On removing the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from the Capitol

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Yesterday, the state Capitol Commission voted 7 to 5 against removing the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol (link). I think the bust of  Forrest probably should be removed from the State Capitol and moved to the State museum but I can't work up a lot of passion around the issue.  I feel those bust in the capitol should be reserved for people worthy of being revered and honored.  Forrest' early leadership roll in the KKK, his roll as a slave trader and his roll in the Battle of Fort Pillow probably make him unworthy of being honored.  Governor Haslam, Senator Lamar Alexander and various other political leaders have called for removing the bust. I can go along with those calling for the removal but it is with reservation.  I am glad there is a process in place that tempers opinions of the moment.


Despite coming down on the side of removing this bust, I think we should be concerned about the growing iconoclastic frenzy of tearing down of statues and monuments.  President Andrew Jackson owned slaves and he is responsible for the removal the Cherokee to Oklahoma.  By the time of their removal in 1838, the Cherokee had adopted the ways of white settlers. The Cherokee were not a threat to anyone. They were farmers, they became Christians, developed an alphabet, and printed a newspaper. The Trail of Tears has been roundly criticized as immoral and inhuman.  Yet, I do not want to remove the statue of Andrew Jackson from the grounds of the Sate capitol.

Andrew Jackson

If we start removing the statues and monuments to  every former slave owner and everyone who does not conform to contemporary values, then President Trump is right when he ask if the Washington monument and Jefferson Memorial are not next. The path of tearing down statures to historical figures is a slippery slope. If we are going to undo any honor bestowed on historical figures who were imperfect, then we have a lot of tearing down to do. If the standard is that only those who conform to our current standard of values are worthy of being honored then a lot of monuments must topple and every town or county or street named Columbus or Washington or Jefferson needs a name change.

Sam Davis, Confederate hero

While I am OK with removing the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the place of honor in the Capitol, I generally oppose the trend of tearing down historical statues across the country.  Some of the statues honoring Confederate generals however, were erected in late 1950's and early 60's as a show of contempt for federal intervention to force the South to desegregate and end Jim Crow.  This is the same time period in which several Southern states incorporated the Confederate battle flag into their state flags in a defiant stand against integration.  Some of the statues erected during that period probably should come down. 

In determining which statues should come down, I think their artistic merit, when they were erected, and who they honor should be considerations. In my view, some, but very, very few, and only after a slow deliberative process should any statures be removed.

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Charlie Daniels: my honest feelings on the Confederate flag.

Charlie Daniels

Reposted from Charlie Daniels Soap Box - The recent senseless act of slaughter in a church in Charleston, South Carolina awakened America to the ever present lunacy and evil that walks among us and has also reopened some old wounds and deep feelings on both sides of a long festering situation.

Before I go any farther with this piece, I wish to express my love and admiration for the people of Charleston who have, in the face of immense pain, shown a restraint and a common sense seldom seen in tragic situations involving race.

When I saw the pictures of the people who had been murdered I made the statement, "I know these people", which I didn't mean literally, but figuratively, in that they were the kind of Christian people I have been around all my life, worked with and sat in the pews of churches with.

Salt of the earth folks, who not only professed to know the Lord Jesus Christ, but lived their faith every day of their lives. The kind of people you want to have praying for you, the kind who know how to put their arms around a hurting person and comfort and console.

The kind of people who raised their families to turn to Almighty God in times of trouble and heartbreak, proven by the forgiving words spoken by family members in court to the monster who had wantonly murdered their loved ones.

As in all Satan inspired iniquity, God has the ability to bring great good and in this situation, the people of Charleston South Carolina have shown the world what being a Christian is all about and the depth of common sense and class that exists in that community.

I feel sure that a jury of peers in South Carolina will see that Dylann Roof gets what’s coming to him and justice will be served and meted out to the full extent of the law.

In relation to the main crux of my column today I would like to relate an experience I had in a Midwestern city when the band was appearing with the local symphony orchestra. In the evening before the show started, one of the venue staff came to me and said, "There is a gentleman out front who is offended by the confederate flag on your piano".

I responded that we didn't have a Confederate flag painted on our piano. The upshot of the whole thing was that Taz, our keyboard player, had an American flag and a Tennessee flag with the flagstaffs crossed on the front of his piano with a drawing of his namesake, a cartoon Tasmanian Devil, and the phrase "Yessiree, Tennessee" painted under it.

