Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 26, 1993                   TAG: 9305270314
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FLAG NOT SYMBOL OF RACISM

I reviewed his column, and it is a first-class example of rewriting history to fit present-day political orthodoxy. I wonder if paragons of political correctness will do a similar reshaping 100 years hence of the suffering and sacrifice of Americans in military service in our own century?

Recchi should talk to Dr. Leonard L. Haynes Jr. of Southern University, or Professor Edward Smith of American University, as to the attitude of black people about the Confederate flag. Both Haynes and Smith are black, so I know that will immediately give them increased credibility in Recchi's eyes. They will tell him that more than 50,000 blacks fought for the Confederacy, and they were Southern patriots who fought to defend their homes and communities rather than preserve the institution of slavery. They may also tell him that fewer than one in 10 persons in Southern states owned any slaves at all, according to the Federal Agricultural Census of 1860, of Lincoln's oft-stated desire to save the Union with or without slavery, and that Union units threw down their arms when they heard of the Emancipation Proclamation.

It is hard to change notions of history learned under the insistent pressure of the collective guilt promulgated by Recchi and his ilk. The right of Southern people to determine their own government was negated by federal bayonets. In the name of what cause today would he permit the suppression of newspapers, closing of churches, suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, replacement of civil courts with military tribunals, and wholesale imprisonment without trial of persons solely on the basis of their political views?

Our organization has fought for years against persons who, in the name of insensitivity and ignorance masquerading as "sensitivity," would hand our Confederate symbols over to hatemongers whose misuse and abuse of them would cause our Confederate ancestors to roll over in their graves.

As Recchi said, "Some people just don't get it," and he's definitely one. ROBERT L. HAWKINS III Commander-in-chief Sons of Confederate Veterans JACKSON, MISS.