[Publisher's Note, by Gene Kizer, Jr. - On Wednesday, October 18, 2023 approximately 45 Invited Consulting Parties to Arlington National Cemetery's Section 106 Process required by the National Historic Preservation Act, gave three hours of Zoom testimony with regard to historical Adverse Effects and Mitigation if the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial is removed.

The overwhelming majority strongly supported the Confederate Memorial and the tone was outrage at removing it.

There was only one detractor favoring removal though there were several parties who supposedly care about history but seemed neutral or weak. Many were SHPOs (State Historic Preservation Offices) who were probably afraid of being called names by leftists rather than preserving American history.

At least the SHPOs were not detractors, but anybody purporting to care about history should be outraged at the planned destruction of a 109 year old world class work of art in our nation's most sacred burial ground, and they should speak up loud and clear -- Americans do not destroy century old monuments to war dead in cemeteries.

You can find your State Historic Preservation Office easily with a Google search. Send them a nice email or call and tell them that destroying the Confederate Memorial will destroy Arlington National Cemetery and make IT a desecrator of 500 soldier graves that President William McKinley said were all tributes to American valor.

The Confederate Memorial is one of the most magnificent memorials on earth. Just look at the Army's 28 High Resolution Photographs, and Video.

There are approximately 18 states represented in the 500 graves that surround the Confederate Memorial in concentric circles. Those graves are an integral part of the memorial and were lovingly placed into our nation's most sacred soil to symbolize that the United States of America is one country, reconciled, patriotic and united after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed.

About those 500 graves, President McKinley, who was a Union soldier in the War Between the States and who conceived the idea for a Confederate Memorial in Arlington said:

. . . every soldier's grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor . . . And the time has now come . . . when in the spirit of fraternity we should share in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers . . . The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and South prompts this gracious act and if it needed further justification it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the flag so conspicuously shown in this year just passed by the sons and grandsons of those heroic dead.

The "sons and grandsons of those heroic dead" and their descendants have spilled oceans of Southern blood around the world in all our nation's wars, and, until just recently, made up 44% of our military.

Racist Woke policies including the planned destruction of the Confederate Memorial have caused a military recruiting crisis that is now a national security threat.

As one party stated Wednesday, the destruction of Confederate monuments has not resulted in larger numbers of minorities joining our military but it has resulted in fewer Southerners than the traditional 44% of the recent past.

Click HERE to view the powerful testimony at the three hour Zoom meeting October 18th.

The whole process by DOD and the Army is a sham because it should have taken place months ago as required by the NHPA and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin relied on the naming commission's historically fraudulent report on the Confederate Memorial, which, for political reasons, left out the Memorial's primary history: The reconciliation of the United States of America after the War Between the States.

The Confederate Memorial was not in the naming commission's remit, as they falsely claimed, thus removing it is not only immoral but illegal.

Multiple law suits have been filed and are still pending.

I doubt if Secretary Austin would have signed off on the demolition of the most historic monument in Arlington National Cemetery if he had been given a truthful report instead of one based on the leftist extremist politics of naming commission vice chair, Ty Seidule. See my blog article "Naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical FRAUD" August 29, 2023.

The reconciliation theme is irrefutable and beyond the shadow of a doubt. Arlington National Cemetery itself states it over and over in their documents and history, and to make a long story short, several presidents and Congress participated in the creation of the Confederate Memorial along with veterans North and South. All presidents since Teddy Roosevelt, including Barack Obama, sent an annual memorial wreath to the Confederate Memorial.

Paul Ezekiel, who can prove that he is descended from Sir Moses Ezekiel, testified Wednesday and strongly supports the Confederate Memorial.

He and four other descendants of Moses Ezekiel want to join the Defend Arlington lawsuit.

Paul challenged another Ezekiel, a woman who was the ONLY party to want the monument down.

That woman said she is a college professor claiming to represent 42 others descended from Moses Ezekiel. She has gotten much national coverage from the Washington Post and other leftist media.

However, Paul Ezekiel said he does not know her and has never seen her at any family reunion. He believes she may be descended from a different branch of the Ezekiel family and is no kin to Moses.