The point I'm making is that this gentleman was probably the kind of person who looks for something to be offended about and sees things that aren't even there in an attempt to find something.  Of course the situation concerning the Confederate flag in Charleston is a much more serious situation with justifiable feelings that go back a century and a half, and the problem has the potential to be a racially divisive one.

The bottom line is that the flag in question represents one thing to some people and another thing to others.  Far be it from me to advise the people of South Carolina or any other state as to what they should fly over their capitol buildings or anywhere else in the state for that matter, but I truly hate to see the opportunists move in and create a symbol of hate out of a simple piece of cloth.

Of course we know most politicians are going to chime in and glean whatever political hay that is available, but, in my book, the corporate rush to rid their shelves of anything with the Confederate battle flag on it is pure hypocrisy.

If they felt that deeply about the subject, they should have done something years ago and I notice they have no problem accepting the profits from the merchandise they have on hand. I have received many requests to do interviews on this subject and had a lot of tweets asking me to comment, but I declined, wanting to take the time to explain my feelings in detail, without having to answer other people's loaded questions or express myself in 140-character limit of Twitter.

This will have the potential to be lengthy, so bear with me and I will try my best to relate my honest feelings on the Confederate flag in question which was actually the battle flag carried by several Confederate army regiments, and not the official flag of the Confederacy.

I was born in 1936, a mere 71 years after the Civil War ended when the South was looked upon by what seemed to be a majority of the Northern States as an inbred, backward, uneducated, slow-talking and slower-thinking people, with low morals and a propensity for incest.

This was in the days before television and about all the folks up North knew about Southerners was what they heard and there were a lot of people who took great pleasure in proliferating the myth, and some still do it to this day.  As you might suppose, people in the South bitterly resented this attitude of superiority and in some quarters the words “damn” and “Yankee” became one word and a somewhat fierce type of Southern pride came into being. The Confederate battle flag was a sign of defiance, a sign of pride, a declaration of a geographical area that you were proud to be from. That’s all it is to me and all it ever has ever been to me.

I can’t speak for all, but I know in my heart that most Southerners feel the same way.  I have no desire to reinstate the Confederacy, I oppose slavery as vehemently as any man and I believe that every human being, regardless of the color of their skin is just as valuable as I am and deserves the exact same rights and advantages as I do.

I feel that this controversy desperately needs to be settled without federal interference and input from race baiters like Al Sharpton, that it's up to the individual states as to what they allow to be a part of their public image, what the majority of the people of any given state want should, in my opinion, be their policy.

Unfortunately, the Confederate battle flag has been adopted by hate groups - and individuals like Dylann Roof - to supposedly represent them and their hateful view of the races. Please believe me when I say that, to the overwhelming majority of Southerners, the flag represents no such thing, but is simply a banner denoting an area of the nation and one's pride in living there. I know there will be those who will take these words of mine, try to twist them or call them insincere and try to make what I've said here some kind of anti-black racial statement, but I tell everybody who reads this article, I came up in the days of cruel racial prejudice and Jim Crow laws, when the courts were tilted against any black man, the segregated educational system was inferior and opportunities for blacks to advance were almost nonexistent.

I lived through the useless cruelty of those days and did not get my feelings out of some sensitivity class or social studies course, but made my own decisions out of experience and disgust.  I hold no ill feelings and have no axes to grind with my brothers and sisters of any color. The same God made us, the same God will judge us, and I pray that He will intervene in the deep racial divide we have in this nation and make each person – black or white - see each other for what we truly are, human beings, no better, no worse.

It's time to do away with labels, Caucasian-American, African-American, Asian-American, Native American and so forth.  How about just a simple "AMERICAN"?

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem. God Bless America.

Charlie Daniels

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The Confederate Flag and "I sang Dixie."

It looks like it belongs in the Dixie Putt-Putt golf course.

I  think the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina should come down, but I don't live there and it is not for me to decide but I can still have an opinion, like everyone else who has weighed in on the topic. I think it is unnecessary to offend other people unless there is goods reason to do so, and many people find the Confederate flag offensive.

Following the tragedy of the senseless shooting in Charleston South Carolina it seems the focus has shifted to the appropriateness of having a Confederate battle flag fly on the grounds of the state capital, as if there was a connection between the two. From the issue of the appropriateness of the confederate battle flag flying on the grounds of the state capital in South Carolina the discussion has expanded to other displays anywhere that memorialize the civil war in the South and pay homage to our ancestors and heroes.

