Roy Exum
Wade Hinton, the Chattanooga city attorney, and Andy Berke, the mayor of Chattanooga, were neither born bearing hate nor prejudice. But it was taught and instilled in each – at a young age -- by a cast of characters of oppressed heritage who learned it from their ancestors. Now we watch as these two cowards intend to pass it on to our next generation. They want you to swallow the ruse. Don’t fall for it – this sleight-of-hand move goes all the way back to the Bible, which also warns against sin, those weak in will, deceivers and liars as well.
Berke and Hinton tried to hide their repugnant behavior under the guise of the very true ideal that “racism, hatred and violence don’t belong in any city” but in this case it was what con men call “the reverse switch.” By loudly abandoning the city’s Confederate Cemetery in what they hoped would be seen as a sign of righteousness, they instead just added a fresh 2018 chapter to hatred and prejudice in our community.
Think about it. The Civil War ended 163 years ago this week. Very few white people think about it anymore but certain minorities still use it like a crutch after the Battle of Chickamauga. They can’t dare to part with it because it is still a sharp tool in the liberal’s hand basket. Why is that? That’s easy: Because generations of minorities have perpetuated ripping the scab off America’s most painful moment and – literally -- every single time they can use it as a playing card for their personal advancement or aggrandizement.
These are the terribly misguided types who focus on the riots last year in Charlottesville – and what? – blame statues? Learned people in every one of the world’s other 197 countries swear statues have never hurt a soul yet, like our precious Viet Nam Monument, serve as tribute to those who died in other completely senseless wars. All over the world civilized societies honor the fallen. It’s scriptural to do so.
Until Berke and Hinton – just the two of them, mind you -- colluded in a way to use a cemetery to add to the disparity in Chattanooga, Andy could not find a way to stand with other liberals and rail against social vices. Yet by carping on the word “Confederate,” he created the ability to rip off the scab and add his city to the list of looney tunes who use statues to promote their Leftist agenda. Why else resume the bleeding? Whether you are conservative or liberal, you must admit there is no other reason under the sun.
Hinton and Berke share the mindset that while there is no good reason whatsoever to abandon the upkeep of our Confederate Cemetery, it will align Berke’s administration with others who you might call their “confederates of the left.” It is widely known the Democrats are desperate for election-day propaganda and Andy just handed in a shiny red apple.
Pray tell, how does not cutting the grass where whites, blacks, men, women, and soldiers from both North and South rest in peace, contribute to one thing? Oh, it was plain to see the joy in Hinton’s glee at Berke’s announcement of what? … abandonment? That is unprecedented but, really, is it noble? An old Indian proverb goes, “Healing doesn’t mean the damage never happened … it means the damage no longer controls your life.”
You need to see beyond the pale. There is an inborn trait among minorities to “control the damage” and guide it – it’s true -- they use pain for benefit. Right next to the Confederate Cemetery on Third Street is the Jewish Cemetery. Let’s suppose whomever maintains the Jewish Cemetery up and quits. Is there the least doubt in your mind what the city attorney and the Mayor would do? Please …
In an earlier statement, the Mayor said with a straight face, “Our action today makes it clear that the city of Chattanooga condemns white supremacy in every way, shape and form. While we honor our dead, we do not honor the principle for which they fought. Our city should be invested in our future, not a discredited past.”
That’s absolute bunk. What parts of any life should we pick and choose for approval? History is absolutely total, the good and the bad. Thank God we learn from both. So what in mankind’s values allows a city to shirk moral responsibility and abandon a cemetery after more than 150 years? That ain’t real far from the need of psychiatric consult.
My God, there are laws against desecrating the dead, and willful neglect, but Hinton and Berke used some fancy footwork to prove the city of Chattanooga has no responsibility. Mankind has a different calling when it comes to honoring the dead and, get this straight, if you are of any minority, there is no exemption.
There is no doubt in my mind there will come a time when these city officials will answer for their abandonment. The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen had it right: “Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong. Right is right even if nobody is right. Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote.”
On the Judaism 101 website it is written: “Respect for the dead body is a matter of paramount importance. For example, the shomerim (watchers or guards) may not eat, drink, or perform a commandment in the presence of the dead. To do so would be considered mocking the dead, because the dead can no longer do these things.
“Most communities have an organization to care for the dead,” it reads, “known as the chevra kaddisha (the holy society). These people are volunteers. Their work is considered extremely meritorious, because they are performing a service for someone who can never repay them.”
Don’t you see? Those who have laid in rest in the Confederate Cemetery for more than 150 years can no longer do, can never repay, and – today – cannot speak for themselves. But the part of the Big Picture Hinton and Berke fail to see is what will weigh in the scales: “The bones remember, and the blood never forgets.”
If just one … only one in that cemetery … could tell us what events and circumstances put them in that cemetery, my guess is the dead, after the Great Awakening, will see why Wade Hinton and Andy Berke are so hell-bent on making sure that hatred, racism and violence have no expiration date.
There is nothing in the world so much fun as pulling off the “reverse switch” but, as many a carny barker has learned, there is nothing as bad as when you are caught flat-footed at it.
Hatred, racism and violence are the very tools of City Attorney Wade Hinton and Mayor Andy Berke.
royexum@aol.com