Black activists planned and carried out a protest at the Taylor County courthouse in Butler, Georgia, a small community about half way between Macon and Columbus (text of news story is below). They are protesting the presence of a monument to World War II veterans, a plaque mounted inside the courthouse building on a wall near the entrance.

Their beef? They don't like the fact that the names are segregated by race with one list for "whites" and another for "colored." Here we go again...

I won't belabor the nature of enforced segregation. It's a fact of history. It happened. That's the way it was. WHY is another subject entirely...but I'll just say that racial harmony was forever marred across the South by the federal occupation popularly referred to as "Reconstruction" and its aftermath.

White supremacy was the general rule across the USA (and western civilization) before and after 1865 and I'd say even more pronounced in the northern and midwestern states. As a form of "punishment," military rulers driven by their civilian "radical Republican" leaders in D.C. made it a point to disenfranchise the white voters of the Southern states after the war and to thereby place in "elected" office a large number of illiterate former slave puppets to carry out the bidding of their new carpetbagger masters. Corruption was epidemic. When the federal occupiers finally left in the late 1870s, the backlash against blacks (and white scallawags) was severe and the stage was set for generations of racial mistrust and reprisals.

Segregation became the law...it's the way it was. People, left to their own choice, will segregate themselves voluntarily usually along racial lines. We see it in churches, housing and any gathering of people. It's just a natural tendency. But when the government enforces it involuntarily, it will inevitably result in injustice.

Fortunately, there were (and are) Americans with the courage to challenge the status quo and appeal to the inherent sense of justice of the American people. Unfortunately, the corrupt and the demagogues from the 'civil rights' movement now call for enforced injustice, now they want special treatment based on race in a Marxist utopian dream to achieve equality of outcomes---they want inequality enforced by the federal government. Demagogues continue to foment racial unrest now and will do so for the foreseeable future. It's unconscionable, but that's just how it is.

Seen through the prism of true history, the protest for change at the Taylor County courthouse becomes comical. I'm sure there are some sincere people who simply disagree. But isn't it better to leave the monument as is so that future generations can see for themselves how it was? Let posterity judge it without erasing only those parts that current folks find offensive.

Allowing vocal malcontents to change selective aspects of history (of which monuments are a vital part) is a slippery slope... it opens the door to more erasure and revision that will never end until our 'history' is completely changed. Actually, what happened won't be changed at all, but rather we're just attempting to change the collective memory of it as documented in our culture.

I personally despise the fact that war criminal Abraham Lincoln is honored with a memorial in D.C., and that his ugly visage glares at me from American currency, yet I don't advocate erasing all history about him. Let the truth stand, including the massive propaganda hoax that has been ingrained on generations of Americans that consider him a "great" president and the mythology that describes him as "the Great Emancipator." A people who would be free need to understand all the ways in which their government can betray them.

My point in bringing this story to your attention is to note several interesting issues, namely the contradictions of the "painful reminder" argument, the irony of unintended consequences and to contrast an ethical government body with an unethical one.

After the war, Taylor County leaders wanted to acknowledge the sacrifices of WWII veterans of all races. The plaque itself shows two lists...and they are absolutely equal in terms of prominence. What seems to bother the protestors is that the veteran's race is the factor that separates the lists and that they're labeled "whites" and "colored."

These activists use the "painful reminder" argument to 'justify' this removal just as they have to 'justify' the removal of flags, monuments, plaques, statues, street names, school names and other monuments to military service when that service happens to have been in the Confederate armed forces. They're all for the "ethnic cleansing" of Dixie.

They have no problem, however, singling out the Tuskegee Airmen (a segregated WWII unit) for special recognition, or with building museums to Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad, the NPS museums to slavery or with re-enacting lynchings. If the "painful reminder" serves to better guilt-trip or incite resentment, they're all for it.

They just prefer selective memories that advance an agenda. That agenda, of course, is preserving special government treatment based on race (the inequality they railed against in the 50s and 60s) and in keeping alive the bogie-man of racism (only the white version) with which to pry loose the purse strings of their declining membership. Can you say H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y ?

The NAACP and legislators such as Tyrone Brooks (aka Tyronnesaurus Brooks)--- a known racist who favors black people even if they happen to be convicted pedophiles----led the charge to change the Georgia State flag. Their efforts to change the state flag spanned a period over 20 years (amassing a mountain of lies and distortions including the Date Fallacy).

When the flag was finally changed, the resulting legislation made it illegal to "desecrate and remove" any monuments to military veterans in Georgia. That law was subsequently reinforced with additional language (see paragraphs B1 and B2) to make it a crime for any public officials to remove, desecrate or conceal monuments to military service.

Taylor County Commissioner Carson James (who is black the article points out) explained that although some wanted to remove the plaque and replace it with a new desegregated one, it was brought to their attention that to do would violate Georgia law.

Isn't it ironic that the legislation to change the State flag is what placed this prohibition on removing military monuments (the one they now find offensive)? But that's the point isn't it? What will be found "offensive" tomorrow? The next day? And when all such "offensive" things are removed or concealed, will the end result even remotely resemble what really happened or the original intent?

Ms. James suggested that the protestors need to take their beef to the General Assembly. I saw her interviewed on 13WMAZ-TV (Macon) and she said, "I don't care how long they stay here, we're not going to remove the plaque." She did indicate that plans are underway to put up a new one that includes names previously omitted in error and which doesn't segregate based on race. It would be too much to hope that NAACP officials will boycott Georgia, thus rendering a windfall of tourism dollars to Georgia that South Carolina currently enjoys.

Finally, it should be noted that Taylor County Officials followed the law despite the noise made by NAACP activists...unlike the officials in Augusta Georgia who desecrated the monument to military service at their Riverwalk by removing certain flags and coverning the plaques placed there to describe and explain those flags.

We can only speculate what will happen in the case before the Georgia Supreme Court. If the Court finds that Augusta Riverwalk monument is not really a monument, will the Taylor County Commission be enboldened enough to think that the monument plaque in their courthouse is not really a monument plaque? Will it make it easier for other local governments to cave in to pressure from the NAACP and other perpetual complaint groups?

A friend of mine named Benny Scott died in January of 2005. Benny was a walking history book and a respected community leader. He happened to be black and one of the original civil rights leaders. He was a veteran of WWII who served in North Africa and Italy. He was a minor league baseball player, a shortstop for the black Macon Peaches.

In telling me his baseball stories, I learned that there was a separate Macon team in those days for black players. It's just the way it was. Benny could tell you stories of the old days without a hint of anger in his voice. He was almost always cheerful and had a great sense of humor. Segregated train depots, restaurants, churches. His stories often mingled the tragic with the comical, the hardships with the wonderful and joyous.

Benny was a commander of the Vining-Goodman Post 501 of the American Legion in Macon. He stood up for himself and his fellow veterans who happened to be black...and people came to respect him. He was the first black engineer for the Norfolk Southern railroad and a monument to Benny marks the entrance to historic Central City Park in Macon which is also the entrance to Norfolk-Southern's Brosnan Yard.

A story about Benny was written in the Exchange Club's EXCHANGE TODAY Magazine which illustrates how he dealt with segregation upon his return to the U.S. after the war. Depsite his bold stand for equality, I feel certain that Benny would laugh at the protestors in Taylor County if he were alive today. He would say, "It's just the way it was...and we worked to change it---WHERE IT COUNTS." And then he would ask, "What are you doing about better schools for black children? What are you doing about crime? Teenage pregnancy and unwed mothers?"