As it relates to the fiberglass stature of Nathan Bedford Forrest on I-64, I really dislike it.  I doubt most tourist driving through know it is Nathan Bedford Forrest, however.  At 70 miles an hour you probably have no idea what it commemorates.  My dislike for the stature has to do primarily with aesthetics. It looks cartoonist. It is ugly. It looks like the kind of "art" one finds on a putt-putt golf course. Maybe travelers going up I-65 at 75 miles an hour think they have just missed a putt-putt golf course.

Also, I have to ask: the horse has a saddle, but no bridle.Why is that?  Should it not have a bridle? Surely General Forrest did not ride a horse without a bridle? Despite my dislike of the statue, I think it is a waste of effort to try to build a foliage barricade to hide it from sight.

In response to controversy over the Confederate battle flag near the South Carolina state house, Walmart, Amazon, Sears, and eBay have all stopped selling items featuring the Confederate flag and the parent company that owns the rights to the Dukes of Hazard merchandise has announced they will no longer license the General Lee car featured in that show. Other states and locals have began looking at the appropriateness of statues and bust of Confederate heroes and images on state and county seals that recall historical Confederate associations and names of streets, bridges, and buildings named to honor Confederate dead.

I understand the desire to ban the Confederate flag.  I guess if I were African-American I would find it offensive and want it banned.  I think I know how they feel because I feel much the same way about that hate symbol known as the "peace" sign.  That is the symbol that those who betrayed out troops in the field, marched under during the Vietnam war.  That is the sign carried by the American fifth column on campuses and in the streets of America that encouraged the enemy not to give up because they had massive numbers of supporters in America who were daily trying to persuade their own government to give up, pull out of the war and give the North Vietnamese an easy victory.  Now, that symbol of betrayal is sold on eBay, Walmart, Amazon and Sears and elsewhere as a fashion accessory. You can find it on backpacks and clothing and pocketbooks and any number of items. Personally, I would prefer to ban the peace sign over banning the confederate flag. I personally find the peace sign offensive. No one grantees me the right to not be offended however.

The flag we cal the "Confederate flag" was not a national flag of the Confederacy but was the

battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia.  It only came to be considered the Confederate flag, later. I don't think most people who display it or celebrate seeing it being displayed think of it as a racist symbol. During the civil rights era, some southern segregationist appropriated the flag as their own symbol to show defiance to federal authority but time has passed since then and I think that to most people the Confederate flag is simply a symbol of southerness.

I myself am from East Tennessee, which during the Civil War was pro-Union. That is why East Tennessee was a Republican stronghold in a Democrat Tennessee from then on.  Areas of the South that were too hilly to grow cotton were generally pro-Union in the Civil War and became isolated Republicans strong holds for the next 125 years in an otherwise solid Democrat South.  So, I did not come from a pro-confederate part of the South, but I still had an identity that was represented by the Confederate flag. I never wore a confederate belt buckle or had a confederate license plate on my pick up truck (I never owned a pick up truck). I did however, own a Lynard Skynyrd album that featured a Confederate flag.

My favorite music has always been Country music but during the 70's I became a big fan of Southern Rock. My preference in Southern Rock never went as far toward the hard rock end as the spectrum as Molly Hatchet, tending more toward the country rock of The Charlie Daniels Band and Marshal Tucker Band.  For several years I attended the Charlie Daniels Volunteer Jams held at Municipal Auditorium. These shows were a blast of great music and hard partying that easily ran ten hours long and while I saw everyone from Roy Acuff to James Brown and even an occasional classical musician or gospel choir, the foundation of the shows was Southern Rock. Many participants brought Confederate battle flags and waved them during the show.

Charlie Daniels would start the show by saying, "Ain't it Great to be alive and be in Tennessee!"  And, the crowd would go wild.  I think that like celebrating a shout out to being in Tennessee, the Confederate battle flag was symbolic of a shout out to being proud of one's southerness. A lot of Southern Rock bands not only celebrated being Southern but celebrated their State identity.  Charlie Daniels' albums often featured representations of the tri-star symbol from the Tennessee flag and at the start of his performance would say, "I'm Charlie Daniels from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee."  Marshal Tucker's shows would start with an announcement: "From Spartanburg South Carolina, it's the Marshall Tucker Band!" And, The Alman Brothers let it be known they were from Georgia and several of their album covers featured some representation of the peach, which represents Georgia. Southern Rock, like Country music often celebrated the South and a sense of place.  I still love the CDB song "The South's Gonna do it Again."

