The Confederate Memorial Day 2013 (In honor of our Confederate Veterans)

Mike
Hollingsworth

Friday May 11, 2013 was Confederate Memorial Day in the Carolinas.  We celebrated and honored our Veterans on Saturday. My wife and I were in attendance and took a few snapshots of the ceremonies and put them together.  They can be viewed here.  M.H.

A TAD OF COMMON SENSE

Mike
Hollingsworth

A tad of common sense amidst the mirage of
liberal so called progressiveness!  I think every State in the Union should do the same.  

Go to the link below for the entire interesting article. -- M. H.

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http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/24/2846875/senate-committee-passes-cursive.html

By T. Keung Hui

RALEIGH — A bill requiring North Carolina elementary school students to learn cursive handwriting and to memorize multiplication table continued to steamroll its way through the General Assembly on Wednesday with no opposition.

 The Global Position

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Where has all the Common Sense gone?

Mike
 Hollingsworth

"From a Pop-Tart gun to a picture of a rifle on a T-shirt, schools have punished students for anything that even resembles a gun. But this may be the screwiest story of all…The Rutherford Institute is suing a Chicago-area school district on behalf of veteran second grade teacher, Doug Bartlett. He was suspended without pay by Washington Irving Elementary School for violating the zero tolerance policy on “possessing, carrying, storing or using a weapon.” And what was his crime? He brought his toolbox to school to give his kids a lesson on how pliers, wrenches and screwdrivers are used. He didn’t even have a nail gun. When he wasn’t demonstrating the tools, they were secured on a high shelf, out of reach, and the students never even touched them. A spokesman called Bartlett’s suspension a “gross overreaction” that underscores “exactly what’s wrong with our nation’s schools.” But you know who I really feel sorry for? The kids in that school district’s high school shop class. How do they cut boards? With their teeth?" -- MikeHuckabee [Facebook post]

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Fifth-grader suspended at overnight nature camp for bringing Swiss Army knife – A fifth-grader in Cupertino, California was suspended and threatened with expulsion for bringing a small Swiss Army knife on a school-sponsored, science-oriented camping trip.  Read More

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Eighth-grader arrested over NRA shirt returns to school in same Shirt - The West Virginia eighth-grader who was suspended and, astonishingly, arrested last week after he refused to remove a t-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association returned to school on Monday.  Read More

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Junior high teacher tells kid to remove Marines t-shirt or get

suspended - The latest bit of anti-gun hysteria erupted in a school setting on Monday when an eighth-grade teacher threatened a 14-year-old boy with suspension if he did not remove his t-shirt supporting the United States Marines.  Read more

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Yet another student has been suspended for having something that represents a gun - but isn’t actually anything like a real gun.  This time, it was a breakfast pastry.  Josh Welch, a second-grader at Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, was suspended for two days because his teacher thought he shaped the strawberry, pre-baked toaster pastry into something resembling a gun. WBFF, the FOX affiliate in Baltimore, broke the story.  Read more

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Kindergartener suspended for making ‘terroristic threat’ with Hello Kitty bubble gun - A rural Pennsylvania girl has been suspended from kindergarten after she told another girl that she planned to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that bombards targets with soapy bubbles.

Events unfolded last week when the five-year-old girl was waiting at a bus stop with other students, reports WCAU in Philadelphia. Details are unclear, but the girl said something like “I’m going to shoot you and I will shoot myself,” according to Robin Ficker, an attorney for the girl’s family.  Read more

Student kicked out of class for wearing #patriotic T-shirt: fxn.ws/11Cbc6s
— Fox News Video (@foxnewsvideo) April 24, 2013

To all Lake Waccamaw Property Owners and Friends

The Nature Conservancy has established a special fund for the Lake Waccamaw Hydrilla Management Project to receive private donation.  Go to:  http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/northcarolina/giving/index.htm



Or to NC Chapter Office, American Tobacco Champus, 334 blackwell Street, Suite 300 Durham, NC 27701, (919) 403-8558 (indicate purpose on check). 

Mike Hollingsworth, The Global Position.com

My To-the-Point Beliefs Concerning the Ban of Guns in Our Nation.

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

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Following are my unembellished and chase thoughts concerning personal beliefs about so-called "gun control": 

 It is illegal.  It is unconstitutional.  

Period.

