For centuries after Rome was sacked by Alaric the Goth (410A.D.) and after Romulus Augustus resigned as the last Roman Emperor (476 A.D.) in the western empire, there were peoples all over the eastern Mediterranean using Roman coins and calling themselves Romans and despite the fact that they spoke Greek and worshipped in the Greek Orthodox Church rather than the Roman Catholic Church, they pledged allegiance to a man who called himself a Roman Emperor. Historians call them Byzantines in an effort to reduce confusion. Their “Roman” empire based in Constantinople continued until the 13th century.

As the saying goes, old habits die hard.

Despite all the advances of civil rights and equality before the law in America in the 1960s, seventies and eighties, the NAACP has continued to beat their drum about ongoing racism. As membership and interest fell in the late eighties and early nineties, they declared jihad on Confederate flags and symbols as a convenient bogie man with which to loosen the purse strings of extorted contributors and to keep the historically ignorant aggrieved and agitated about alleged oppressions.

They embarked on a campaign that has been called the Ethnic Cleansing of Dixie which includes changing the names of schools, streets and buildings named for Southern heroes in addition to removing flags, monuments and visible reminders of our shared heritage.

Along the way, the NAACP and their mouthpieces began issuing contradictory demands. On the one hand, they wanted to hide and remove from public sight all “painful reminders of slavery.” On the other hand, they pressed for more and more funding and holidays to commemorate the civil rights movement and more and more funding to convert historic battlefield sites controlled by the National Park Service into slavery museums. All of this leads us to ask the question, “Which is it? Do you or do you not want to remember?” The rather obvious double standard seems altogether "right" to the politically correct.

And so it comes as no complete surprise that the “painful reminder” argument was trotted out again last week. The headline reads, “State NAACP chief raises objections to Mobile's Azalea Trail Maids' role at inauguration.”

Essentially, Alabama NAACP President Edward Vaughn says that the pastel colored hoop dresses, bonnets and parasols worn by the Azalea Trail Maids reminds him of slavery (which of course is painful). I’m not making this up.

Please, nobody tell him that they call the presidential residence the "White House"...and please don't mention that part of it was built with slave labor. Unless...would that mean we could cancel the whole inauguration?

Back to painful reminders...I wonder what other fashion or attire will come under attack in the Ethnic Cleansing jihad for reminding the NAACP of something painful? Just looking at the fashions and hair styles of my old high school year books brings me pain, too, but I smile my way through it.

Back to the Trail Maids...Vaughn also says that their inclusion in the Inaugural parade will make Alabama “a laughing-stock.” That’s the pot calling the kettle----well, you know what I mean.

The young women in the Trail Maids group include 39 whites, eight who are black, one of Asian descent and two native Americans. They represent the best and brightest of Mobile. Their traditional attire is another tradition to be casually sacrificed on the PC jihad alter?

The NAACP should hire the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) to, for the right price, prove how racist the Azalea Trail Maids really are. Skilled character assassins that the SPLC are, I’m sure they can dig up some dirt ---or just make it up--- on the Maids and tell us all about it in one of their “Intelligence Reports.”

The Maids may have been infiltrated by members of "hate groups" like the Girl Scouts, the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) or the scariest hate group of all, the UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy). Despite the obvious track record of clueless incompetence and deception, certain media outlets continue to quote the SPLC as an authoritative voice.

It’s especially ironic that this “controversy” arises for the inauguration of Barry Soetoro ---sorry, Barack Hussein Obama, the first half black president. Just a few days after the election, Tom Adkins, publisher of CommonConservative.com told us that the “Era of White Guilt is Over.”

Adkins concludes his commentary this way...