January 17, 2014 - Article - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and General Robert E. Lee – A Memorial to Courage

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and General Robert E. Lee – A Memorial to Courage

400 Words

by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

In many ways we are still caught up in a War which we are taught ended in 1865. Lies piled on evasions prevent our healing.

Each human soul caught in the maelstrom of the War to Uphold the Constitution suffered hideously. Southern families suffered through Reconstruction, forced to rebuild their lives and economy from ground zero. Their suffering was generations in length, resting on the grievous loss of people they loved. Blacks in the South suffered from the misdirected rage of a people who had lost everything. No divisions were ended through War.

The pain of both white and black Southerners was wide and deep, remaining with us to this day.

For reconciliation to take place there must be healing, and only in the truth can that be found.

Dr. King once said, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” He was a man who loved the truth, and the whole of humanity, rejecting hate. He willingly placed his life in jeopardy for his people. His birthday is January 15^th, but will be celebrated on the 18^th this year.

January 19^th is the birthday for General Robert E. Lee. Ten years before the War he freed his slaves, many remained on the plantation. His body servant, William Mack, remained with him until Lee died. General Lee left Mack a legacy, allowing him to attend school and become a minister.

Lee did not approve of slavery. He understood the War originated from the issue of self-governance. He stood with his native state.

Lee and King were men of different eras with much in common. Devout Christians, both were willing to lay down their lives for their people. Both withheld judgment of others, seeking always the path marked out for them by the Savior they both worshiped. For each the truth was essential.

Dr. King - “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

General Lee - “You must study to be frank with the world: frankness is the child of honesty and courage. Say just what you mean to do on every occasion, and take it for granted that you mean to do right.”

Honor them both.

Visit Southern Spirit Rising to advance real reconciliation.

January 17, 2014 - Statement by Dr. Charles Lincoln

A statement released by Dr. Charles E. Lincoln, III

charles.e.lincoln@gmail.com

Spokesman Southern Spirit Rising 

 

Southerners are treated as second class citizens, a state of affairs existing since the loss of the War to Uphold the Constitution in 1865. Not only our ancestors but their descendants for the succeeding generations have been continually defamed and traumatized as a matter of government policy. It is time the truth be told, and it is time for a meaningful act of reconciliation. 

 

Reconciliation cannot happen when one side silences the other by further traumatizing them. This has been like a battered wife who after 'making up,' is told her bruises and broken teeth were her own fault because she burned the bacon. No, reconciliation is what happens when both sides are respected, admit their wrong doning, and make amends with action.

 

The South was drained of resources and left dry, not just from the War but from the Occupation the Federal government laughingly called 'Reconstruction.' Recovery took generations. 

 

In this case the two sides are not Southern and Black but all Americans, today hammered by the combination of federal government and corporations. 

 

Now, a beginning for the truth. 

 

The facts are these: The Civil War was waged not to end slavery but to prevent the Southern States from exercising their Constitutional right to secession. The immediate reason for the decision by the South went to the issue of taxation, which the Federal government was determined to control and increase beyond the Constitutional limitations set in stone. 

 

The issue of slavery was used to entice Northerners to support the war, which many later regretted, as the result was an enormously enlarged Federal government, a monetary system which had lost its foundation on gold and silver, and a confiscatory income tax. This is also the source of the regulatory infrastructure, including licensing for doing business. The motive was never the well being of the public but income generation for the federal government. 

 

These causes, and a loss of life and property measured in the billions and many believed, retrospectively, they would have listened to William Lloyd Garrison and embraced Secession for the South. Garrison was, initially, an advocate for secession by the North. 

 

Today, far too many Americans have forgotten the facts. Southern Spirit Rising (SouthernSpiritRising.com), is going to provide those facts and return to the South a proper pride in its people and their roots. 

 

Every problem we face today in banking, continuous wars, a regulatory infrastructure run for the benefit of the corporations, and more, can be traced back to the determination of Abraham Lincoln to violate the Constitution he gave an oath to defend. 

 

It is impossible to number the violations suffered by the Southern States and Southerners, but the time for an apology has come. 

 

President Barack Obama, on behalf of the United States you as CEO must extend an apology and offer reparations to the seceding states and to the families of the dead in that war. Because the war was carried out as a fraud against those in the Northern States you should also offer an apology to them and to the families of their dead. 

