The on-going campaign to destroy all traces of our traditional Southern cultural heritage-epitomised by the recent removal of the flag from atop the Capitol in South Carolina-has served to awaken many of our slumbering countrymen. As long as our cultural symbols were tolerated publicly, we were made to think we were somehow acceptable to our Imperial Masters. But now, thank God, the mask is off and the truth revealed: we Southerners are seen as living "beyond the Pale."

If the actions of the Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP, and the turncoat politicians instill in our compatriots a righteous anger, then so much the better. Let us pray also that a sense of alienation flourishes in Dixie. Righteous anger and alienation, if properly focused, can become the catalyst for larger, more important actions than the mere defense of our heritage. We in the League of the South contend that the most important action is that which first honors the triune God and then leads, with His blessing, to Southern Independence. While legions of previously passive and uninvolved Southerners are awakening to the threat to the symbols of their heritage, we have an opportunity to translate that raw emotion into productive, long-term action that leads to our ultimate goal of liberty.

So it is a good thing that large numbers of heretofore-complacent Southerners have decided to become active in defense of their heritage. But we must not allow heritage defense, however honorable and necessary it is, to become the raison d' etre of the Southern Movement. More importantly, we must not permit ourselves to sanction ill-conceived and ill-timed centralized political efforts (i.e. the Southern Party) or pseudo-military charades (i.e. the Confederate Legion). Instead, we should view the present attacks as a wake-up call for a more worthy, if unspectacular, undertaking, and that is the slow and arduous task of organizing a counter-revolutionary movement to turn back the godless revolution that has overtaken the South. This is what the League of the South has been about since its inception in 1994, and we must not lose sight of the fact that this organizational foundation must be built before we can think seriously of our ultimate goal of Southern Independence.

Despite the positive aspects of the assaults on our heritage, there have been some indisputable drawbacks as well. Perhaps the most crucial has been a fragmentation of our movement. This fragmentation is born of understandable frustration and impatience over recent defeats on the heritage front. But let us understand one thing: the war has just begun, and it is going to be a long, protracted campaign that calls for diligence and perseverance. The final stake is our freedom, and success in preserving it demands tight discipline and unity of purpose.

The fruits of impatience have lately manifested themselves in the formation of numerous splinter groups or organizations (two of which are mentioned above). While the motives of those who form these groups are, for the most part, honorable, we run the risk within the general Southern movement of spreading ourselves too thin by trying to support each and every one of these efforts. Indeed, some of the more specialized efforts are quite necessary and have done good work. They deserve your support (e.g. the Edgefield Journal, SLRC, Southern Bar Association, Southern Heritage Society, etc.) There are some who argue that the existence of a large number of organizations makes us look more formidable to our enemies; however, there is a limit to the effectiveness of this multiple-organization approach, and it appears that we may be close to the point of overkill (are not the LS, HPA, SCV, and UDC enough?). Moreover, the attempts to form a centralized "national" political party or to establish some sort of showy Confederate paramilitary group promise only frustration and ridicule. Let us get back to the unspectacular work of foundation building that the League has advocated all along. For those who lack patience and single-mindedness of purpose, this prospect may sound unattractive. But remember, we did not get into this dark hole overnight, and we will not dig ourselves out from it without much diligent and faithful work.

Among those who are not particularly committed to the League's ultimate goal of Southern independence perhaps this multiple-organization approach is justified. Heritage defense, for example, can best be carried out in an extremely localized manner. Politics, while not our salvation, can be practiced on the state and local levels by supporting our candidates (of whatever party) through political action committees and caucuses. But to attain our independence as a people, we must have a disciplined movement in which all the component parts pull together in unison and in the same direction. Movements of this sort, whether revolutionary or counter-revolutionary (and again we are the latter), can succeed only by employing a high degree of discipline and coordination of purpose.

The Kennedy brothers have long lamented that organizing Southerners is akin to "herding cats." Yes, we are a stubborn and principled people, and there is sometimes much merit in those characteristics. But, contrary to the ways of our forebears, we have drunk too deeply of the cup of individualism, and the atomized individual is a thoroughly modern (and helpless) product that our ancestors would hold in the highest contempt. Simply put, this penchant for modern individualism is a prime source of our fragmentation, and hence of the bickering that all to often pervades within our general ranks. We have unknowingly absorbed along with our mothers' milk the dominant principles of a revolutionary age, and it has bred within in us a potentially destructive impatience.

Recently, I spent several days in South Carolina on a speaking tour and came away with a sense of what can be accomplished by a state League chapter when the leadership and members decide to put aside individual agendas and revolutionary aspirations and focus completely on the work and goals of the League. Most of the folks with whom I talked had laid aside the distraction of trying to wear too many different hats at once and had rededicated themselves wholly to the struggle for Southern independence by organizing strong locals chapters within the League. I am also happy to report that this is happening in other state LS chapters as well.

To my knowledge, the League of the South is the only broad-based organization advocating an independent Christian Southern Confederacy. For those who hold this goal supreme, then the League is where you need to concentrate your efforts. The path before us will doubtless be long and arduous, requiring patience and courage. Along the way we likely will find it necessary to work with other organizations (e.g. SCV, HPA) on heritage and other issues; however, let us never forget the purpose for which the League was formed six years ago. These tumultuous times call for a single-minded devotion to our first principles of Southern independence through counter-revolutionary foundation building. I urge you all to keep this goal foremost in your hearts and minds. The root cause of our current troubles is subjugation. Our first order of business, then, must be to break the chains of empire. May God continue to favour our honourable cause by first instilling in each of us faith, wisdom, and courage and then by restoring to us and our posterity a free and independent Confederacy. That is, if we prove worthy of such a blessing.

Dr. Michael Hill
President
The League of the South