UPDATED As Military Vet I Felt Unwelcome When Rebel Flag Got Big Ovation at Vets Day Parade in Melbourne, FL 11NOV15

I hate the confederate flag, it is a traitor's rag, a symbol of the traitors who tried to destroy or Republic. It is a symbol of ignorant, racist, stupid people full of hate. I have no time for those who choose to display it. It is extremely insulting to flaunt it in the faces of real American heroes, those who served and sacrificed in the U.S. military. I remember the outrage caused by those carrying the Viet Cong flag in protest against the Vietnam war. I participated in many protest against the wars in Kuwait and Iraq, but I never thought of carrying an Iraqi flag. I carried an American flag because I am a patriot and it is my flag too. Shame on those who view the confederate flag as a symbol of America and claim to love our country. Shame on those who seek to "honor" the dead confederate soldiers as heroes, same as those who have died over the centuries defending our nation. I think every American who loves our country should take the time to call or e mail the sons of confederate veterans and let them know what they think about their honoring traitors. Here's the contact information

Sons of Confederate Veterans Contact Information

By Telephone: National Headquarters Recruiting: (800) MYSOUTH National Headquarters Staff: (800) 380-1896 National Headquarters Fax: (931) 381-6712 By Email: National Headquarters Executive Director: exedir@scv.org National Headquarters Recruiting: membership@scv.org National Headquarters Membership Services: membership@scv.org Chief Webmaster: technical@scv.org

For additional contact information, please refer to our listings under About > Directories.

I cut and pasted Kwik's post in an e mail to each of the above addresses. Hope the rest of you will let them know you are offended by their treason, hate, racism and ignorance too. 

UPDATE, my e mails back and forth with the executive director of scv added here.....

Craig Schwanke <bucknackt@gmail.com>

Nov 12 (5 days ago)

to exedir, membership I hate the confederate flag, it is a traitor's rag, a symbol of the traitors who tried to destroy or Republic. It is a symbol of ignorant, racist, stupid people full of hate. I have no time for those who choose to display it. It is extremely insulting to flaunt it in the faces of real American heroes, those who served and sacrificed in the U.S. military. I remember the outrage caused by those carrying the Viet Cong flag in protest against the Vietnam war. I participated in many protest against the wars in Kuwait and Iraq, but I never thought of carrying an Iraqi flag. I carried an American flag because I am a patriot and it is my flag too. Shame on those who view the confederate flag as a symbol of America and claim to love our country. Shame on those who seek to "honor" the dead confederate soldiers as heroes, same as those who have died over the centuries defending our nation. I think every American who loves our country should take the time to call or e mail the sons of confederate veterans and let them know what they think about their honoring traitors. Here's the contact information

Mike Landree <exedir@scv.org>

Nov 13 (4 days ago)

to me, membership

Craig,
I don’t mind quoting Abraham Lincoln this once: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”  Those of us who honor our Confederate ancestors have woken up.  Yep – they aren’t going to stand for you and your ilk attacking these fine American veterans any more. Pretty awesome – the greatest and loudest cheers for our boys in gray!  Honoring one set doesn’t take away from the honor of another, as if there’s a limited amount of honor to give.
Burn our flag?  Go ahead – we’re selling more than you can burn and if you want to buy another one, we have an online store you can purchase them from.
By the way, you are very welcome for the right to burn our flag - I served 28 years and 4+ combat tours for this country – I think I have every reason to say whatever or honor whomever I want to.
Have a great Dixie day!
Michael L. Landree
LtCol, USMC, Ret
Executive Director
Sons of Confederate Veterans
From: Craig Schwanke [mailto:bucknackt@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 18:21
To: exedir@scv.org; membership@scv.org
Subject: Veteran's Day

FYI, I am an American, and none of my ancestors were traitors, they fought, and some died, for the American Republic, from the revolution to Afghanistan, all under the American flag, not your traitors rag. So I owe you and all the traitors past and in the scv now nothing. I doubt your time in the military was nothing more than a job. So, as long as stupid neo-nazis continue to hand out confederate flags at protest I can continue to burn them without spending a dime.

 

Craig

As Military Vet I Felt Unwelcome When Rebel Flag Got Big Ovation at Vets Day Parade in Melbourne, FL

By Kwik  

Wednesday Nov 11, 2015 12:49 PM EST

This float got the loudest and longest ovation from people attending the Melbourne, Florida Veterans Day Parade. Note how the Robert E. Lee wannabe is staring at my camera as I take his picture and how the lady in front of me is on her feet giving the float a standing ovation.

I went to today’s Veteran’s Day Parade in Melbourne, Fla. to join with fellow military veterans and others to celebrate America and American heroes who have fought to preserve America and protect our freedoms. Instead, I left bitterly insulted and disappointed that a float sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans featuring the Confederate Battle Flag got the loudest and longest ovation of any float in the ENTIRE parade.
My heart sank at the sight of that treacherous rag approaching the spot where my wife and I were watching the parade from.  And before it got to us she said it was going to get a rousing ovation...and unfortunately she was right.  The crowd around us went nuts and as you can see the woman in the picture stood up clapping and yelling her support as that wretched float went by.  Given the racist nature of many Floridians, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was.  I simply didn’t expect it to that extent.  Disgustingly, there was more excitement and energy toward that float and that flag than there was toward all the floats featuring the American flag.  Far more.  And frankly, being near those folks made me and my wife feel extremely uncomfortable.
It makes you wonder what the heck these people are thinking.  While I fully support their right to wave the battle flag and dress in Confederate gear at public events, I don’t pretend to understand why they’d want to—especially at an event designed to celebrate America and its military veterans.
Even if you take the racial aspect out of it, at the very least the Confederacy was determined to destroy the United States of America.  If somebody truly loves America, how can they have any respect or appreciation for what the Confederates tried to do?
I have a sinking feeling that most of the folks cheering that flag and float know exactly what the Confederacy was really about...and are proudly planning to call that 1-800-MYDIXIE phone number displayed on the float to express their ongoing support for traitors who LOST the Civil War to the true heroes who preserved the United States of America.