Paul's testimony was powerful and sincere. He has agreed to do an interview, possibly in the next few days, that we will make available.

Later in Wednesday's meeting, the Ezekiel detractor said something to the effect that she wanted the monument down because it added to the myth of black Confederates.

When I heard that I typed into the meeting's chat that thousands of blacks, both free and slave, fought for the South and marched alongside their Confederate brothers. They were not segregated and in the back of line like Union blacks.

I included this 1862 account from Union officer Lewis H. Steiner, M.D. citing his report entitled Diary Kept During the Rebel Occupation of Frederick, MD when he was with the U.S. Sanitary Commission.

On Wednesday, September 10, 1862, Steiner wrote:

At four o'clock this morning the rebel army began to move from our town, Jackson's force taking the advance. The movement continued until eight o'clock P.M., occupying sixteen hours. The most liberal calculations could not give them more than 64,000 men. Over 3,000 negroes must be included in this number. These were clad in all kinds of uniforms, not only in cast-off or captured United States uniforms, but in coats with Southern buttons, State buttons, etc. These were shabby, but not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks. Most of the negroes had arms, rifles, muskets, sabres, bowie-knives, dirks, etc. They were supplied, in many instances, with knapsacks, haversacks, canteens, etc., and were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of Generals, and promiscuously mixed up with all the rebel horde. . . .

Frankly, I am sick of racist attacks on black Confederates such as the black soldier on the Confederate Monument. There is no proof that that man was a slave. Thousands of free blacks and slaves fought enthusiastically for the South, and, as Steiner proves, whether free or slave, blacks were armed to the teeth and dressed in clothing "not shabbier or seedier than those worn by white men in the rebel ranks."

This is what I love. Steiner confirms that Southern blacks:

were manifestly an integral portion of the Southern Confederacy Army. They were seen riding on horses and mules, driving wagons, riding on caissons, in ambulances, with the staff of Generals, and promiscuously mixed up with all the rebel horde. . . .

Here is the list of interested parties under title "ANC Confederate Memorial Removal: Invited Consulted Parties". You can become a Consulting Party by signing up HERE, and/or you can make written comments (get on Defend Arlington's email list for constant updates - write them at DefendArlington@gmail.com. You can also donate via Zelle with that email address).

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)
American Alliance of Museums
American Battlefield Trust
American Institute for Conservation (AIC)
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)
Americans for the Arts Public Arts Network
Anti-Defamation League
Arlington County Department of Environmental Services
Arlington County Government, Historic Preservation
Arlington Historical Society
Arlington House Family Circle
Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI)
Catawba Indian Nation (aka Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina)
Center for Jewish History
Chickahominy Indian Tribe - Eastern Division
Commission of Fine Arts (CFA)
Defend Arlington
Defend Arlington; Veterans Defending America; Heritage Protection of North Alabama
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma
Division of Arkansas Heritage, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program
Environmental Protection Agency, Region 3
Florida Division of Historical Resources
Guardians of American History
Heritage Protection of North Alabama
Jewish War Veterans of the USA
Kentucky Heritage Council
Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
Missouri State Historic Preservation Office
Monument Lab
Monumental Task Committee (MTC)
Mr. Ernest Blevins
Mr. Gene Kizer Jr - Charleston Athenaeum Press
Mr. Ted Ehmann
Nansemond Indian Nation
National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC)
National Museum of American Jewish Military History
National Park Service - George Washington Memorial Parkway
National Park Service National Historic Landmark Program
National Trust for Historic Preservation
New Jersey Flaggers [Publisher's Note: This group is GREAT!]
Pamunkey Indian Tribe
Preservation Virginia
Relatives of Moses Ezekiel
Save Southern Heritage
Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture
Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
Society for History in the Federal Government
Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV)
SCV, Beaufort Plowboys, SCV Camp No. 2128
SCV, Maryland Division
SCV, N.B. Forrest Camp No. 3
SCV, Tennessee Division
SCV, Virginia Division
South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office
Southern Legal Resource Center, Inc.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Tennessee Historical Commission
Texan Historical Commission
The American Historical Association
The American Jewish Historical Society
The Black Heritage Museum of Arlington
The National Association for Interpretation
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Arlington Branch
The National Council on Public History
The Organization of American Historians
The Society for the Preservation of Jewish Civil War History
The Virginia Council
U.S. Army Center for Military History (CMH)
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Upper Mattaponi Tribe
Veterans Defending Arlington
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Virginia Department of Historic Resources
Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

My public testimony, below, comes in three parts:

1) Comment on Section 106 Adverse Effects
2) Comment on Section 106 Mitigations
3) President Warren G. Harding's patriotic message that was read at Moses Ezekiel's funeral.

