Eric Johnson, architech of heritage destruction - Commentary by Randy Phillips

For a number of years, Governors in Georgia and some other Southern States have proclaimed April as Confederate History and Heritage Month at the request of Southern Heritage groups, but it is a voluntary action, not a law.

Last Summer, the Georgia Heritage Council and a few others met and decided we needed to enact Confederate Heritage and History Month into law. It is needed, not only because everything Confederate is under attack by some small but well connected interest groups, but also because the history of the period is being banished from classrooms. The South’s history and war for independence are a large part of our region’s cultural inheritance which every southerner shares, and it needs to be understood, appreciated and publicly and officially honored.

The aim of Confederate Heritage and History Month is to remember, educate and promote our history and counteract misconceptions we see and hear almost daily in the media. Economically, there is huge tourist potential for promoting this history.

The bill has been introduced and cleared by committee in the Senate, but Senator Eric Johnson, together with the black caucus, has announced plans to carjack the promotion of Confederate History and Heritage Month. Eric Johnson has embraced the agenda of the NAACP to virtually eradicate the Confederacy.

The NAACP and its allies have a number of tactics to indoctrinate the public, but perhaps the most important one is to create the belief in the public mind the War Between the States was fought to end slavery, despite all the evidence to the contrary. These people know that if the public believes the war was fought over slavery, then those who fought it and everything said and done to honor them or their cause will be viewed as “bad.” Honoring the Confederacy--—even the word Confederate---and those who fought for it will eradicated. If they can just discredit the truth, the statues, flags, names on streets, parks, and buildings, and holidays will go. Public expressions of our heritage will be all but nonexistent, and privately frowned on if “it was about slavery” is allowed to usurp the truth in reference to The War Between The States.

This campaign is the reason we now have “black history and slavery” interpretations and museum displays at the national battlefields. It is why in Columbus, Georgia the local Confederate Naval Museum was changed to The National Civil War Naval Museum and a wing added on black history--—to promote the theme. Hate speech masquerading as 'art' (taxpayer grant funded) has become the norm.

And now, with Eric Johnson leading the pack, they are on the verge of pulling off a huge similar tactical victory here in Georgia. Their plan is to add a “slavery apology” to the Confederate Heritage and History Month bill. If they succeed in this, it will be another success in the plan: It will tie the Confederacy and slavery together in the “war to end slavery”, and apologize.

Instead of the month being a chance to celebrate and take pride in our heritage and educate the public about the facts of history, Confederate Heritage and History Month will become a month long attack on the Confederacy for “fighting for slavery” and southerners will be told we should be ashamed of the South, our state’s history, and our ancestors.

If a slavery apology is made a part of the Confederate Heritage and History Month legislation, it will be a much greater disaster in the long run to the truth and our heritage than the theft of the 1956 flag. Instead of a month of celebration and pride, it will become a month of “atonement” and “shame.”

Better by far to have no legislation at all than the two in the same bill.

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Randy Phillips is a former State Representative and member of GHC's Steering Committee.

Related Links
Eric Johnson: Brazen Hypocrite and Political Opportunist - Steve Scroggins

Apologies, let's be clear - J.A. Davis

Slavery, Apologies & Duty - Steve Scroggins

Slavery Apologies, an absurd guilt-trip gesture - Steve Scroggins

Frankly Speaking on Slavery Apologies - Frank Gillispie

Regrets for slavery - Walter E. Williams

Understanding the Causes of the Uncivil War - Mike Scruggs