it does look like it had done this, but if one really looks at it this is a lie.

It relies on us to deceive ourselves because that is the easiest thing to do when one fears of losing what it has received. Now for me, I am one of those family members who sees what it has been doing and has done.  Some say I am the liar, I am the deceiver.  But am I?  For me no, I believe not; I have faith I am not.

Now for this family of America I tell you “LOOK”, look into that mirror if you have the integrity to cast off that drug, and the drug I am referring to consists of many things. For me it has been to turn away from the truth, to turn away from telling it that I am the one who decides what is best for my family, and no one decides for me. Now, with the help of other family members, I will build on that foundation what has been torn down by the beast, the liar, the drug.

It is not easy, but what is worthwhile to me is not the easiest thing to do or the easiest way. What I start, others may have to finish, but I hope they never have to. I am an Individual, I have been given that right by my Creator so that I can create for myself, to keep what I make and to give to others as I, an Individual, see fit to give, sell for my own profit, or to tear down and recreate—Not because the drug says that I should, or takes away from me to make itself look good to others!

Look at what it does: it ignores an individual like me and puts others in a group and tells the group that the Individual is the liar. It tells them that what it gave the group, they cannot have what without the drug. It uses race as a group, separates men and women as a group, age as a group, sexual orientation as a group, language as a group—these are all tools used as a way to make the individual think that one cannot attain what the individual needs or wants to attain without the group.  Such is another lie.

Look at how this Country is made up—it has fifty two Republics. Now you say, ‘what an idiot!  Fifty-two Republics?! No there are fifty states!” Well, no.

When France aligned itself with us during the Revolutionary War it recognized thirteen republics, and what are now the fifty-two republics: each of the States, the District of Columbia, and the entire national government, so fifty-two republics, each of them being an Individual republic (and the key word is “INDIVIDUAL”) .

It, the liar, the best, the drug, over time has been able to make it seem that this is not true. It tells us we are no longer a family of individuals, individual people who live in individual states that is part of an individual republic in the world. It says we are part of a group of others in this world, that we have to give up our individualism and what we have created, and it makes us feel bad for being individuals. It tells us that what the individual creates is not for the individual to decide what to do with. It takes from the individual, decides how much the group gets and returns how much it thinks the individual should get.

Now some will scoff at what I as an “Individual” have written.  The liar will say things, that this individual does not have the ability to understand… They’ll think that just because I have no degree, no education past High School, that I am no one of prominence.  ‘What does this individual know?’  While it is true that this individual has only a High school education, has no degree or skin on his wall, is no one of fame or prominence or monetary wealth—yes these things are true—but THIS individual can accept these truths, because this individual has been able to work to provide a home for his family, put food on the table, and is more than capable of building a future for his own kin.

Who am I?  I am a part of a family of individuals, of individual Republics, all within a larger individual Republic.

Now you will have to decide as an Individual how this truth affects you, and what you as an Individual can create for yourself.

C. Moreing

Common Individual

Images courtesy of Wikimedia commons.  Thanks to Coleman Moreing for the submission.  Send YOUR submission to The Political Spectrum today!

Forgotten Search of the “Perfect Union”

This editorial was graciously submitted to the Political Spectrum by Coleman Moreing, a reader from Southern California.  Reader submissions and questions are always welcome.  To submit anything for consideration by the Political Spectrum, email Zach Foster at politicalzachfoster@gmail.com.

Forgotten Search of the "Perfect Union"

By Coleman Moreing

As one of those who have grown up in the United States, I was taught the words of the Preamble of the Constitution. I learned the words but did not fully understand what those words meant.

Written words can have a lot of power especially these words: “In order to form a more perfect union.”

With all of the recent turmoil going on: the economic downturn, electing inept politicians whose only concern is to make sure to keep up the divisions of economic, political and social strife, we tend to forget what the Founders left us. A dream, a goal that through all of the problems this country faces we continue to strive. We strive to constantly improve our union. Much like the goal Kennedy gave of putting a man on the moon in less than a decade. Think about it. We strove to send a man into one of the harshest environments known to us and we BROUGHT IT BACK! Why? Why would we risk such a thing? Simple answer… because it was a goal!

What was left to us all those years ago was a goal. Why did they do this? They looked back through the past, to all the great societies, Babylon, Greece, Rome, Great Britain, all of them had lofty expectations to make the best societies but they lacked one thing simple thing. “The Rights of the Individual.”  The right of Self- Governance. All the others had kings and emperors. Someone who, at their whim, could remove any law and any right granted whenever they wished.

This is what makes a perfect union. It is more than just the land we have; it is more than the lines of the states drawn on a map. It is the Individual that makes up that goal.

That dream is of a more perfect union for it is a goal that makes us go on, to continue to work and improve but not through some edict written up by some lawyer and adjudicated by a judge or legislated by a governing body.