Since we were only given one minute, twice, and two minutes, once, I had to leave out and skip around for maximum effect. The caps are for my own use to know what to emphasize when speaking.

Scroll down past my testimony for links to important resources.

We are at a CRITICAL STAGE in this fight. We are going to win or lose in the next 10 weeks.

We can WIN this fight and make Woke ignorance DIE at Arlington National Cemetery.

Stand up and FIGHT!

We need money for our crack legal team. Please scroll down and donate generously to Defend Arlington.

Thank you SO much and God Bless!]

Gene Kizer, Jr.
Charleston Athenaeum Press 

Comment on Section 106 Adverse Effects

Good afternoon. I'm Gene Kizer, historian, publisher, spokesman for Charleston Athenaeum Press. I applied months ago to be a Consulting Party and have attended and spoken at every meeting related to the Confederate Memorial in over a year. I have also submitted several detailed comments and a white paper that is part of Defend Arlington's book entitled Arguments Against Naming Commission Recommendation RE: Arlington National Cemetery Confederate Memorial.

I know we are discussing the 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial but we HAVE to consider the Adverse Effects destroying the Confederate Memorial will have on Arlington National Cemetery ITSELF.

Right now, Arlington National Cemetery is our nation's most sacred burial ground and a place dear to all Americans.

If you destroy Ezekiel's monument that several presidents helped construct, and all sent annual memorial wreaths to, including Barack Obama, then you DESECRATE Arlington National Cemetery itself.

Arlington National Cemetery will become a desecrator of 500 soldier graves who will be out in the open surrounding a mangled shaft, like freaks to laugh at.

This whole process is illegal because a memorial to the reconciliation of the United States of America after our bloodiest war is NOT in the naming commission's remit. It does not commemorate the Confederacy unless you think Barack Obama was commemorating the Confederacy when he sent his wreath to the Confederate Memorial.

This process does not yet include a DOCKET OF COMMENTS, nor the TIME for interested parties to analyze, consult and write up helpful analyses.

The naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical fraud. It does not even mention reconciliation, which is the Memorial's primary history. The reconciliation theme is in all of ANC's own documentation REPEATEDLY and is IRREFUTABLE and beyond the shadow of a doubt.

The APE [Area of Potential Effects] you list is WAY too small because the actual APE is the entire United States of America, and, really, the entire world.

Americans do not remove memorials to war dead from cemeteries. Hamas, ISIS and the Taliban do, but not Americans. Please don't let Arlington National Cemetery be the first.

The Confederate Memorial should stay right where it is, forever.

Comment on Section 106 Mitigations

You can not mitigate the destruction of a world class memorial surrounded by 500 graves that are part of the memorial.

You can not mitigate illegally removing the grave marker of Moses Ezekiel and the three others buried with him at the base of his monument.

You can not mitigate the destruction of the reputation of Arlington National Cemetery itself, which becomes a desecrator of the graves of 500 war dead.

The naming commission's report on the Confederate Memorial is a historical fraud because, for political reasons, it left out the primary history of the Confederate Memorial, which is the reconciliation of the United States of America after a war in which 750,000 died and over a million were maimed.

The Confederate Memorial was NOT in the naming commission's remit.

Everybody at Arlington National Cemetery should appeal to Secretary Austin to leave the Confederate Memorial right where it is FOREVER.

If you don't, you will be violating your own oaths to make sure that ANC is always our most sacred burial ground and place that ALL Americans think of for love, patriotism and inspiration.

