The “Confederate flag does not represent Frisco” letter to the editor (published July 31 in the Summit Daily News) does not fly well in Virginia. To too many, it is just a flag.
At our Shenandoah Valley Historic Veterans Committee’s Staunton VA July Fourth parade, the flag was used to hold in memorial our tribute to our civil war U.S. Colored Troops from the Shenandoah Valley. Those who returned to Virginia after the war helped to rectify the Confederate Virginia Lee Legacy, because like Robert E. Lee, they now had prior U.S. Military service, too.
Other deserving Americans we held in memorial as contributing to and therefore changing the “Southern cause” included Martin Luther King Jr. His dream is our own.
Still, over the Blue Ridge Mountain from the deadly Charlottesville’s white supremacist mêlée, we were aware of the potential controversy of even our own parade entry of all white participants to be welcoming another parade entrant whose representation was that of being a Confederate battlefield combatant.
Nevertheless, our July Fourth musical presentation was that of a singing rebel paying tribute to the Confederacy, to the heritage of us all, black and white, who have a civil war Southern history. Our rebel yell was a battle cry for the truly brokenhearted.
All this is to simply say that our Shenandoah Valley Historic Veterans Committee’s Medal of Achievement in Diplomacy, Social Justice and Equal Humanity is our honorarium to every American who
deserves such an accolade. (Like them in attendance at the 2019 Buena Vista, Virginia, 49th annual parade and festival, known as the beginning of the fall political season in Virginia.)