Political Neutrality of the Sons of Confederate Veterans Should End

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans which was started in 1896 as an organization for veterans of the Southern Armies to stay in touch with one another and as a way for Southern veterans to bond with other men who had shared a common experience. Over time the sons of these men continued to gather to honor the memory of their fathers and their sacrifices for The Cause.

In the beginning, the Confederate soldiers declared that they were not a political association. This kept the U.S. government from being concerned that these "rebels" might be meeting on a regular basis to plan another move for independence, or to stir up some other kind of trouble. The Sons of Confederate Veterans still today say they are politically neutral. However, the SCV does get involved in Southern Heritage issues on occasion. These heritage issues are political in nature and are not just about honoring the memory of our ancestors.

There is a culture war going on and one of the major weapons in this war is politics. This manifests itself in actions to remove Confederate monuments, flags, and the rewriting of history. Most of the activities against Confederate symbols are initiated and/or strongly supported by political organizations such as the NAACP, People for the American Way (PAW) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). So when the SCV runs up against these organizations, they are dealing with politics. If one politician advocates removing or banning the display of the Confederate Battle Flag, and the SCV works to prevent this, the SCV is involved in a political battle.

For the Sons of Confederate Veterans to say they are politically neutral is contradictory to their actions. The SCV should make the full move to being politically active on all fronts, advocating the same ideas their forefathers believed in. I know that there are some older SCV members who served in WWII, Korea or Vietnam and are conflicted over standing up for Dixie after sacrificing so much for the U.S. during times of war. I myself served in the U.S. Air Force. I’m not conflicted over this because I look at it as having served to protect Dixie through my service in the Air Force.

There are plenty of people, like myself, who qualify to join the SCV but want something more than just a social club to play pretend and have fond memories of a time past. We can replay the War for Southern Independence all we want and it still ends the same way. We are looking for an organization that will take a strong stand against the eradication of the truth about Dixie and use the numbers of its members (approximately 25,000) to do more than just play dress up and reflect. The SCV needs to join with other pro-Southern organizations and declare themselves to be openly a politically active organization, defending not just the memory of the Old South, but defending the Southern people of today.

SCV camp meetings are a great place to get the word out about what is going on across the South to advance the cause of the Southern people, as well as a place to warn folks of actions being taken against the South. If the Sons of Confederate Veterans wants to truly honor the memory of their ancestors, they will act with the same courage and conviction that their ancestors did. They will stand against the tide of political correctness that is trying to wipe the Southern people and their culture off the face of the map.
 

Jeff Adams
February 24, 1999