The time has come to "stir the pot" and for me to get my "just desserts." And this time, it's a gonna be huge boys!
"Am fixin' ta give em what’s they deserve cus they got it comin'..." Is that how the National Park Service thinks we speak in the South, how we act and that we are so stupid that a bunch of outsiders from the West, D.C. and up North can pull the wool over our eyes? Does it sound to you, like I'm mad enough to have a livermush flingin' party right into someone’s eye?
"The National Park Service's Draft Southern Campaign of the Revolution Heritage Area Suitability/Feasibility Study (2009 to 2011) has been (printed in thick book format) and distributed to agencies, organizations, and individuals for comments; review period was set to end January 20, 2012. It evaluates the potential for congressional designation of a national heritage area dedicated to the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution... six of ten criteria were fully met but four were not. The NPS needs to hear from you.." American Revolution Magazine, Jan/Feb 2012
The American Revolution magazine is extremely reliable and a very informative source on all matters of the war and era holding such Editorial Advisory Board members as Lawrence E. Babits, Ph.D, Dennis M. Conrad, Ph. D., Jim Piecuch, Ph.D., Gregory J.W. Urwin, Ph.D. and Henry M. Ward, Ph.D. Their call to action for you to comment on what you are about to read is AS IMPORTANT as the national heritage of this country!
The most damaging things printed by the National Park Service against the colonial war in the South is as follows. There is no way you, my tens of thousands of readers, can allow this to NOT BE commented on at: www.parkplanning.nps.gov/soca
THE PROBLEM WITH WHAT THEY WROTE ABOUT US:
Item #1. "It has not been demonstrated that the resources (of the Carolina's American Revolution Heritage Area) are best managed as an assemblage through partnerships among public and private entities and by combining diverse and sometimes noncontiguous resources and active communities."
Item #2. "Cultural ties are not reflected in everyday life in the present-day Carolinas to a degree that is readily apparent to the outside observer."
Now how can they say these things and get away with them and not have had so many calls to our State Representatives, Congressmen and Congresswomen, and Senators. Heck yes, we lit up the switchboard and demanded an extension, first of all, my friends! You now have until February 19, 2012 as we lobbied for it and won.
Now what about that livermush we so kindly enjoy!? Is it so difficult to find an example of the 1700's or its foods that were eaten and made here in the Carolinas that can be found today? After all, it is a readily found example of the Revolutionary War, just like our cities and towns being named after Revolutionary War heroes (Fayetteville, NC after the French Major General Marquis de Lafayette), why many major streets in Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Columbia, Greeneville, Charleston and Shelby are named after 1700's heroes. And what about the many, Scots-Irish food lovers and bag-pipers always around at funerals and weddings and all of the Highland Games held down here in extraordinary numbers and abnormal frequencies when compared to other regions of America?
National Park Service Secret Study Team Hidden in a Washington, DC Room - are you for real?
I'd like to think I can talk up a storm until my Baptist Pastor and friend, Reg Alexander gets going! Here is what Reggie has to warn of and offer:
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Thank you for the opportunity to comment regarding the Revolutionary era's influence on the culture of our area.
My hometown is Kings Mountain.. a city named for the famous battle. On my way to my office, which is located just off Battleground Ave. (again, in honor of the battle), I sometimes will stop for a breakfast of eggs, livermush and grits. I understand that livermush, a meat of our area's German settlers, is still, after all these years, rarely found outside of our Piedmont area. And though almost all area settlements in the 1700s had their own "grist" mills, we still rarely find grits on the menu anywhere but the south.
I take my lunch break and walk a couple blocks (past a relocated 225 year old log cabin behind the KM Museum) to a fine restaurant, "Battleground Steakhouse" where I can select dishes named after a number of the military leaders of that campaign. All along the walls we see portraits of these leaders... all a subtle appreciation of our victorious past.
My daily run-arounds may take me to next-door Shelby NC, so named after Col. Isaac Shelby of the battle. If so, many of the main streets that I travel are named after the personalities of this historic fight. Most of my travel is within Cleveland County (from Col. Cleveland). Of course, so many NC and SC counties and roads are named after these heroes.
Some days I'm fortunate enough to go to a local festival.. Shelby's Livermush Festival, Grandfather Mountain's Highland Festival is unique to our area, anchored in the remnants of our colonial ancestors. Almost all local parades and festive gatherings, even some funerals, pay homage to our large Scottish-settlement background with the sound of bagpipes and kilted marchers.
There's our own downtown "Gateway" festival (renamed from 'Mountaineer Days', in honor of being the "gateway" to our local historic parks); there is also next-door Grover's Pumpkin Festival and our own elaborate July 4th festivities, both focused on commemorative Revolutionary battle reenactments. Unlike any reenactments on national park properties, our festivals provide not only the sights, but also the sounds –the very, very loud sounds – of a Revolutionary battle. It is awesome to look at the reenactors loading rifles with their musket-shots and powder horns... but I love looking at the kids in the crowd who cover their ears and still jerk startled at every shot fired. Who knew it could be so noisy!
At these festive occasions it is natural to see individuals walking the streets in colonial garb, stopping at stalls to grab a freshly cooked turkey-leg or livermush sandwich, and corn-on-the-cob. Or maybe stopping to pick up a couple of hand-dipped candles, made in front of their eyes in the same fashion as our distant ancestors. Some passersby may sport fringed jackets or comfy moccasins reminiscent of the Indian heritage of our area.
I may stop by a local school's pep-rally, where teams with names like Mountaineers and Patriots are cheered on by rascally mascots leading the crowd in "whooping and hollering", the sound of "attack" made famous by our fighting "mountain men" in that historic battle. It could also be noted that the style of "wilderness fighting" used by the mountain men (hiding and advancing behind rocks and trees instead of standing in rows shooting in volleys) was not only largely responsible for the victories in local battles, but also set a military initiative used in various forms to this day.
But, to be honest, one of the things I enjoy most about my home town... and I thank my distant ancestors for this... is not nearly as readily observable unless you know what you're looking for. The drifting down of the "Yankees" (bless 'em) has diluted this, but those who have been, as we say in our particular vernacular, "born and reared" in the Piedmont, have a very strong sense of family unity and property protection. Just like the area settlements of the 1700s, we grow our families "tight", jealously watching out for each other's welfare… unlike our neighbors to the north who don't know who lives across the street, we in the 'settlement' watch out for each other's homes, water each other's plants and "get onto" each other's kids… and know everybody's business!
And we're very reluctant to give up our property for technology. It's the incoming "yanks" who chop down our trees; we only do it for the firewood. We don't need a Sierra Club to tell us to protect our land… it's inborn in us (a gift from our homesteading ancestors) to value the trees, hunt the woods and to know which "critters" to shoot and which to pet. Ha! Maybe we just never know when we may get the "itchin'" to "take and go out 'n' bark some squirrels".
And if you don't know what it means to "bark a squirrel"... well, as our ancestors would have said it, "then you ain't from 'round these parts!" But if you "put your feet under our table" we'll still be obliged to "tote you out" a heapin' helpin' of livermush and grits for breakfast! That's just the way we were at "King's Settlement" (before the battle)... and we still like it that way!
REG ALEXANDER, Director, SLG, Regal Ventures Creative Ministries
PO Box 1010, 104 East Gold Street, Kings Mountain NC 28086
You can read more about the original reports on this at the DIGG Newsbar Archive Record
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