by
Tim Manning
Civil confrontations by private citizens with various levels of
government agencies and "law-enforcement" agencies and officers have
multiplied exponentially in the USA during the last 150 years as
egalitarian socialism has destroyed (notice the use of the past tense
here) the moral and legal constitutional rights of USA citizens.
The SCV, the UDC, Southern history and heritage societies, the League
of the South, the Southern National Congress, Pro-Life and othervery
valuable Southern political activist groups remain, all too often,
joyfully reconstructed and unknowingly ignorant in keeping their members
uninformed and ignorant concerning American laws that could benefit
them in their freedom of speech, public assemblies and other activist
events that seek to educate the general public about their particular
social, moral and political issues. This problem is exacerbated by
almost their unanimous dependence upon willing and well-meaning
volunteers, meaning unpaid staff, who are not trained professionals with
leadership and administrative skills, even when those volunteers may be
local church leaders, attorneys or university professors.
This is especially important for "national" and multinational
organizations that operate in more than one city, state, region or
country. This unfortunate situation often prevails in our movements
because of the limited number of people from which to select willing
volunteers.
The failure here is almost always NOT DUE to any lack of positive
intent and overwhelmingly good will by those who head our various
organizations, SCV Camps, etc. Too often skilled people are either not
motivated to "serve" the good causes they have joined, because of
overwhelming responsibilities in our businesser and/or in our family
responsibilities. In the case of Southern organizations there is
professional, skilled and well-trained opposition at all levels of
society.
Freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and
freedom of public assembly are specialty areas of American
jurisprudence. It is more important than ever that ALL focused special
interest religious and Southern groups and their staff receive
systematic professional education and regular updates in many areas of
our possible influence; in this case, especially training and updating
on our legal and moral rights and how to relate to the various levels of
law enforcement. Our activities are often more limited and less
effective because we do ot understand due process and the legal means
available to us. Leadership in most of our Southern organizations that
are largely staffed by volunteers who means well, but are not
professionally trained for leadership and administrative skills, do not
understand the importance of this kind of training, and are relying on
their personal judgement and experience which is not sufficient in the
American centralized statist society.
My son Christopher recently gave testimony in the NC State courts
questioned by the NC State Attorney Generals representing attorney (DA).
One of the questions the DA for the State of NC asked my son was "Don't
know that you have to do whatever a law-enforcement officer instructs
you to do?" My said "No, I do not. It is usually prudent to do so, but
increasingly more often it is a violation of my constitutional rights to
do so which in the kind of work I do could endanger the lives of others
as well as my own life." My son was correct and the NC Superior Court
Judge soon instructed the DA about the error of her thinking on this
issue. My son had sued the NC Department of Issurance over some
important issues that affected his work, and without the expense and
benefits of hiring a professional attorney to represent him he won his
case. We were told that this was the first case of its kind in the State
of North Carolina, and possibly the first of its kind in any State. He
broke new legal ground that led to the termination of some staff in that
department.
Attorneys generally may specialize in some single area of law. We
make a mistake to think that they know more than they really know, even
in their specialized areas. My son is 23 years old and knew more about
his constitutional rights than did this DA and more than most judges
know. My son has a very creative mind and has had specialized training
in this area of North Carolina law.
What I am saying is that it is exceedingly unlikely that things are
going to improve for those of us in American society who are
"distinctively" and "self-consciously" Southern in our culture and
constitutional points of view about the governance of our people who
deserve freedom and liberty unless we get more serious about support and
leadership in our Southern organizations that assert such reasonable
positions.
Confident incompetence and arrogant ignorance, no matter how willing
and well-meaning, are not enough to faithfully fulfill the wonderfully
magnificent Gospel commission given to God's people, not is it enough to
help our Southern people survive in this centralized totalitarian state
muchless bequeath to our children a country and a form of governance
that values and practices the great principles of freedom and liberty.
My generation has failed the generation of my children and
grandchildren, but we can do better and we have a spiritual obligation
to do better than we now do and have done in the past. Before we can
convince others of the righteousness of our cause we need to get
ourselves better trained, better led and better organized.