In a fruitless attempt to place closure on an event that fully warrants continued public debate and scrutiny, Mr. Billy Weaver commented in the March 27, 1999 issue of The Calhoun Times that “When all is said and done, all Mr. Fletcher has done is purchase a piece of property that he wanted and could afford to buy."
We, the Sons of Confederate Veterans local Camp #915, respectfully wish to acknowledge that Mr. Weaver’s comments are offensive to our basic set of values. To classify land where our ancestors, both North and South, fought and died as merely “a piece of property” is to lose all perspective in the regrettable Scott Fletcher affair.
This “piece of property” that Mr. Fletcher “wanted” is a national historic treasure. Mr. Fletcher’s acquisition of the entrenchments and other acreage of the would-be Resaca battlefield park cannot be trivialized as Mr. Weaver wishes to do.
When individuals behave as if there is no greater set of values than what money can buy, when they place what they as individuals “want” above something that has been nationally recognized for over four years as the number one endangered battlefield of the War Between the States, then those individuals need to be publicly recognized for the consequences of their actions.
Such actions inherently hold that money is more important than history, that self-interest should always be placed above public interest when money is involved, and that our national values are subject to the whims of private fancy. By definition, such lives are not worth one dollar more than the balance of their financial accounts.
We urge the State of Georgia and all other appropriate legal authorities to take whatever legal measures are necessary to secure the sanctity and preservation of the Resaca battlefield park. Further, we urge the general public not to be lulled to sleep by Mr. Weaver’s shallow comments in the Scott Fletcher affair.
SO MOVED AND ADOPTED BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans
General Stand Watie Camp # 915
April 8, 1999
Stanley Chambers, Commander
NOTE: This proclamation was published in the April 17, 1999 issue of The Calhoun Times.
