Director’s Report . . . Robert Hayes

In my last report to you, our members, I listed the SCLoS accomplishments in the past year of 2004. I am pleased to report that we have hit the ground running full speed this year of 2005. We got things started with our grand opening of the Cayce Southern Patriot Shop on Saturday, 15 January, and we had a very successful event. Attending our festive day were about a dozen re-enactors with two cannons, nine Southern authors, our bagpiper, George Forsythe, visitors, and plenty of free-spending customers. Culturally, socially, and economically, it was indeed a grand day. Our state chairman, James Layden, cut a bright red ribbon to officially open our second Southern Cultural Centre/Southern Patriot Shop.

On Monday, 17 January, the SCLoS assembled on Gervais Street across from the Capitol to protest and flag the NAACP. We had at least fifty flag-waving, sign-carrying members and friends onsite to protest the racist group. We, of course, had our famous “man in the commode” with signs stating, “FLUSH THE NAACP”. Our “man in the commode” seemed to bother the hate group the most.

After the NAACP protest ended, about a dozen of our red-shirted members went to Maurice’s Piggy Park to partake in a belated noontime repast. After fortifying ourselves on South Carolina style Southern barbeque, we travelled further down Highway 321 to our Cayce Southern Patriot Shop to involve ourselves in another important task. When we arrived at the Cayce shop, fifteen or more Southern patriots awaited to help us achieve our most important endeavour— raising on our 60 foot flag pole a 20 x 30 foot Confederate flag. The wind was blowing briskly, and it required the strength of about eight of us to raise that beautiful flag to the top of the pole for all to see and enjoy. Our large St. Andrew’s Starry Cross can be clearly seen by incoming flights landing at the Columbia Airport. Welcome to Confederate Columbia! Our flag is the largest Confederate flag to ever fly in South Carolina as far as we know.

We are in the process of establishing a new county chapter in Fairfield County and are re-activating our Laurens chapter. We have members in almost all forty-six counties, but we still have several countries that are inactive due to lack of county chairmen. I appeal to all members in those counties to consider stepping forward and taking a leadership role to help activate those counties. Don’t wait for someone else to do the job for you. I would very much like to see at least ten new or re-activated counties come online this year. With your help, we can do it. In the past year, our membership continued to grow, and I hope that it will grow even faster this year. As of mid-February, we actually have already gained quite a number of new members. About half of the new members joined through and because of the new Cayce shop.

Our Cayce Southern Patriot Shop thus far is exceeding our expectations. Not only does it provide much needed revenue, but it makes a statement for us in the Columbia area; plus we have signed up new members because of the shop. As to making a statement, there is not a legislator that does not know that we are in their backyard. Several have already visited the shop or some of their staff have visited us. We are already looking across the state for the site for our next Southern Cultural Centre/Shop. We would like to open at least one more this year. If you know of a good location in your area, please point it out to us.

We hope to soon have a brochure for raising funds and promoting our park on Secession Hill. (See the article on Secession Hill in this issue.) Our managers in the Abbeville and Cayce shops are doing a very good job for us, and their reports are in this issue. I would ask you to give either or both Sandra and David a big “thank you” if you visit one or both of our shops—and please visit us. Mac McCoy is continuing to provide great service in keeping our websites up and running and in editing the South Carolina Patriot. Laura Tesh is now our copy editor and is helping us achieve our goal of an error-free newsletter.

I am very excited about our achievements the past two years and look forward to our continued success. We are definitely a political entity in South Carolina and will soon be announcing another scalawag politician we will target to be “unelected”. We must continue to push ahead so that we will soon be able to start placing our people in elected positions. We are rapidly arriving at that point.

As I stated in the last issue, we in the SCLoS have big dreams, but thanks to you, our supportive members, and all the hard work, we make those dreams come true. South Carolina’s freedom within twenty years is certainly a dream we will realise with our continued hard work. That goal is achievable. Several Christian and Southern families have already moved to South Carolina as a part of the Christian Exodus/CSA Project, and we are aware of several more that will be moving to our fair country soon. Many of these families have or will be joining the SCLoS to help us in our fight for self-government. The year of 2005 certainly appears to be shaping up to be another banner year for the SCLoS. With your help, it certainly will be.