[Written in 1997 before the author's visit to North America in June of that year].
And you think we have problems with Yankee interference?
PICTURE A COUNTRY where the culture of the majority
community is constantly being undermined and denigrated.
Mouthpieces in public life and in the media agitate for the abolition of
traditional holidays and any public expressions of that culture are treated with
contempt in the media and in the legislature.
Monuments and memorials are vandalised, desecrated or removed from public
display. Schoolchildren are
indoctrinated with a twisted version of history, which aims to turn them against
their own heritage and culture. Flags,
traditional emblems and anthems are routinely branded as symbols of hatred and
bigotry. Persons who display such
symbols on their homes, vehicles or at their place of work are subject to
persecution, malicious prosecution or even murder.
Despite this, members of this community are invariably cast as the
villains in popular television and film drama - often appearing as Bible-bashing
fanatics, drunks, murderers, or bigots and sometimes as fanatical drunken,
murdering Bible-bashing bigots.
Most Ulster
Nation readers are already familiar with this country - or so they
probably think. They live in it. In
Ulster today, popular expressions of the majority's culture are under attack.
The Orange Order, a fraternal organisation based on Protestant Christian
principles, has been a main target of this attack.
Its colourful traditional annual parades have been disparaged as
swaggering displays of hatred, bigotry and malice.
Parades, which have been popular annual events for almost two centuries,
are now deemed to be so offensive to the Irish ethnic minority group that they
have been banned under the excuse that they would threaten public order.
What this means is that peaceful traditional walks have been threatened
with physical attack by intolerant politically-motivated agitators who often
have proven terrorist records. At
the same time, Orange halls, which in isolated rural areas are social centres
for the whole community, are regularly targeted by arsonists and vandals.
In
the world of education, sports, business and politics Ulster's distinctive
cultural identity has been gradually undermined and Hibernicised.
The Red Hand, the pre-eminent Ulster symbol, has been removed from the
corporate logo of the Tourist Board and other public bodies.
All aspects of life are gradually being forced into an all-Ireland
context. Ulster's Irish minority are in the political driving seat as
the British colonial overlords have given the government of the Irish Republic,
Ulster's southern neighbour on the island, a large say `as of right' in
her public life.
Given
all the above fact, it seems obvious to Ulsterfolk that the country I described
in the opening paragraph is their own homeland.
In fact I'm referring to another country, which is largely populated by
our own kinsfolk - descendants of Ulster-Scots or `Scotch-Irish' stock.
The country in question is `Dixie' - the southern states of the former
Confederacy.
Although
each of the states in the American Union has the theoretical right to secede, in
practice this right has been denied. In
1860 thirteen southern states seceded and founded the Confederate States of
America. This short-lived
Confederacy was defeated by force of arms in a bloody war of attrition and the
secessionist `rebel states' were forcibly reincorporated into the American
Union. It was at this stage that
the United States of America ceased to be a union of free, consenting states and
began its transformation into a North American empire.
In recent
years the power of the Federal government has grown at the expense of that of
the states. This has affected every
state. However, in the Southern
states there is still a folk memory of better times in the past when a
Confederacy of free states did exist. Many
Southern folk are very proud of their history and their rich Ulster-Scots and
Anglo-Celtic cultural heritage and deep Christian faith. This helps to sustain
them in the face of adversity. That's
just as well for there is plenty of it, as the enemies of the Southern people
grow more arrogant and strident in their attempts to eradicate all traces of
this heritage.
These
anti-Southern bigots have banned the display of the well-known Confederate
battle flag, removed Confederate monuments and memorials from public display in
Southern towns and cities, or desecrated and vandalised remaining memorials.
In addition, place names, which commemorate Confederate heroes, have been
erased. Individuals who display the
flag have been persecuted at work and in school.
Recently, one young man was even murdered by minority bigots because he
flew the flag on his pickup truck. In
South Carolina, the scalawag (the Southern term for a Lundy or collaborator)
Governor David Beasley broke a campaign promise and is seeking to take the flag
down from the state's capitol building. Southern
folk even have some of the same enemies as Ulsterfolk.
The New York Republican congressman Peter King, Gerry Adams' bosom buddy,
has lambasted Southerners as `backwards hillbillies'. Until recently, the
response from Southerners was muted and timid.
As is the case here in Ulster, this behaviour only whetted the appetites
of the anti-Southern cultural cleansers and the number of heritage
violations increased enormously. Now,
however, Southern-nationalists are speaking out and resisting these heritage
violations and attempts at cultural cleansing.
A 75'x 50' Confederate battle flag was hoisted by two cranes at a protest
rally organised by the radical Council of Conservative Citizens outside the SC
State capitol on January 14th 1997. One
of the most effective groups at organising Southern-nationalist resistance is
the Southern League, [now the League of the South] which participated in the recent 1997 Third Way
international conference of separatists and regionalists.
In addition to these political organisations, a couple of cultural
defence and preservation groups have emerged.
Preserving our Heritage is active in the state of Florida.
The Heritage Preservation Association documents every heritage violation
and fights an aggressive campaign through the media and the courts to put things
right.
Ulster-nationalists and Southern-nationalists have much in common. We share similar cultural and ethnic roots. We think in much the same way and we both stick in the throats of the liberal-leftist powers-that-be. We look forward to the day when a reborn Confederacy enjoys full diplomatic relations with an independent Ulster. In the meantime the national movements of our respective homelands should be natural allies.
David
Kerr