Woke politics does not belong in Arlington National Cemetery.

Final Comment

President Warren G. Harding sent a message of condolence that was read at the funeral of Moses Ezekiel. Here are some of Harding's comments from The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 30, 1921:

Ezekiel will be remembered as one who knew how to translate the glories of his own time and people into that language of art which is common to all peoples and all times. He served his state in the conflict and accepted the verdict of the civil war's arbitrament with all the fine generosity that has been characteristic of both the north and south; and the splendid product of his art, that here testifies to our nation's reunion, will stand from this day forth as guardian over his ashes.

Every line and curve and expression carries the plea for a truly united nation that may be equal to the burdens of these exacting times. . . . It speaks to us the ardent wish, the untiring purpose, to help make our people one people, secure in independence, dedicated to freedom . . . . Its long-drawn shadows of earliest morn and latest evening will always fall on sacred soil.

[Ezekiel created] works which compelled the recognition of the chief art schools and won the honors of nations and cities that boasted of being the homes of sculpture's best traditions. Crowned with these honors, he turned his thoughts to his own country, and as the final and finest product of his talents, gave to us the monument, that from this day will mark his resting place. It is the memorial of reunited America the testimony to the tradition of indissoluble union The shrine to which we are gathered today will gather through the years to come, those who would dedicate themselves to the ideal of unselfish, enlightened, upstanding Americanism as a force for our country's maintenance and all humanity's betterment.

Links to Important Resources

Defend Arlington Fundraising Site where you can help save Moses Ezekiel's MAGNIFICENT 109 year old Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery by Buying Outstanding Merchandise featuring BEAUTIFUL images from the monument. Art critics have said that every image on the monument is a work of art by itself. There are all kind of things like shirts, hats, hoodies, clocks, art prints, tote bags, note cards, stickers, ipad skins and cases, cell phone cases and skins, wall art, coasters, mugs, pins, throw pillows, water bottles, journals, magnets, etc.! ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE DEFENSE FUND! Go spend some time on this site! You will love it!

Shop Now

Defend Arlington's recording of the 35 or so speakers on behalf of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery that took place Wednesday, March 15, 2023 in a virtual meeting of the Remember and Explore Subcommittee of Arlington National Cemetery.

View testimony which starts at 1:38:59.

Here is a link to Defend Arlington's donation page that states:

CHIP IN FOR THE ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY MEMORIAL LITIGATION DEFENSE FUND. You can also pay with Zelle. Send to

DefendArlington@gmail.com.

Please Donate Now -- THANK YOU!

Click Here to Donate AND Share on Facebook, et al.

Defend Arlington update with link to February 28, 2023 Tucker Carlson interview with Christopher Bedford on the Confederate Reconciliation Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington update, Tucker Carlson segment on YouTube

Hot off the press! Here is a link to the new 385 page PDF from Defend Arlington that flips pages as you read. It contains all the great scholarly white papers gathered up by Defend Arlington to make sure that Woke ignorance DIES at Arlington National Cemetery.

Defend Arlington's 385 Page Book of White Papers

Here is a link to an informative nine minute video, "The Arlington Confederate Monument," produced by the Abbeville Institute.

The Arlington Confederate Monument

Here is a link to the outstanding scholarly PDF white papers written for Defend Arlington. You can download them all with one click. Please share them far and wide, especially the letter from Defend Arlington's attorney, Karen C. Bennett, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

PDF White Papers from Defend Arlington

Here is link to an excellent video refuting point by point a historically false Prager University video by Ty Seidule, who is naming commission vice chair. This one is produced by Bode Lang and entitled "The Civil War Was Not for Slavery."

Click Here for Bode Lang's excellent video

Here is a link to an excellent video of a Georgia lady calling out Elizabeth Warren and her Massachusetts hypocrisy.

Click Here for Georgia Lady Teaching Elizabeth Warren a Lesson

Here are important Southern Legal Resource Center links. SLRC mailing address is: Southern Legal Resource Center, 90 Church St., Black Mountain, NC 28711-3365.

Click Here to donate to the Southern Legal Resource Center

Click Here to follow on Facebook

Click Here to go to their website