St. Patrick's Day - Wearing green, Irish dancing and Confederate flags?
This weekend I went to the Brookside “warm up parade” before the big, Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Even though we were FREEZING, it was great fun. There was lots of candy, dogs dressed up with shamrocks, Irish dancers and the Confederate Flag.
Say what?
The Confederate Flag…often seen in most St. Patrick’s Day parades.
Strike that – only seen in this Kansas City parade.
It was carried by some Civil War reenactors and it was plastered on an old car.
Just as I could say, “What the?” it passed by me.
I came home and did some research. Who were these people marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade? Turns out they are from the Thomas J. Key Camp, also known as the Kansas Sons of the Confederate Veterans.
Now, I did some interesting research about the role the Irish had in the Civil War. A little interesting trivia - there were 150,000 who fought for the Union and 40,000 fought for the Confederacy.
I don’t know if the KSSCV (I’ll abbreviate from now on) was attempting to show how instrumental the Irish were in the Civil War by marching in the parade. One thing I do know is nothing draws an emotional reaction quite as much as marching with a Confederate flag.
A little more about the Sons of Confederate Veterans from their website:
“The citizen-soldiers who fought for the Confederacy personified the best qualities of America. The preservation of liberty and freedom was the motivating factor in the South’s decision to fight the Second American Revolution. The tenacity with which Confederate soldiers fought underscored their belief in the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. These attributes are the underpinning of our democratic society and represent the foundation on which this nation was built.”
2nd revolution? Best qualities?
A little bit about KSSCV’s popularity from previous parades.
“I believe this year we received more applause than in any of the previous nine times we have been in the parade and more good comments yelled at us.”
I can only imagine what has been “yelled” at them.
The members love the Confederate flag. There isn’t a southern capitol they don’t want to drape the flag over. Another thing they love…secession. Then and now it turns out.
A link on their website says “Be Patriotic, Become a Secessionist“. If you want to read this gem go for it, but in an effort to keep you awake, I’ll highlight the most interesting part.
“The America “union” ceased being a union of the people of the free and independent states in 1865. Today the “union” simply means the political plundering class in Washington, D.C., with all off its welfare/warfare state parasites, lobbyists, and propagandists in the media and academe. That is what one would be leaving behind by seceding. So be patriotic and become a secessionist.”
Welfare recipients are parasites? KSSCV – I’ve been reading a lot of stuff saying you are working hard to try not to appear racist – mostly from the Southern Poverty Law Center regarding your national chapter. You can say it isn’t racist, maybe more of an economic argument if you like,however, calling anyone a “parasite” is pretty terrible. I think this scores one for you in either the racist/elitist category. I’ll let you choose.
I do have outstanding issues with the organizers the Brookside St. Patrick’s Day parade. Come on guys. What were you thinking? I’m sure there are more people willing to color their hair green and hand out candy to kids. Do your homework a little better.
Next time the parade should stick to things they do best - celebrating Irish heritage, enjoying festive music and having a lot of family fun. Keep the Confederate flags out of St. Patrick’s Day parades.
William R. Nelson
2 months agoMeh.
Much ado about not much, Mrs. Patton.
These KSSCV kooks are fringe wanna-bee secessionists, much like the radicals of SPLC are fringe wanna-bee fascists.
A clarification: the flag you mentioned is the confederate battle flag - not the flag of the confederate states, although I understand the confusion.
Another clarification: technically, the ‘civil war’ was not a civil war - when two or more factions fight for control of the same government. It was more accurately the ‘war of secession,’ although I understand the confusion.
Either way, the war is over, but the huckleberry’s remain.
Say ‘yes’ to green beer; ‘no’ to yellow snow.
JR Beillenhouser
2 months agoAimee -
What has happened to you? You’ve gone several articles now without mentioning lady parts. Are you feeling ok?
George Hunsucker
Northland
2 months agoah yes, the tired old lib rant that whomever they disagree with is a dreaded “racist”….
libs are such a hoot….
Stephen Dunn
2 months agoMadame…your ignorance of the facts is appalling!.. you fault the KCSCV for not doing research yet you offer a pageful of unsubstantiated facts which are basically opinions you hold as truth..my suggestion as a gentleman would be to start with study of two incidents in the War where Irish Brigades faced each other directly in combat…men who unlike you payed the full measure of devotion… not standing on the sidelines and criticizing or politicizing a parade…and they did it for two opposing causes they believed in at the time..here’s a hint, Gettysburg and Fredricksburg..
Matt Henry
2 months agoMeh is absolutely the right word.
Yep, let the atheists in. Keep the “Secessionists” out. Makes sense.
The SPLC has become an embarrassment. Anybody with views right of Trotsky is a hate group, especially if those views involve traditional values or a concern over Muslim extremism. It’s too bad the good work they do is clouded by their own radicalism.
Michael Burke
2 months agoAimee: I guess you forgot that Missouri was (and still is) a Southern State, a part of the Confederacy. I suppose you believe that the war was fought “to free the slaves,” despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The Confederates, and the SCV were not and are not “racists.” They represent resistance to a central government (DC) and the desire for free and independent states to set their own policy and write their own rules for conduct within their own States. “Welfare” recipients are overwhelmingly WHITE, despite your mistaken views to the contrary, so being against welfare parasites has nothing to do with RACE, and everything to do with political systems that perpetuate dependency for generations in the same local ghettos.
Josephine Bass
2 months agoThe very first propaganda statement I saw was when you said: “There were 150,000 who fought for the Union and 40,000 fought for the Confederacy. Yes period the stats may be correct, but the truth is in the details, which you purposely avoided. Facts is that the Union had 4 times as many soldiers as the South, and is the main reason the South did not win her fight for her 2nd Independence.
The rest of your info is just as bad. I suggest a Southern History month to correct the false information the same as the black history month, it is long overdue to correct reverse discrimination.
Carl W. Roden
2 months agoCondemning the Confederate Flag is an act of evil.
Across the world that flag stands for Southern identity and heritage.
On every continent on Earth the Southern Cross battle flag stands as a living symbol of Southern identity and remembrance for the Confederate dead.
Hundreds of thousands of Southern men, women, and children fight every year to condemn the misuse of that flag by racist organizations who have no moral or legal claim to it.
When you condemn that flag and wrongly label it as racist you perpetuate a wrong-thinking and morally decadent viewpoint that advances only the cause of white supremacists and racial identity hatemongers.
Worse you commit an act of discrimination against Southerners of ALL races, religions and creeds who honor the Confederate battle flag rightly as a living symbol free of racial or political overtones.
To offer any condemnation against that flag, unless misuse on racial and ethnic grounds is proven, is itself an ACT OF HATRED and those groups and individuals who oppose its public display in all forms are no different than the very racist groups and individuals they claim to oppose.
Those who call this flag racist and attack individuals who honor its true meaning and fight against its misuse give unwitting support to racists groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
Those who see the misuse of this flag and do nothing to speak out against those who display it wrongly for hateful purposes are likewise no different than those racists who commit this unforgivable and inexcusable act of hatred against Confederate descendants and the Southern people as a whole.
Don’t be a Tool, stop the blind hatred against this flag.
Kent Mueller
2 months agoAimee….why suppress free speech? It is not for anyone to decide who should and who should not be heard. It’s up to everyone individually to decide whether or not to listen.