Former Santa Ana Mayor Gordon Bricken still keen on Confederates

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• I have known Gordon since I was a young child and he is a very good and decent man. As Mayor of Santa Ana he worked very hard to improve the community and as a result of his efforts Santa Ana was named an "All American City" which a very prestigious award.

  Gordon is by no means a racist and was one of the few councilmembers that the Latino community could count on in Santa Ana during his time in office.

  I am quite sure that Gordon would be turned off by these bigots like Quinn. He never acted against someone or for someone based on the color of their skin.

  The City of Santa Ana could use someone like Gordon Bricken on the city council now. Too bad he doesn't live in Ward 2 so we could have him take out the weak link on the council, David Benevides.

  • Sean,

    Thanks for the info. If anyone knows Santa Ana politics, it is you!

    I think what bothers a lot of us is this fixation with the Confederates - they were traitors and they committed treason. I cannot get past that.

    • Admin,
      my name is Barbara Amy. Gordon Bricken is my dad. I can promise you, he did not stand for prejudice or bigotry of any kind. He despise hatred and segregation of any individual or any group of people. He was the kind and intelligent man who put service to others before self. He was an historian and had a passion for the civil war era and a fascination for the legacy that it brought to Orange County. Many civil war veterans were part of the early building of our county and the city of Santa Ana specifically.

      He was a patriot. Prior to the end of WWII, the US Govt did not pay for soldiers to be buried. During his research, he found more than 15 unmarked soldiers graves and had facilitated full military ceremonies for them.

      He often said that if you thought the civil war was about slavery, you needed a history lesson. To my dad, the civil war stood for the state right to govern itself with little federal oversight (ie less federal govt.) My dad was a conservative and he did not support big government in anyway. He supported a person's freedom from government control.

      The reason he focused on the confederate side during his research was that it bothered him that confederate soldiers often had American Flags put on their graves. You see, if they were confederate, they never were in the US military, so to him it was inappropriate and insulting, so he decided to do something about it. Hence the research, the books and the effort to educate.

      BTW - my father was born in Kentucky. Kentucky was a union state. Never confederate, although they were a target of the confederacy, KY never succeeded and in fact, exiled confederate forces during the Civil War.

      In closing, next time before you write crap about someone, do your research. Because the person you write the crap about could actually be a decent human being who has done much to serve others.

      If you have attended my father's funeral, you would have seen that the majority of the people there were actually people that represented non-white ethnic groups. My father had a passion for serving all people especially the wonderful and diverse community of Santa Ana, CA.

      • Thanks for setting the record straight. I consider the confederates to have been racist traitors and am always disappointed when they are celebrated.

        I disagree by the way with the notion that the Civil War was not about slavery. It very much was about slavery. The states rights issue is a smokescreen used by those who want to excuse the actions of the Confederates and the South. Freedom is a right that every state should respect.

• Man, get past it.
  Who is us? The fact that he respects the lost cause of men fighting for what they believed in only seems to upset you.
  You also fail to see that racism was an enforced part of American society until quite recently. Now, old racism is less acceptable than reverse racism.
  The only difference between a revolutionary war and a civil war is that in a revolutionary war, the rebels win.
  Don't even try to say that Sherman's march to the sea was not terrorism.

  • ursa,

    The South was an evil empire. I am glad they lost. I have zero respect for the Confederates and what they stood for. Good riddance.

• Did any body bother to pay attention to the basic fact that the subject here is Civil War veterans' graves of both sides, not just Confederate graves?
  Bricken is just a Civil War buff, his interest is in preserving the history of the veterans (of both sides) coming into Orange County and their legacy. It's not about redeeming the South or denying slavery.
  Why is it everyone seems to forget all his talk and writing about Union veterans and only focus on his interest in Confederates?
  Are we supposed to only remember the "better" half of history??