Printer-friendly version

Send to a friend

This Issue 11/09/2006

Also in this issue

• WOTS: Fear and Loathing
• Extremely loud and incredible prose
• Ego of the Week: She's a maneater
• Hip-o-Meter
• Streat Beats

John Care and Rick Gebo believe you have been lied to. There is a conspiracy afoot and the politically correct media and America's Northern-dominated educational system are in on it. So forget everything you know about America, the North, the South and the Civil War. Abe Lincoln was a tyrant. The slaves were treated well. The South was not fighting for slavery. An independent Confederacy would have freed the slaves within 20 years anyway. These are the real facts, they say, and like a screaming wave of rebel soldiers, they cannot be repressed. Care and Gebo are only spreading the gospel. And in Philadelphia, they're not alone.

There are over 10,000 graves dug into Laurel Hill Cemetery in Fairmount Park, but Care, the Commander of Philadelphia's Sons of Confederate Veterans outpost, knows precisely the way to the tomb of rebel General John C. Pemberton. A school bus driver by trade, the 59-year-old expertly weaves through the solemn maze of crosses and monuments, eventually parking his maroon Honda sedan by the crest of a hill and tromping a few hundred feet over to where the old General lies, six feet deep in enemy territory. In a cemetery dominated by hulking mausoleums and soaring obelisks, Pemberton's rounded headstone is startlingly humble. It lists only his name and vital dates, but Care and his friend Gebo, who's along for the ride, revere the small plot.

A man of average height but exceptional width, Care labors to bend down and clear the dead leaves off Pemberton's grave marker while the more-fit, 53-year-old Gebo stoops to shake clean the wreath propped against the tomb's side. They're not re-enactors, and barring the small Sons of Confederate Veterans pin on Gebo's plain khaki hat, nothing they wear references the South. But as Gebo bends, the keys hanging out of his blue jeans' back pocket jingle, drawing attention to his keychain. It's a plastic rebel flag design, surrounded by a simple warning: "DON'T MESS WITH DIXIE."

Philadelphia's Sons of Confederate Veterans J.E.B. Stuart Camp 1506 holds monthly meetings, attends flag rallies - even some down in Virgina - and loves to hand out pamphlets. Since Care took command of the group seven years ago, membership has doubled to about 50. Their mission is relatively simple: to reeducate the masses, defend the rebel flag, and above all, vindicate the South. There are a few transplanted Southerners in the camp, but most of the members are actually converted Northerners, just like Confederate General John Clifford Pemberton.