Will
Mississippi
Stand Strong Against Mr. Sweeney?
05/28/2005
Mr. Denne A. Sweeney,
Commander
International Sons of Confederate Veterans
347 Ridgewood Drive
Ferris, Texas 75259
Dear Mr. Sweeney,
This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of May 2, 2005, regarding the
meeting of the Mississippi Division SCV you have called for the Memorial Day
weekend in Byram, MS. In an administration filled with firsts, you can now
add another -- for the first time, National SCV officers have called a
Division meeting before consulting with or informing the Division officers.
I sincerely believe that no persons are more qualified to discuss the “SCV leadership crisis” than you, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Dark, since you three have unilaterally created that crisis. Your relentless elimination of anyone who doesn’t agree with you, your continued and flagrant violation of our constitution, your welcome and promotion of those misguided individuals who associate our precious Confederate Heritage with racism and worse, have created a poison that will go far toward the destruction of the SCV that I and many others worked to create long before you became a member.
At the same time, you may have discovered what I already know, that those SCV members whose ancestors really did serve in the Confederate Army are just as loath to endure tyranny and oppression as our ancestors were. Almost every well informed and thoughtful SCV member is appalled at the heavy handed manner in which you have flouted our constitution and eliminated from their positions Commander John French, Lt. Commander Anthony Hodges, Commander Tarry Beasley, and Commander Bo Cantrell, all of whom were duly elected at the same time you were, sir.
Mr. Sweeney, our ancestors lost the war after an honorable struggle. Our generation lost a war too, but I am not sure we did all we could to prevent that defeat. Our generation allowed our Confederate Heritage to be high-jacked by racist groups, by groups who opposed the law of the land, and by groups and individuals who preached hate and violence. We lost so completely, that in the present situation many decent, prominent, respected individuals who value the efforts of their Confederate ancestors are reluctant to be heard or to associate with the SCV for fear of being branded and misunderstood.
The SCV leaders you have eliminated understood the threat to our Confederate Heritage that extremists posed, but you and Mr. Wilson seem anxious to embrace those extremists.
The men who drafted our SCV constitution very wisely crafted a leadership system of checks and balances by which a Commander-in-Chief was allowed staff positions of his own choosing, but was prevented from exercising dictatorial control by the oversight of the General Executive Council. This system served the SCV well for over 100 years before you and Mr. Wilson promoted personal power over a fair and balanced system of administration.
You indicate this meeting will have “a large crowd,” and I have no doubt it will, since your supporters were doubtless well informed beforehand, and participated in choosing the date, time, and place.
Before I commit to participating in another Sweeney-Wilson setup, I would like more information. By the way, some these are the same questions I and other recently removed members of the GEC have been asking for the past three years. Specifically, let me know your position on the following:
• Will you restore the SCV constitution to the form that served us well for over 100 years before your rigged, unlawful “special convention” changed it?
• Will you promise to refrain in the future from purging duly elected officers who disagree with you and your supporters, and restore those duly elected officers you and your henchmen toppled in the recent North Carolina massacre?
• Will you renounce the wholesale expulsion of members from the SCV who don’t agree with you?
• Will you agree to return the SCV to its traditional roots of an association of descendants of Confederate Soldiers and stop making it a haven for neo-secessionists, racists, and other fringe elements?
• Will you commit to enforcing the eligibility requirements for membership in the organization by limiting membership to those persons who can actually prove they are qualified for membership?
• Will you allow a targeted, in depth audit of all SCV funds by an independent accounting firm to cover a period of the last three years?
• Will you agree to stop the wholesale funneling of SCV money to your friend, Mr. Lyons, in the name of “Heritage Defense”?
• Will you reaffirm the SCV’s opposition to racism, its loyalty to the United States, and its disdain for those who preach the opposite?
• Will you renounce your practice of holding meetings on short notice, at inconvenient times, in remote locations, in order to minimize the likelihood that those who might not agree with you can attend?
• Finally, and most importantly, will you agree to be bound by and adhere to the SCV Constitution and applicable laws in the future?
Your answers to these
questions will help me decide what I should do in regard to your meeting.
Yours truly,
William E. Faggert
[NOTE: The author is a past Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.]