I've never appreciated the Confederate Battle Flag, the Stars and Bars. Those who fly it have always seemed to me to be self-identifying with the losing side of a moral war. Is it the most pressing concern of our time? Not by a long shot. But I'll mention it briefly.
I suppose that there are some families - maybe even many - who fought valiantly on the side of the South in the Civil War, and who didn't entirely buy into the foundational racism on which the Confederate States of America was built. Just as I am sure there are German families who weren't completely bought into the ideals of Nazism, Hutus who didn't support the Rwandan genocide of Tutsis.
And I suppose that there are some individuals - maybe even many - who fly the Stars and Bars in memory of a bygone time when life was sweet, simple and slow. Perhaps they fly it in defiance of an ever encroaching federal power. Perhaps they fly it as an affirmation of their value of individual and states' rights. But the fact remains that it is also, and primarily, a symbol of man's inhumanity to man; of his willingness to enslave his brother and to torment his sister.
It can be argued that, although perhaps not as close to the roots of some, there are other symbols of defiance that lack the racist and oppressive overtones of the Stars and Bars. There is the Navy Jack, the Gadsden Flag, the Liberty Bell, the Texas state flag, the Texas Independence Flag, the eagle, the lion, the star, or the anarchist's "A".
As such, I don't much care if someone flies the Confederate Battle Flag, wears it, or makes art of it. And I don't have a problem with Governor Haley taking it off the South Carolina capitol grounds.
If one is going to keep or display it, he just needs to be sure of the context in which he presents it, and the feelings it may evoke in others.
That's not censorship. That's just being neighborly.
I suppose that there are some families - maybe even many - who fought valiantly on the side of the South in the Civil War, and who didn't entirely buy into the foundational racism on which the Confederate States of America was built. Just as I am sure there are German families who weren't completely bought into the ideals of Nazism, Hutus who didn't support the Rwandan genocide of Tutsis.
And I suppose that there are some individuals - maybe even many - who fly the Stars and Bars in memory of a bygone time when life was sweet, simple and slow. Perhaps they fly it in defiance of an ever encroaching federal power. Perhaps they fly it as an affirmation of their value of individual and states' rights. But the fact remains that it is also, and primarily, a symbol of man's inhumanity to man; of his willingness to enslave his brother and to torment his sister.
It can be argued that, although perhaps not as close to the roots of some, there are other symbols of defiance that lack the racist and oppressive overtones of the Stars and Bars. There is the Navy Jack, the Gadsden Flag, the Liberty Bell, the Texas state flag, the Texas Independence Flag, the eagle, the lion, the star, or the anarchist's "A".
As such, I don't much care if someone flies the Confederate Battle Flag, wears it, or makes art of it. And I don't have a problem with Governor Haley taking it off the South Carolina capitol grounds.
If one is going to keep or display it, he just needs to be sure of the context in which he presents it, and the feelings it may evoke in others.
That's not censorship. That's just being neighborly.
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