(Americans should realize and understand, and it is obvious that many do not, that the Second Amendment was designed to protect them from the power of the federal government.  That was the thought in the minds of the founders when they were framing the constitution.  It was not composed to simply protects our rights to hunt for food or target-shoot.)  – Mike Hollingsworth,  29 January 2013

Also view and read:  

Look-A-Likes Aren’t The Real Thing

Gun Control - Watch What Happens When Guns Are Banned.

Touring North Carolina's Revolutionary War Sites

Buy at Amazon

I bought this book because it tributes my 5th great grandfather* who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The Cape Fear tour begins near Dudley in southern Wayne County and makes its way through Sampson, Duplin, and New Hanover Counties before ending at Southport in Brunswick County. Among the highlights are the story of Polly Slocumb, the story of Zebulon Hollingsworth, Liberty Hall, the Battle of Rockfish Creek, historic Wilmington, Orton Plantation, Brunswick Town State Historic Site, and historic Southport.

I was quickly drawned to all the tours and completed the book within a few hours and I'm now involved in my second persual. I highly recommend this book especially to history lovers!

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By Michael Hollingsworth March 2013.

Sons of confederate Veterans, Camp 794 at Farm Show in Lake Waccamaw

The SCV is the direct heir of the United Confederate Veterans, and the oldest hereditary organization for male descendents of Confederate soldiers. Organized at Richmond, Virginia in 1896, the SCV continues to serve as a historical, patriotic, and non-political organization dedicated to ensuring that a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved.

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Membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is open to all male descendants of any veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces. -- SCV Gen. HG. http://www.scv.org/

By Michael Hollingsworth 2013.

BONNIE BLUE FLAG By Mike Hollingsworth

BONNIE BLUE FLAG  -- This flag was the most popular in the pristine first years of the 1861 - 1865 War for Southern Independence.  It was revered as the emblem, the unofficial flag, of the Confederate States of America (CSA).   

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The lyrics of The Bonnie Blue Flag was written and first sung by a slender dark haired young man named Harry McCarthy.  He would stand in the center of the stage, dressed fully in the Confederate gray uniform, and belt out the song which would whip the soldiers into a frenzy.  Harry's wife Lottie would also performed an on-stage promenade with the flag.  

Harry would not only sing but would also perform by playing the role of a soldier going off to war and leaving his sweetheart, wife, lover behind!  As McCarthy sang his song, Lottie would dart onto the stage waving a single-starred blue confederate flag.  Upon reaching Harry she would throw her arms around him in a lover’s embrace.  The soldiers in the assemblage loved it and carried the image with them onto the battlefield.   (Once when trying to evade Federal patrol boats after the fall of New Orleans, Lottie retrieved the flag she had hidden and ran it up the mast of the small sail boat they were in, just barely out of reach of Federal guns. She and her husband were real confederate patriots with tons of courage and conviction!)

THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG

By Harry McCarthy

We are a band of brothers and native to the soil

Fighting for our liberty, with treasure, blood and toil

And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star!

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

As long as the Union was faithful to her trust

Like friends and like brethren, kind we were, and just

But now, when Northern treachery attempts our rights to mar

We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Hurrah!  Hurrah! 

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

First gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand

Then came Alabama and took her by the hand

Next, quickly Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida

All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Ye men of valor gather round the banner of the right

Texas and fair Louisiana join us in the fight

Davis, our loved President, and Stephens statesmen rare

Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Now here’s to brave Virginia, the old Dominion State,

With the young Confederacy at length has linked her fate,

Impelled by her example, now other states prepare

To hoist high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Then cheer, boys, cheer, and raise a joyous shout

For Arkansas and North Carolina now have both gone out,

And let another rousing cheer for Tennessee be given,

The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag has grown to be eleven.

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Then here’s to our Confederacy, strong we are and brave,

Like patriots of old we’ll fight, our heritage to save;

And rather than submit to shame, to die we would prefer,

So cheer, cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

Hurrah!  Hurrah!

For Southern rights, hurrah!

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

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There were many versions by war's end.  Below is a short version from the Movie "Gods and Generals"  --

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By Michael Hollingsworth 2013.

A Nudge From God!

I sat down this morning to write an overdue article about Abraham Lincoln and how history has been rewritten to suit certain misguided agendas of many citizens in this country including the recent Lincoln movie writers and producers out of Hollywood.


As I took pen in hand, so to speak, I felt an uneasiness that is sometimes felt when I first put my pen to a task.  I have learned over the years to stop and determine what God is nudging me to do and then do it.  So I turned my computer off and went downstairs to ponder and join my wife Charlotte and her eighty-six year old mother for breakfast.

