There Was No Surrender At Appomattox

 David Alan Black

Several years ago, when we were living in the erstwhile Golden State, my wife and I celebrated our anniversary by flying to Dulles and visiting sites associated with the War for Southern Independence. I will never forget our visit to Appomattox, as it just “happened” to fall on Palm Sunday and we just “happened” to attend a Baptist church whose pastor was named Robert E. Lee! Subsequent to our visit I penned these words:

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to forget that the freedoms our colonial and Confederate forefathers fought to preserve merit our support today.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to memorialize the past while tolerating the desecration of our flags, our monuments, and our symbols.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to deny that the cause of the South – limited constitutional government – is still the cause of all loyal Americans.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to forget that the major impetus for America’s slide into a despotic, centralized Empire was Lincoln’s illegal invasion a peace-loving, sovereign nation.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to give up fighting to eliminate every unconstitutional and unnecessary federal law, tax, and program.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to stop fighting to reduce the size of government, to decentralize power, and to abolish the immoral welfare state.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to tolerate politicians who deliberately lie about their loyalty to the Constitution and who willfully ignore the dream of our Founding Fathers.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to ignore the growing federal intrusions into each and every aspect of our lives.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to tolerate a foreign policy that places our troops in 140 countries around the globe and that delights in meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to roll over and play dead while the Bush administration shows contempt for the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments in the name of the USA Patriot Act.

There was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to support political parties that are determined to create bigger and bigger government, more bureaucracy, more dependence, and less freedom.

And there was no surrender at Appomattox that would allow us to love our government more than we love the Constitution or to give our loyalty to politicians rather than to Almighty God.

August 26, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book is Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.

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