I have heard some people say “We are a Democracy”. NO! We are a Union of Republics. If we were a Democracy then all would vote on every issue that came up, and I would imagine that chaos would ensue. Our Founders understood this but they also understood that a Union of Republics could not stand if they did not give the Rights of the Individual FIRST in all things.

It was an individual who wrote the preamble and gave us the words “A more Perfect Union”. We have people now that have been attempting to dissolve it, saying things like “this is not the ‘50’s”, “oh that is so 20th century” but is it? We can “live together, because it’s only a piece of paper”!

No, it’s not. It’s a COMMITMENT.

So to form a more perfect union is a commitment, a goal and a promise; that if we strive for that perfect union it can see us through anything!

Will we ever make that “perfect union”? I don’t know but I hope not totally, because without a goal, a purpose or a dream, eventually our Union, our Republic will cease.

The constitution was outlined in the way it is for that very reason so that no one person is above one another. Not a President, nor Senator, nor representative or Governor . There have been lots of experts we see in the evening news who say that the constitution is a living document. NO it is not! It is a foundation, the bedrock of our nation of laws. So if we have perfection then where can we go from there? There will be nothing left to build on and nothing left to learn. And all that is built will crumble beneath our feet.

Have we as a nation forgotten what our duty as citizens are? That is a question you will have to put to yourself! As for me, I have remembered that forgotten dream. Although I am not perfect, I seek to form that dream of “A more Perfect Union!”.

Reader Response to ‘The Revolution in Egypt’

‘The Revolution in Egypt’ received a interesting and thought-provoking response by Palmetto Patriot, one of our occasional contributors at the Political Spectrum.  What he wrote may be read on the original story page.  Thanks for the input, Michael!

The tragedy of the Spanish Civil War is that fascism became an official system of government, and by the second year of the war it was pretty much Team Red Imperialist vs. Team Fascist Imperialist.  To his credit, Franco's regime stayed within Spain's borders, but Nazi Germany/Italy and the USSR, who all sent troops ("advisors/"volunteers") to their selected teams, sure as hell didn't honor boundaries in their tenures.  Many of the war crimes in Spain were committed by these foreign fighters (ex: Picasso's Guernica, conveying the aftermath of a German bombing).  The only difference between Red Internationalism and Fascism is that Fascism puts one people and nation above all others and subject to impose on all others, while Red Internationalism recognizes no other nations and only the rights of the working class (on the collective level, NOT the individual level) as we are all in "solidarity".  Many Communist countries have done their “internationalist duty” of bringing Communism to other countries, be it by funding political parties or committing “liberations” via military force (ex: Georgia 1921, Hungary 1956, Tibet 1950). Damn, now it seems like there's not much of a difference at all.

The tragedy in Spain is quite similar to the Chinese Civil War, which was fought between the armies of Mao, a totalitarian Communist, and Chiang, a totalitarian fascist.  I cannot support the Fascists because they resorted to insurgency and force of arms not to secede from, but to overthrow an existing democratically elected government.  Nonetheless, those who were fighting at the end of the war were not the same people who fought in the beginning.  By 1938-39 it became a matter of which side was less evil.

In regards to your statistic about how many countries U.S. troops are stationed in, that is very true.  While I am a Unionist and do support the occupation of the Axis countries defeated in World War II (case in point: the Holocaust, Nanking and Shanghai, and gassed Ethiopia), I agree with your opinion that we definitely don’t need troops in all those countries.  While some governments have actually invited or asked us to send troops to protect them from foreign aggressors (like Kuwait after being annexed by Iraq in 1990, and Belgium and Luxembourg, twice invaded and brutalized by Germany) many countries simply don’t need an American presence and, frankly, don’t deserve them.  Is the United States planning to colonize all those territories?  Either it is or it isn’t.  If there will be a formal annexation of foreign territory, I recommend at least having the decency to turn these annexed territories into full and formal states with two senators on Capitol Hill, rather than allow the indigenous peoples to remain imperial lackeys.

In the case of Egypt, I’m impressed with the President and the State Department for not intervening in this affair.  The Egyptian people deserve their chance at democracy and self determination and this may be their only one.  I was inspired by reading Congressman Ron Paul’s The Revolution, and since reading that book in early 2009 I’ve been kicking myself endlessly for not voting for him.  Any other reader responses or essay submissions are welcome.

Reader Submission: The TSA and Airline Terror!

This graphic was submitted by one our readers, Lauren J, regarding the TSA and the terrors of airport security.  The graphic is visually creative in communicating various statistics and bits of information.  It can also be found at http://www.onlineuniversities.net/tsa-graphic.  You can also find the html code there in case you'd like to add it to your own web page.  Thanks, Lauren!

Anyone else with an original image or article relevant to political issues and current events may email submissions here.  Keep in mind that we will not post anything spouting hatred or intolerance, inciting violence, or depicting obscenity.

--Representative Zach Foster