I sat down to the table and began joking and laughing with my Mother-In-Law, Marie. We were enjoying the time together but that nagging feeling kept tugging at me.

All at once, Marie changed the subject and sadly expressed her sorrow and concern for an old friend.  Her friend had been recently diagnosed with cancer and reports were discouraging to say the least.

My presage worsened and I admitted how sad and horrible cancer is to so many people.  And then the words just seem to pour out of me.  I told of  my mother's account and how she suffered with her deathly struggle from my early teen years until she died just after my eighteenth birthday.  How awful it was and how it impacted me tremendously at that young age.  Without realizing what I  was saying I blurted, "And guess what...She died forty-nine years ago at the age of fifty and today is her birthday.  Mother is ninety-nine years old today".

That was it!  That was what was nagging at me!  Today February 7, 1914, ninety-nine years ago, my Mother was born into this world.

After breakfast, I sat down to start my article about Abraham Lincoln but couldn't bring it together.  I finally realized that if I was going to write anything today, it would have to be about my Mom.  God was tugging at my heart to do it.

It's with pleasure to rewrite the following tribute:     

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My Parents

I graduated from Waynesboro-Central High School in the month of May 1962 and I arrived at Fort Jackson, South Carolina on July 4th for U. S. Army basic training. I was a kid, very young and highly vulnerable.

Boot camp was hard. Actually it was distressing and merciless. That's not quite adequate, so let's see. Hold on... I'm thinking. Got it!

Boot Camp at Fort Jackson in 1962, was "Hell" on earth. Please believe it!

The only enjoyment and contentment trainees had were their anticipation of late afternoon or early evening mail call which meant letters and packages from home. Aware that my Mother was the only family member likely to write to me, I wrote to her several times and waited expectantly for my first letter.  It seemed that everyone around me were getting several letters daily and one could feel the excitement in the air. But I always left mail call, which was a huddle outside our barracks and in the middle of the street, with empty hands and dashed hopes.

I knew something had to be wrong back at home but was unable to investigate. There wasn't any computers, internet, or email.  Telephones were in existence but we were not allowed to use them.  We were allowed to write letters. Actually we were ordered to write letters and they were my only means of communication with the people I loved - my only way to connect. But I was not receiving any replies to my mail!

Finally I earned a weekend pass and went directly to a telephone at the Columbia, South Carolina bus station. Anxiously I placed a call home.  My father answered the telephone. Immediately my heart sank because daddy would never respond to a ringing telephone, not as long as there were someone else in the house capable of answering.

Conversation was easy but idle. Daddy was evasive and reserved. He would not summon Mother to the phone and declared everything just fine on the "old home front". By the time we disconnected and ended our brief chat, my six sense was screaming that something was dreadfully wrong, and I surmised that it had to do with my Mother.

Immediately I purchased a Greyhound ticket and boarded the bus to Sumter, South Carolina. My older brother lived there and I was determined to get to the bottom of the enigma once and for all. It was during this visit that I learned why my Mother was not writing.

Here's why.  One day after talking on the telephone, Mother lost consciousness from sudden and searing pain as she turned, applying weight to her right leg. Eventually she was diagnosed with bone cancer and was so painfully sick that writing to me was completely out of the question. She had asked that I not be informed of her situation out of fear that I might go Absent Without Leave (AWOL) to come home.  And I might have too, but by the time I learned of her condition I was too close to graduation.  Reducing what I had learned to the lowest common denominator, I was relieved to know but devastated to uncover why.

By late August Mother had gained enough strength to write. I kept that first letter from home and occasionally I retrieve it from her old Bible to read and to remember. To this very day I choke back tears during the read.

February 7, marks my Mother's birthday and, as a tribute to her, I want to share with you that first letter from home.

It was dated August 30, 1962 and is very short but packed full of love and advice that we all can take to heart.

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Dearest Mike,

Got your letter yesterday. I was glad to hear from you. 

Thanks for saying what you did. I realize that through God all things are possible, and I am sure that He is my salvation.

Mike you are a grown man now and I would not in any way try lying to you. My condition is as good as can be expected at the present time, but all my doctors have told me that there is no cure. So I have accepted it and am prepared for the worst so you must not worry too much about me.

You have always been a good boy when it came right down to it and all I ask is that you stay that way.

Always take good care of your health because when it is gone you might as well not have anything. Money cannot buy health or happiness. I have been happy. I had a good home and a fine family. The only regrets I have is that the job of raising my family is not finished and I always did hate to leave a job before it was finished.

