NB FORREST REWARD - BILLBOARDS IN SELMA ALA
Dear Gentlemen:
Please find attached the two billboards that we have put up in Selma - I hope you all approve...we think they look great...and the beauty of the one across the bridge...the long one...is that Rose Sanders will have to look straight at the General EVERY time she crosses that bridge headed to her propaganda museum, i.e. the voting rights museum! The other one is located on Broad Street..the main drag headed north outta town...located VERY high in the sky as well...hovering right over the Cheers Package Store...where the "demoncrats" go to buy their spirits! We think they are very strategically located and both signs are lighted! Hopefully, someone will come forward and be more loyal to their pocket and their "habit" than to Rose Sanders!
Butch & I and the Friends of Forrest want to express our deepest gratitude to the AlaDiv SCV and to the National HQ for committing this money in our quest to find the perpetrator(s) who stole the NBF Bust. This was NOT a scrap metal theft...it was a political statement! James Perkins is going to run for mayor again...and this was a "welcome back" gift! Y'all please pray for Selma...that George Evans will defeat James Perkins and we won't be dealing with him again!
We've just returned from Shiloh...for the Sesquicentennial Battle of Shiloh reenactment...at the Blue/Gray Alliance battlefield. We stayed at the Quality Inn in Savannah...while on our two-day trip there Butch & I spent close to $1000 (gas, food, event tickets, commemorative T-Shirts, gifts at the Shiloh National Park gift shop, etc.)...which makes me think about all these other Southern towns that we go to (Franklin, TN, Savannah, GA, Charleston, SC, Gettysburg, PA, New Orleans, Corinth,MS, Linden, TN, Richmond, VA, Memphis, TN, Nashville,TN just to name a few!)...and many we have not visited yet...but the leaders of those towns have the vision and the fiscal responsibility to their community to capitalize on their historical assets to bring those tourist dollars into their economy. Selma Alabama is sitting on a historical goldmine...steeped very deep in several eras of history...but unfortunately the leaders of Selma...both at City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce do not have the vision or the courage to take a stand and develop our historic resources to bring those tourist dollars into our extremely depressed economy!
As I have said many times...ordinarily when a historical monument is erected & dedicated, you plan the program, the people come, reflect on the historical significance of the day, enjoy the fellowship and then go home & get on with your lives...NOT!!! Not in Selma, Alabama...because we are being held hostage by a lunatic fringe element in this town...that fought against the restoration of the St. James Hotel - screaming that it was a reminder of slavery times when folks came to stay at the hotel while buying & selling slaves on Water Ave...it reopened in about 1999...a class convention hotel - one of about 3 working historic hotels left in the country located on a river bank...this same element tried to stop the Battle of Selma from being produced here in the 1980's....it was reported during those early years of the Battle reenactment that the dollar turned over 7 times..generating over a million dollars into Selma's economy! Also, while Mayor Smitherman was still mayor so many years ago, the SCV National organization was in search of a location for their national headquarters...and were entertaining the prospect of locating in an antebellum house here in Selma...but ohhhhh noooooo....that lunatic fringe through a big fit...wrote to the paper that if Smitherman allowed the SCV to locate here it would only prove Selma to be the "racist" town it always had been! Tennessee...got it! A state that does not require state income tax to be paid!!!!
Now, the NB Forrest monument was erected in Oct 2000...unfortunately, the thug mayor defeated Mayor Smitherman and Perkins became Rose Sander's political puppet. The first 10 days that the monument was at the Smitherman Building Museum, THREE tour buses came to see it! Benny Austin & I held "class on the ground" over there one evening with a group of multi-cultural all inclusive and diverse students from Boston...they left that evening with a totally different perspective about the South and about Gen Forrest...which proves ignorance is our enemy...TRUTH and EDUCATION are our weapons! This monument was put here for historical & tourism reasons...our intent was to showcase Selma's 19th century history and pay homage to the military genius who came here to defend Selma from the invading yankees...inject a shot in Selma's economic arm and enhance Selma's tourist dollars....but obviously this is NOT the priority of "those people" in charge of this town. We listen to Rose Sanders' radio station (Hate 105) and all the hate & venom she spews on a daily basis...it is appalling that the FCC lets her get away with this!!! Plus, it really infuriates me that she is the wife of a loooong term state senator and his salary is paid with our tax dollars that go to their household!!! Rose Sanders & her husband Hank and their partner the late JL Chestnut single-handedly DESTROYED the Selma City School system in 1990...Gov. Guy Hunt had to send the National Guard back in here almost like in 1965!!! But the leaders of this town allow her to committ economic extortion against Selma and continue to dance to the beat of her drum...it was her radio talk show broadcast that obviously inspired someone to steal the NBF bust...she has been very vocal and visable with her contempt for Selma's 19th century history and especially Gen Forrest to the point the police have had to remove her from the city council chambers during the council meetings on many occasions!
This monument project was and is a labor of love for me...it was a dream come true to finally have a beautiful monument here honoring General Forrest who so richly deserved that honor for his courage to come to defend Selma when the battle was lost even before he got here with only about 3000 troops against mammoth odds of James H. Wilson's 13,000 plus raiders! We are planning steps of "extreme" security measures for the monument & replacement bust...and the entire Confederate circle...it will be a "security & beautification" project...and that's what we will focuse on for the immediate situation. The WAR AIN'T over yet...we don't plan to surrender!
The 13th Annual Forrest Celebration here at Fort Dixie will have a deeper meaning this year...due to the national reunion of the SCV in Murfreesboro, TN the second week in July, our celebration will be held on July 28...we invite you all to come this year...hopefully gas won't be $6 a gallon...but y'all just pile up in a van or SUV and bring a bunch with you & share the expense! We are planning a special program this year that we feel sure will guarantee you the BEST day in Dixie you have ever had!
Again, thank you to you ALL for your continued faithful support toward our efforts here in Selma to preserve our history, heritage and Southern culture!
Confederately yours,
Pat & Butch Godwin
Friends of Forrest, Inc.
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