Texas celebrated Confederate Heroes Day last week with a double helping of Southern melodrama.
In Longview, a keynote speaker lambasted President Abraham Lincoln for turning the United States into a "socialist" government.But that was nothing compared with the silliness in Central Texas, where a Confederate heritage society e-mailed reporters early Tuesday with photos of two nooses hanging from a giant Rebel battle flag billboard on U.S. 290."It's racist -- a hate crime," rancher Donnie Roberts said.Washington County Chief Deputy Mike Herzog laughed."They were the first people who saw those nooses, and then they alerted the media," he said.I got the feeling he won't bring in the FBI."It's on a busy highway, and nobody else saw it," he said.It would have taken three people with a bucket truck and extension ladder to hang the nooses, he said.Coincidentally, members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans history and heritage group responded quickly with a bucket truck and extension ladder to take them down.The giant double billboard went up last year on the busy highway east of Brenham. Both sides wave battle flags with the message "Southern Born, Texas Proud! Learn About Your Heritage" and the phone number to buy $30-a-year Sons memberships.Chappell Hill physician Robert Stark, also a Sons member, said Roberts saw the nooses first.So what did they do?Why, they were so insulted and threatened that Stark immediately took a bunch of photos and e-mailed them to a radio station.KWHI/1280 AM's website headlined "Local Billboard Vandalized."Roberts declared a "degradation of our historic heritage."At the sheriff's office, Herzog called it a "prank."Deputies will investigate it as criminal mischief, he said.Roberts said he wants the national SCV to investigate a "crime against our people" and will offer a $5,000 reward.He said the suspect might be "white or black."But he added: "Well, it did happen on Martin Luther King's birthday."Texans celebrate both King Day and a state Confederate Heroes Day in mid-January, remembering Gen. Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Davis.Sons speakers deliver the kind of bombast heard Thursday in Longview, where Tom Clinkscales of Canton riled up a crowd by blaming Lincoln and the Civil War for the 2010 federal healthcare law.Old whines here are not forgotten.Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.817-390-7538Twitter: @budkennedyHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
