[VAcourier] Appeal for Support

[Virginia Division SCV Communication List]

In the late 1990's the Jefferson Davis Highway marker originally placed in
Vancouver, Washington, in 1939 was quietly removed by the City Manager and a
City Councilman with a liberal political agenda. We spent about 18-months
fighting the City of Vancouver to reinstall the marker.

Instead, we finally succeeded in having the marker placed outside the Clark
County Historical Museum on the corner of Main & 16th in downtown Vancouver.

Five years later however, a new Director assumed command of the Clark County
Historical Museum and worked tirelessly to have it removed from the grounds
by any means possible. With protests from the UDC and SCV, the marker was
moved "temporarily" in the fall of 2006, with the sanction of the Clark
County Historical Commission, allegedly to keep it safe during the
construction of a new handicapped-accessible entrance. We knew it would
never go back, and sure enough we had another fight on our hands...

We took our fight to the Clark County Historical Commission, who was the
body that had to approve the "temporary" move of the marker in the first
place. After some debate, the majority of the Commission sided with our
Cause, and would support us in getting the marker placed back at the Museum,
and even back at its original location possibly.

At the next City Council meeting, Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard came down
swiftly and severely, and rather rudely, that the marker was in fact
considered a "gift" that the City no longer wanted, that the marker would
never again sit on City property, and that the issue of the marker
would/should not come before him again. The Vancouver City slogan of "Pride,
Progress, and Possibilities" only pertains to those issues and people that
the very "progressive" Council deems worthy. Neither the history of
Jefferson Davis in the Pacific-Northwest or the marker itself that is on the
Clark County Historical Register, mean anything to the government officials
or the Director of the Historical Museum. "Progress" has seemingly trumped
truth and history.

Faced with the absolutism of the City Council, a Historical Museum Director
with a very biased liberal stance towards history, and an Historical
Commission that was rendered ineffective by the Council, there is no choice
but to procure a piece of land of our own specifically for the placement of
the Jefferson Davis Highway marker. This is how the idea for the Jefferson
Davis Park came about.

We are in the process of purchasing a piece of land, have had our Articles
of Incorporation approved by the State, have obtained a Federal Tax-ID
number, registered our previously un-addressed plot of land with the County,
submitted our 501c3 documents, and have formed a Board of Directors for the
Jefferson Davis Park!

The Park property is only 15-20 yards from Interstate-5! And our three large
flagpoles that we will be putting up will literally be seen by thousands of
commuters and travellers each day!

Another planned benefit of the Park is that it will be a beautiful and
peaceful place of reverence honoring our Confederate ancestors due to the
hundreds of gray bricks forming a small memorial plaza around the marker and
its interpretive plaque, each engraved with veterans names.

But, none of this is possible without financial assistance from our brothers
in the SCV. We are looking for donations and we are also selling bricks to
raise the much needed funds. The gray bricks with engraved black lettering
gives our fellow Compatriots the ability to honor their ancestor's memory,
or their own family or business, or even their Camp. So far we have raised
more than $10,000, and had the three 40-foot flagpoles donated to us! But we
need to raise $10,000 more by the last day of August when we close on the
property. We need your help immediately!!!

Total, we will need to raise a minimum of $30,000 to cover the land, the
closing costs, the bricks, landscaping and fencing, the laying of the
memorial bricks, etc.

Please support us in this worthy endeavor, please help us spread the word
about the Jefferson Davis Park, and please support us by purchasing a brick
or two for yourself.

Thank you so much for your help and support.

Brent  <mailto:brent.a.jacobs at gmail.com> Jacobs  

Col. Isaac W. Smith Camp #458 
Portland, OR 
Oregon Provisional Division Commander 
National Graves and Monuments Committee SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS

"Let no personal prejudice interfere with good of the Cause."   ~ Brig. Gen.
M. Jeff Thompson, CSA

SEE ATTACHED PDF FILE:

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