I may sound a bit morbid but I am not. Most of the time I feel good. I have had lots of company. School started today though, and I guess people will not have as much time to visit as they did. Hubert and Tommy came to see me and Sam called to see how I was [... 

...] Well, guess I must close as there is not much news. Take care of yourself and write me again soon.

Bye now.

Love you always, Mother
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A few months later, Mother died of cancer on April 14, 1964 barely fifty years old. I was by her side. She is with her Lord who she loves and worships so very much. My Mother taught me many important things in life. So many things, I could not even begin to count them. But near the top of the list is "how to die with courage and dignity". I hope and pray that readers will take something from this tribute that will have lasting meaning in their lives.

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In Your name Lord, I pray that if there are any flowers in Heaven, please pick a bouquet and give them to my Mother on this day. I ask that You place Your loving arms around her and tell her this message is from her son, "Happy birthday Mom. I love you".  Lord, you know that her life continues to this day to be a witness of the life you have offered to all. Glory to your name. Amen.

Copyright © 2012 Michael Hollingsworth All rights reserved

Bank Fishing With Grandma By Mike Hollingsworth

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The sounds and melodies of spring were in the air and I believe that the most alluring music played in the most famous concert halls in the world could not be more divine and hypnotic. I was lounging in one of the old Adirondack chairs on our wrap-around porch while enjoying a cup of Joe. The views of Lake Waccamaw were gorgeous, views of God's canvases - a sight to behold!

Lake Waccamaw Tree Frog

Sleepily sipping my coffee I all of a sudden became mindful of thunder afar, the occasional talented barking or rain-calls of the green tree frogs, and the haunting sound of the mourning doves. The scent of my coffee and the sounds of spring, as if in H. G. Wells time machine, flashed my thoughts back to my boyhood days in hometown Waynesboro and my summer visits with my paternal grandma who lived in Petal, Mississippi.

Almost every summer my parents would send me off for a two week visit with Grandma and Grandma's youngest married daughter, Dixie.  Aunt Dixie lived with her family next door to Grandma. My aunt had two young'uns, a boy an a girl, about my age.  We always enjoyed the long hot summer vacations together. 

I recall that in the fifties most states, including Mississippi, did not recognize daylight saving time. We simply went to bed early and arose at the first sign of daylight. Of course this made for a very long hot Mississippi summer days and we made the best of every minute.

Most every day Grandma would take us fishing and swimming at local creeks, usually Big or Green Creek. She taught us how to prepare our fishing poles with a line, sinker, and hook. We always dug for worms out back of the house and she would teach us how to string them onto a fishhook.  And of course, she would show us how to hook and land a fish. 

Most of the trips we would catch oodles and oodles of perch and crappie. As they were landed, I would be the one to always put them on a fish-stringer before returning the mess of fish into the creek. One day I remember lifting a stringer of perch out of the water to add another when I detected that all that was left of a couple of fish were their top half.  To my astonishment, I realized that the rest of the fish had been eaten! 

"Grandma, Grandma, look!  whatcha think happened to these here fish", I asked, holding them up for her to see.  "Uhhhh Mike, don't give that no never mind" she responded, "A water moccasin or two, more-an-likely, had supper of them - probably a cottonmouth.  You should keep an eye out for them snakes fer I hear tell they're quite poisonous and will bow up and strike you on the leg or ankle before ya can say 'Jack Splat can eat no fat'!"  Grandma looked at my face and then she  released thunderous laughter, rolling backward on the tree stump while slapping herself on the knees, as if she had just told the funniest joke ever! 

Now, back to the present, I must confess that I didn't care too much for snakes, especially poison ones. From that day forward and to this very day, when a twig or something touches my leg while fishing, traipsing through the forest or anywhere in the brush for that matter,  I jump about a foot high and bolt into an Indian dance...certain that a snake had just bitten me.  And the memory of my Grandma flashes immediately to my mind!

I realized my coffee was getting cold and a drizzle of rain, to the delight of the barking frogs, had started to fall. I leaned back further into my chair, closed my eyes and bowed my head and whispered a little prayer:

God, Thank you for my Grandma and all the memories I have of her.  I wish she was with me now for I love her enormously, but I know You love her even more than I am even capable of loving her and she is happy in the place that You prepared for her.  When I was a child I thought as a child.  I couldn't understand the meaning of my Grandma's love. How she had matured in her love for You over the years and how You bestowed so much wisdom on her and how she let it flow out of her and onto me.  She was and continues to be an extraordinary blessing that you sent into my life.  Thank You!

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