All Kidding Aside…

I think it is important to keep the views expressed in the SHNV posting of the other day in proper perspective.  It would be a mistake to assume that the author in questions speaks for the majority of Americans who identify or are concerned about the future of "Southern Heritage."  The contributors to this particular newsletter maneuver on the fringes of our Civil War community.   They may be some of the more vocal critics out there, but they are by no means the majority.  My guess is that they probably don't even speak for the majority of card-carrying members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. 

Over the past three years I've received scores of emails from one-time and current members of the SCV who do not in any way identify with such extreme silliness.  Most people out there are interested in their regional history and want somehow to feel closer to it.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The members of the Confederate Taliban would have us discard all attempts at doing serious history and, instead, replace it with the stale, overly-simplistic, and self-serving beliefs that tell us more about one small demographic than anything about the past.