Heritage, Hate, or Hypocrisy?

Good morning everyone!  Today’s article is actually an essay sent in response to my articles Political correctness has gone too far and What are America’s Core Values? Pt 2. The essay was sent by “BarfStarr,” (you gotta love a name like that!) who makes some pretty good points.  I would also like to reiterate that posting his response is in keeping with the spirit of my Blog, to entertain communication, for how can we grow if we do not consider others points of view?

BarfStarr makes some very valid points, which I will comment on via the comments section below, as I do not want to steal any of this thunder, so with no further ado, I present to you….”Heritage, Hate, or Hypocrisy?”  A response by BarfStarr…

The recent round of controversy over displaying the Confederate Battle Flag (CBF) appears to be on the wane. It is a sporadic and secondary news subject at best with the exception of the recent decision by South Carolina lawmakers to lower the CBF from the state capitol building. While not totally disregarding the importance some people place on flying the flag or not, this is actually as it should be. Regardless of what the flag symbolizes to different people, a flag did not kill nine people in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and should not have eclipsed coverage of these murders in the news as it did. The real causes of this terrible crime and, how to prevent similar future occurrences, should have been the top news stories and concerns of lawmaking bodies in this country. But it appears that both the shootings and the flag controversy, for the most part, will fade into obscurity in typical fashion until the anniversary date comes around or the next tragic episode occurs. Before the CBF controversy is forgotten from current memory, though, I’d like to present three reasons to remove the CBF from display in city, state and federal locations and why it should be furled and stored away.

Reason 1. We have come to an age in our country’s history where the cultural philosophies of our diversified populace have changed and vary as to how we should further develop our culture. Topics like gun control, abortion and other individual rights issues come to mind. Although in much of the last century there have always been and, always will be, differing points of view regarding political and cultural issues, the national populous, at least the twentieth century majority with power, representation, and money, were much more unified in their position of what was considered socially acceptable. Now, we are a splintered society with many opposing views and apparently very little desire to compromise. Let’s face it, though, we are stuck with each other. The old, unrealistic and rather dim-witted viewpoints suggesting that we “ship them all back to Africa, Mexico, Italy or wherever” are not going to happen. So the choice we have lies between continued fighting with each other and trying to find reasonable points of compromise. A trusting, unified populous would be better for all in the long run. With a large segment of the population finding the CBF an offensive symbol that was unfurled in battle by the side that would keep slavery intact, its time to take the route of inclusiveness and strike the colors, at least on publicly owned property.

Reason 2. The CBF flew on the side of those who renounced their allegiance to the United States. Even though it took about a century to reappear as a symbol of civil rights defiance, it is unusual that the flag of a defeated, rebellious segment of a nation would be allowed to be displayed at all. If the British would have won our revolutionary war, do you think for a minute that they would have allowed the stars and stripes to fly in honor of the patriots’ heritage? Do you think that there would have been mercy shown to the leaders and those others who rebelled? It would have been a good time to invest in the rope manufacturing industry. As it was, the Confederate military leaders and politicians got off the hook quite easily. The United States may not be perfect, but there is much we can be proud of that has been accomplished under the stars and stripes. Let’s honor our heritage together under Old Glory. We need no other banner.

Reason 3. Radicals, on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line, helped drive this country to Civil War. The Hot Heads from the south and the Radical Abolitionists from the north. Maybe the growing inertia toward war made armed conflict a forgone conclusion, but the radicals fanned the flames of discontent big time. In the south, Hot Heads from the power holding, landed aristocracy, the approximately 5% of the southern population owning slaves and the southern equivalent of today’s 1%, were able to rally the youth of the south to fight to preserve the southern aristocracy’s comfortable and profitable way of life. Maybe the average southerner fought out of deference to his superiors or to oppose “Northern Tyranny” and a perceived threat to their lifestyle and culture. What seems apparent, though, is that they had little to gain and much to lose in fighting for the small percent of slave owners who wanted to maintain their status quo. It also seems apparent that it was another case, much repeated through history, of the few with money and power sending off the have-nots to the slaughter. In World War II our fathers and grandfathers fought to free the world from real tyranny – a very worthwhile cause. But can we justify all of the deaths and pain caused by the Second Gulf War? I thought about this recently when visiting the Maryland Veteran’s Cemetery with my wife to place flowers on her father’s grave. There was a headstone nearby of a young man born several weeks after my eldest son. On his headstone was inscribed “Persian Gulf”. I thought about how fortunate I was to have my son on the sunshine side of the ground and how unfortunate for this young man and his family that he was on the other. Seeing the condition of the Middle East today, you have to wonder if it was worth it. To me the CBF represents a self-serving aristocracy that was willing to waste the youth of their culture to maintain their “peculiar institution” and extravagant lifestyle. I think this alone is a good reason to put the flag on the shelf for good.

Now I do not think that everyone who flies the CBF is a racist. There is no doubt that some southerners’ sole reason for fighting in the war was to preserve slavery. General Nathan Bedford Forrest is known to have said that he would not have fought if preserving slavery wasn’t the primary cause of the conflict. Still, some people are proud of their ancestor’s military exploits. Some people just root for the underdog. Some people enjoy dressing up in blue or gray, waving the flag, clanging swords for a bit and playing dead by a cow pie in the hot sun. Personally, I got over this kind of activity when I was eight or nine but I do not think these people are necessarily racists and, if it floats their boat; let them have at it. Also, if anyone so desires to fly the flag over private property, so be it. And is there really a need to remove the Confederate leader’s images from Stone Mountain, dig up dead Confederate generals to move their remains to a more obscure location or destroy any monument or artifact that reminds one of our past? I don’t think so. It is our history after all, and we all should be aware of our history. Removing the CBF from public display (except in museums and such of course) should suffice. Remember, in large part, an inability to compromise led to the Civil War. Call it reluctant toleration, but just don’t dwell on it. United we stand, divided we fall as the saying goes.

Summary.  There are always going to be those who will disagree with what has been stated here, a lot of them being the “history not hate” types. But if they are truly not racists, then they must remember that they are the ones who let the flag they love and cherish so much remain the preferred banner of hate groups. In essence, they have allowed a large part of their revered heritage to be hijacked by those with absolutely no interest in anyone’s heritage–its hate. And the “heritage” crowd continues to allow their beloved banner to become the symbol of the particularly vehement hate groups that have developed in our country in more recent decades. How can the “heritage” crowd stand by silently when they see the stars and bars flown alongside the Nazi flag by groups advocating extreme hatred and violence within our nation? With all of the current CBF defenders popping up on Facebook and changing their profile pictures to the CBF, one would think that they have the numbers to challenge those who are denigrating their flag. Why are they not loudly and proudly publicly expressing their dissatisfaction with its use by skinheads, Neo-Nazis and the like? If they had, then the CBF may never have attained the high level of detestation that it has achieved today.

One final thought. If you live in the United States and have not gone completely off the grid; then you are supporting slavery or conditions close to it in our current time. If you really feel strongly that the CBF is solely a symbol representing the repression of individual freedom to the maximum extent, then it makes sense that you should be concerned about the workers worldwide who provide us with our cheap consumer products. The abhorrent working conditions of some people whose main task is to cheaply produce everything from our smartphones and televisions to greeting cards and wearing apparel is a subject for another time, but check it out sometime. Don’t be a hypocrite, and consider how currently downtrodden people will think of the U.S. flag, our stars and stripes, if they ever get power and find out how we benefited so much from their suffering.

Sound familiar?

I found this to be well presented, well thought out and some pretty good reading.  Agree?  Disagree?  Why?  What do you have to say about “economic slavery?”