 

When this has taken place, you will have standing to open a discussion on reconciliation. However, we are not waiting. 

 

The breaking point for me was an announcement made by the Very Reverend David duPlantier during the service in September, at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans.

When duPlantier made his announcement I knew the time for action had arrived. I began with a very polite letter sent to the leadership of Christ Church Cathedral. It was received with silence and I was given the cut direct by duPlantier.

 

Having an M.A. From Tulane, with honors, a PhD in Anthropology and History from Harvard, and a J.D., from the University of Chicago, School of Law, along with a life time of study on these issues, I understand the facts as do many who have been coerced to remain silent. 

 

The issue was never slavery but the Constitution. But since this has been presented as the issue for 150 years as a justification we will open a discussion of the economics, background, and anthropological significance of slavery and the related issues of cannibalism, torture, and human sacrifice, all common in Africa and Mesoamerica at the time.

The unappetizing fact is Africans who were sold into slavery to America survived and were not eaten. Plans to repatriate former slaves to Africa were met with a marked lack of enthusiasm by those who would have made the journey back to a place where cannibalism was still in active practice until decades after the close of the Civil War. 

 

Clearly, Americans need this information and to understand the underpinnings of the present regime in Washington D. C. and their corporate partners. We are going to provide the facts through a dialog on all of these related issues. 

 

I'm a proud descendant of men who fought at Pickett's Charge. I salute them. 

 

The dialog and examination of facts begins on Sunday, January 19^th, the birthday of General Robert E. Lee. If you are in New Orleans salute his statue or place a flower there in grateful memory. 

 

The spirit of Southerners is rising and demanding the truth be told.

News Release No. 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Phone: 805-xxx-xxxx

E-Mail: southernspiritrising@gmail.com

Los Angeles, CA – At a meeting held in Beverly Hills, CA, New Orleans resident, Dr. Charles E. Lincoln, III announced the launch of a website, Southern Spirit Rising, (SouthernSpiritRising.com), which Dr. Lincoln said, will be a beacon of much needed healing for Southerners hungry to express their pride in their ancestors who stood up for the America's founding principles during the War to Uphold the Constitution in 1861.

Dr. Lincoln cited an incident at Christ Church Cathedral last September as the originating moment for the site and campaign.

“It struck me as I sat listening to the Very Reverend David duPlantier announce in the most sanctimonious tones imaginable that a reconciliation had been accomplished on the issue of slavery. I looked around at the glassy eyes staring straight ahead past the Very Reverend to the burial place of Leonidas Polk, behind the podium. I know it struck me as completely inappropriate. Other congregants, with Confederate ancestry, have left the church. Personally, I have never experienced a coming together on a common understanding on slavery, and slavery is something I have studied in depth. After my letter to the Church leadership on this and other issues was ignored I looked for other avenues for action.”

Dr. Lincoln, whose PhD from Harvard is in Anthropology and History, went on to outline some startling facts on the economics of the slave trade, which, he said, acquired captives through war at a time the population was expanding. The sale of slaves, mostly to Islamic countries but also to South America, North America, and the Caribbean, was only one of the two means used to dispose of excess people. The first, far more direct, was to slaughter them, using their bodies as food.

Lincoln, whose specialization in Anthropology was originally Mesoamerica, later became interested, he said, in the parallel practices in Africa and Central America in regards to cannibalism, slavery, human sacrifice, and torture. Africans sold into slavery in this way avoided being eaten by their captors, who were the upper classes of neighboring tribes. One such tribe was, Lincoln injected, the Luo Tribe, from which our President, Barack Obama, is descended through his father. Lincoln commented the facts on this point have yet to be researched but are included on their research agenda. “We will be looking into the backgrounds of numerous individuals, the President is only one of these.”

Talk show host and the publisher and editor of Free American, Clayton Douglas, who was involved in the Million Man Bike Ride by motorcyclists in Washington D. C. last summer was appointed to the board, as was Gail Lightfoot, who has been several times a candidate for U. S. Senate in California as a Libertarian. Additionally, Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, a former presidential candidate came on-board.

“I want to see Southerners rediscover the passion of their history,” said Douglas.

The site is to be an organizing point for healing and for revealing facts which have previously remained outside of the public view which promote understanding on the issues. This will take place through online forums and seminars, planned for the coming months.

“END”