SCRAPHEAP OF HISTORY: Dumpsters guard the Confederate Monument in Hot Springs, now flying a white balloon in place of the Confederate battle flag. Brian Cnilson

And you thought the Civil War was over. Supercharged by a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville and Donald Trump’s signal of sympathy, the Rebel remnants of America and assorted white supremacists, bigots and garden variety nuts have taken to the battlements to protect the symbols of the Lost Cause.

Near hysteria has sent this crowd to defense of statuary around the country. Several assembled by the Confederate soldier’s statue at the Capitol yesterday. Sons of the South apparently were on duty in Searcy after rumors of an assault on a Confederate monument at the WHITE County courthouse. Similar reports arose around the country.
Today, the Confederate irregulars will muster for the third time this year on National Park Service property by the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs. Counter-demonstrators will be prevented from entering the protestors‘ pen (see above.) The Confederate Facebook page is full of boasts about the firepower they’ll be carrying. That they can shoot and kill (and drive cars and kill) I have no doubt. My response to that is one word: Appomattox.

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Brian Chilson’s photo at top shows the symbolically appropriate garbage dumpsters that have been placed around Hot Springs’ Confederate monument, a patch of land owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The UDC acceded to city wishes to no longer fly that modern-day symbol of revolution and racism, the Confederate battle flag. In its place today: A white balloon. (Surrender?) As we noted yesterday, this statue was put in place long after the Civil War and the square was the scene of two lynchings.

Spread the word: The Lincoln Brigade is developing a systematic plan to assault every Confederate monument in Arkansas larger than a historical marker. Eternal vigilance is required. We know not where and on what date they’ll strike, but it’s expected to be nightly, in the early morning hours, until all vestiges of the Confederate States of America have been hauled off to a foundry for conversion into commemorative coinage bearing Stars of David, rainbow symbols and the profile of Martin Luther King.

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Round-the-clock patrols will be necessary until the threat has passed. Pass it on wherever you see the banner of Dixie flying.

Good Confederates were on hand in Searcy yesterday to protect the statue of a Confederate soldier (erected 52 years after the end of the war) in front of the White County courthouse after rumors spread of an imminent assault. None was attempted, but those Dam Yankees are clever like that. It was probably a misdirection so they could send a flying squad to another county less prepared.

In all seriousness: Speak, protest, counter-protest, but no guns, fists, knives or chopsocky, please. Or destruction of property.

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UPDATE: Harding newspaper covered the gathering of white supremacists in Searcy.  They included one wearing an Arkansas Engineering T-shirt meant to resemble one worn in the march in Charlottesville.

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