Your opinion: Sept. 12, 2015
Published 12:18 pm Monday, September 14, 2015
Never again is now
Fellow Citizens, I want to share some good news that I doubt that you have heard. That is because it does not fit the agenda of the Mainstream Media.
On the weekend of August 28th and 29th, my husband and I had the privilege of attending the RESTORING UNITY rally in Birmingham, Alabama. That same weekend, Deputy Sheriff Goforth of Harris County Texas was assassinated while pumping gas into his patrol vehicle. The media continually covered this “horrific crime” as well as repeatedly showing a group of protesters from the “Black Lives Matter” movement calling for the death of police officers with their chant.
Sadly, no one showed the 30,000 people that came together from all over the United States and even some foreign countries that marched on the morning of August 29th in Birmingham, Alabama. It was an awesome sight as we walked in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, Jr’s Historic Civil Rights march of 1963 from the 16th Street Baptist Church which had been bombed previously. Signs and calls for Unity were everywhere for people to love one another, for justice and to stand together in Righteousness. People of all races and faiths came together with calls to stop the hatred and killing going on in our country and in the Middle East where thousands of Christians are being slaughtered.
The Security there said they had never seen such a large march/rally as the crowd extended for blocks with no end in sight.
Our march ended at the Legacy Arena Convention Center in Birmingham. Those attending pledged, not only to stand in unity for peace and non-violent action, but also to join with Mercury One.org (the Nazarene fund) to raise ten million dollars by Christmas to bring Christian families out of the danger zones in the Middle East into the United States. Pastors and Churches will be needed to help sponsor these families.
Friends, our Administration, State Department, and Congress are doing little to nothing about this issue. How often do you hear them voice concern much less action? They are too busy pushing a deal with Iran who vows to annihilate Israel. Those of you who know God’s Word know what condemnation this places on our country.
You can see how important this is and why I felt strongly that my fellow citizens should be made aware. There are many of us trying to take a stand by taking some action personally to help our Christian brothers and sisters. Don’t bury your head in the sand or wait for the Government to act. We all need to do what we can NOW because Never Again is Now is to stop the violence. You can find Mercury One on Facebook or at Mercury One.org.
Thanks for listening. May God bless you all and may He have mercy on our country.
Mary W. Davis
Americus
Offers comments on Andersonville
With the Sesquicentennial observance of the death of Capt. Henry Wirz, Commandant of Andersonville Prison Camp quickly approaching, and dramas being done about his trial, I want to make a few comments about Andersonville.
It was a terrible place, but let us remember that the death rate percentage in some of the Northern prisons housing Confederates was GREATER than Andersonville. The North had the resources for the Confederate prisoners, but Andersonville and the whole population of the South was impoverished.
Capt. Wirz was arrested and his trial before a military tribunal included perjured testimony of a Union soldier who had never been at Andersonville. Most defense witnesses were not permitted to testify. His trial and execution was a farce and travesty of justice. He was falsely convicted of murder and of conspiracy with high ranking members of the Confederate government.
Andersonville was constructed to house 10,000 Union POW’s. However, numbers increased to as high as 45,000 due to a policy by the Lincoln administration to discontinue exchanges. POW’s received the same rations and hospital treatment as CSA guards. A request that Northern doctors and medicine be sent to treat POW’s and an effort to buy food and utensils was denied. Lincoln made medicine contraband causing suffering and death. Prior to the period of greatest mortality the CSA authorities offered to release the POW’s without exchange.
Additional proof that the human disaster at Andersonville was virtually the fault of the Lincoln Administration comes from statements published post-War in the New York Sun Newspaper. Asst. Sec. of War Dana wrote “CSA authorities, and especially Jefferson Davis, ought not to be held responsible for Andersonville. We were responsible ourselves for the continued detention of our captives in misery, starvation and sickness in the South,” and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant admitted that he had considered the Andersonville POW’s expendable.
Let’s also remember that after the Yankees hanged Capt. Wirz, they cut off his head, arms, and other body parts, and exhibited them about the country. Some of his bones are still on display in a museum in Maryland.
James Gaston
Americus