Roderick Burke was visibly angry. The Stafford County resident and Army veteran stood with a U.S. flag in front of the Stafford County Courthouse, arguing with more than a half dozen residents holding flags representing the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia.
“Why would you do that in Stafford? We live here in this town,” he yelled at the men and women near him. “Why would you dishonor the group who lives in this town?”
One man who referred to Burke’s flag as the “gay marriage flag” said that Burke hated and was dishonoring veterans if he was protesting the flag of the army led by Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Other protesters and counter-protesters recorded the altercation with their smartphones—just in case.
More than 70 people, many from Virginia, rallied Friday afternoon with visible firearms, Gadsden flags, Confederate battle flags and other banners tied to the Confederate States of America on the U.S. 1 sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
Rally co-organizers Jason Sulser and Manny Vega said they put together the event to honor their history and their Southern heritage.
Vega, of Midlothian, said he was there to honor the memory of veterans, Confederate or otherwise.
“We are seeing in our country a time where political correctness is thriving. And most of these people here have ancestors who served during the War Between the States,” he said.
It’s not a shameful thing to remember their sacrifice, said Vega, a retired Marine.
“I’m not here to revise history. I’m also not here to call for the South to rise again. History must be preserved, history must be remembered—not revised.”
Sulser, who lives in Stafford, said he and his compatriots were “not going to stand back and lay down” as the flags and monuments of his heritage were destroyed or otherwise desecrated by “the government, the liberal left and spineless Republicans.”
“[They] spit on us as human beings,” he said.
At least a half dozen residents came out to counter the rally’s message, holding up signs proclaiming, “Not my flag.”
Motorists on U.S. provided support for both sides via honking, waving and shouting during Friday’s rush hour.
But, despite Sulser’s hopes for peace and peaceful protest, neither side entirely avoided conflict. Protesters and counter-protesters routinely hurled insults or derisive comments.
At one point, Stafford resident Eugene Huckstep Jr. verbally sparred with Vega, then turned his back on the retired Marine.
Later on, Vega chastised a pair of protesters for snatching and crumpling a counter-protester’s poster, then tossing it out of reach.
Counter-protester Sam Lanzetta of Richmond said she was concerned about the flag’s history, and just who was being made to uphold that legacy.
“It just scares me that people are bringing out their kids,” Lanzetta said, “holding up symbols they don’t know are so strongly associated with racism.”
But protesters said that negative connotations the flag has gained over the years—most prominently slavery and racism—were not their goals.
Stan Kauling, who traveled from Shenandoah County, said the Confederate battle flag was “just that, a military flag.”
He said people were misconstruing the battle flag as a sign of racism.
“The flag is being eradicated simply because people would rather be lied to,” he said. “It’s about pride, honor and heritage.”
As were several others, Kauling was attending as a member of the League of the South, which he called a political activist group.
The league has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center since 2000.
Stafford resident Jacqueline Ferris echoed his sentiment.
“Never have I ever been to a Confederate event that ever, in my heart, promoted racism or slavery,” Ferris said. “It’s about heritage.”
Many protesters said people against—or misconstruing—the flag needed to be educated.
Devin Becker, 17, of Stafford said he learned a lot about the Confederacy through historical research.
Ferris said some people were “too close-minded to even open their mind up” about the flag and heritage.
Sulser said Southerners would continue to “stand up for Southern heritage and values” and asserted they had been harassed “due to our beliefs in God, family and country” so much that it could not be ignored any longer.
“This is our way of life,” he said. “Some people just can’t relate.”