I know that now America is becoming so homogenized that there is not much sense of place any

Southern Motel

more. Almost any where you go, you see the same chain restaurants and people listen to the same music and you rarely hear a heavy accent. There may be more people living in Nashville born elsewhere than there are native Nashvillians. I don't know if that is really a good thing or not.  I certainly want foreign immigrants to become Americanized, and would not want so much regionalism that it was a source of conflict. By the same token, I think something valuable is lost when we lose the way we speak, the way we interact and when we all become antonymous individuals rather than people with a sense of place and history and a sense of belonging.

I think this search to take down symbols of southerness had gotten out of hand. Recently, mayoral candidate Charles Bone who is an investor in the lower Broadway venue Acme Feed and Seeds, responded to a complaint about a piece of artwork that hung in that establishment and he had it removed. The artwork features a women wearing a Confederate flag bikini in front of a sign that says "Southern Motel."  Wearing the Confederate flag on your butt is not honoring the flag. Any idiot who is offended by this piece of art should be told to "get over it."  As Tom Morales owner of the establishment said about the piece, it is "satirical commentary on Southern culture."

This is nuts! What next? Ban the songs of Stephen Foster? Ban the playing of "Dixie?" Burn down the surviving antebellum plantation
mansions? Remove the Confederate memorial statue in the square in Franklin?

Political correctness has already stifled speech in America to where conservative commencement speakers are disinvited from speaking if students object. People shout down views they do not agree with. Are we to become the American Taliban and destroy icons of the past because they don't fit our current ideology?

I'll close with this:

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Confederate Belt Buckles and Che Guevara

Recently in Clinton, Tennessee a teenager's free-speech lawsuit against the Anderson County School Board ended in a mistrial when a jury in federal court failed to reach a verdict.

The teenager, Tommy Defoe, routinely wore a Confederate belt buckle to school in violation of a dress code that bars the Confederate symbol from student clothing. By the time he finished school last fall he had been suspended more than 40 times for wearing Confederate flag apparel.
While many consider the flag a symbol of racism, DeFoe said he considered it an emblem of Southern heritage.

Usually cases such as this are dismissed by judges or settled out of court. It is rare that such cases go to trial. The attorney for Defoe is quoted as saying, "The fact that we have gotten this far and the fact that we came so close to a victory ... should send a message to all school boards in the country that if you are banning things based on the fact that it is offensive, that violates the Constitution,"

I know that the Confederate symbol has been appropriated by the Klan and other White power hate groups, but it has also been used to simply denote Southern identity and is often associated with everything from Southern Rock music to NASCAR to college football. I have no way of knowing the motivation of Defoe in wearing the Confederate Flag.

I generally support school dress codes, and without having set through the trail I do not know how I would have voted. If the dress code banned all slogans and emblems and symbols as clothing or clothing accessories, I would have had to support the school board. If the Confederate flag was specified as a banned item of clothing but not other controversial symbols, I would have to side with Defoe.

I am certain that many find the Confederate Flag offensive, but I do not think that that is sufficient justification for banning it. I do not think we have the right not to be offended. There are other symbols that I find as offensive as I am sure some liberals find the Confederate flag. If we are going to be selective about the symbols we ban, I would start by banning the peace sign (link) and images of Che Guevara.

Che has become chic. Images of Che Guevara have become popular items of clothing accessories among celebrities and the youth. Many decent liberal parents would be outraged if their teenage son wore a swastika or Confederate flag but never bat an eye at their child wearing a Che Guevara necklace or tee shirt. These otherwise decent people somehow never have equated Communism with evil the same way they do Nazism or even the Confederacy. Ask a liberal what their response would be if their teenage son was to wear an image of Hitler around his neck. How do you think they would respond?

Che Guevara was a murdering Communist revolutionary terrorist and in South America attempted to bring about Communist revolution. In Cuba, he was Chief executioner for the Castro regime responsible for the murder of thousands. As Cuban’s Minister of Economics and the Minister of Industries he was responsible for the total destruction of the Cuban economy. Productive factories were closed and food rationing implemented. Thousands of Cuba’s most productive citizens risked their lives and took to the open sea on makeshift rafts with only the clothes on their back to escape the police state created by Fidel and Che. These people are real heroes, not the jailer they were escaping; yet liberal parents think it cute if their teen wears Che apparel.

When Che is banned, talk to me about the Confederate flag.

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