Events have never turned out well for Confederates and neo-Confederates when shad is involved. During the early afternoon of April 1, 1865 Confederate general George Pickett abandoned the crucial intersection of Five Forks, for a shad bake hosted by General Tom Rosser. Pickett was unaware of a concerted Union advance that cost the Confederates this crucial crossroads and ultimately forced Robert E. Lee to abandon his defense of Petersburg.
One hundred and fifty-seven years later and the organizers of the Shad, Grapes and Grain Festival in Wakefield, Virginia have denied the Virginia Flaggers permission to rent an exhibit booth for this year’s event.
I assume this means that Wakefield will be flagged in the near future.
Confederate History Month has not been kind to the Flaggers this year. Their most recent flag in Rockingham, Virginia was removed. And beyond Virginia it looks like the city of New Orleans will begin removing its Confederate monuments in the next few days.
Haha. This is quite funny
The shared, carefully-nurtured identity of a lot heritage folks — and the Virginia Flaggers, in particular — is so bound up in being victimized and oppressed by vaguely conspiratorial “political correctness,” and raising support from it, that I wonder if deep down they actually prefer responses like this to actually participating in these events.
Setting up and running a booth at the festival requires a lot of planning, effort, and expense; why do that when you can get a fluffing from your fans by waiting for your check to be returned and then screeching about it on social media?
Good point. I also wonder whether it helps to rally the troops. The problem is that this doesn’t extend beyond their core membership. That has been their problem all along. They have never managed to push an argument that appeals to the general public. They will likely remain on the fringes of their communities. Social media simply gives them the opportunity to bark a little louder.