Hate, Not Heritage, The SCV Story

An E-mail came my way the other day that had been authored by a minister, living in Switzerland, who had been a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. In his report, he detailed some of the problems that the SCV has today and the direction in which they appear to be headed. After researching the situation and interviewing some members on a trip to the United States, he resigned his membership in the Sons.

He spoke to Anthony Hodges, Lt. Commander of the SCV until recently, about his experiences. Dr. Hodges spoke of the many threats that he had received when he challenged the leadership of the SCV. Apparently, Dr. Hodges had not communicated with myself or anyone else who had the audacity to challenge the SCV leadership. Many of us have all had similar experiences. You know, the usual things that you would expect from a group of folks like SCV members who claim to share an interest in history, such as obscene calls, anonymous e-mails, death threats, threats against your family, and threats by mail. It is interesting that the SCV continues to deny that their members would do such things, but people keep having similar experiences when they challenge the leadership of the SCV. I guess the idea that those SCV boys are "Southern Gentlemen" is pretty short on credibility.

My personal favorite experience in this department happened in July of 2002 after I was interviewed and appeared on the CBS Evening News. Two days later at work I got a call from a "Southern Gentleman" who told me "If I see you on TV again saying anything else about the SCV, I'm gonna come down there and kill you and whip your ass." I started by explaining to him that he had his order of violence confused. There was no need to "whip my ass" if he was going to "come down and kill me" first. He didn't share my humor in the situation, so I told him how to find the restaurant and closed by telling him, "I'm the fat, bald, son of a bitch with the gun in my pocket, come on down!" Either he changed his mind or he's lost in traffic out on I-40.

So a brief note to Dr. Hodges, I doubt that any of those cowards will act on their threats. But just to be sure, my friend Mr. Ruger is always by my side.