Many years ago I was at the encampment at Stuart’s birthplace when I overheard then birthplace President telling someone that I really had very little to do with the preservation of the 75 acre site in Ararat. Something that the new Secretary of the birthplace use to preach against before she recently sold out to the clique in Stuart and joined the board. A recent article written in newsletter of the that same organization by the Vice-President tells all about the beginning of the birthplace, but the trouble is that it is written by the man who has made my 78 year old mother cry twice by destroying the flowers she grew and took care of at the birthplace for decades. The article never once mentions the thousands of dollars and thousands of hours donated by me and my family to the site, but it makes a point of saying the birthplace is not and was not a one man show. The above newspaper clipping from the February 5, 1989, tells who the one man was and is. I have never said others did not help, but it was one man’s vision and everything you see at the Laurel Hill Farm today came from my brain. This is all documented in my papers that are or will be at Virginia Tech so that anyone who is interested will know the truth and the truth will set the birthplace free of their jealousy and pettiness, but I doubt it as ignorance is bliss and they don’t know the history of the site they are charged with preserving and they cannot see the forest for the trees. Recently, I received a national community service award from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Some good Christian person in Stuart clipped the notice out of The Enterprise, the Voice of the Clique since 1876, and mailed it to my family with a circle and a slash draw over my face. I have no doubt where this came in Stuart. Speaking of that, someone at our local chamber likes to make harassing phone calls to my cell phone all documented by my attorney to show a pattern of behavior. This is not the first time I received harassing phone calls. It is no secret that the chamber tries to sabotage my business relationships made perfectly clear at last year’s Ararat Festival when a friend of mine was told he would have to “distance himself” from me in order to work with the birthplace. Well, my friend did not and did work with the birthplace. Some people have courage to stand up to for what is right. Several weeks, I worked to help with the bone marrow donation drive in Stuart. The local chamber chose to publicize the event, but cut my name out of the pr on their website. I am trying to help save lives and I am so in their heads that all they can think of is to delete my name from a press release. I love that I am so in the heads of the birthplace that they have to make comments in their newsletter about the “one man show.” I love the good Christians who defend this organization. I usually don’t stoop to notice such small, little people, but when you go after my family and don’t respect their contribution you ask for it. I will continue to speak my mind and is it any wonder that Patrick County is in the mess it is with such little people controlling it. Big people and big ideas change the world. Little people and little ideas are forgotten.
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