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Out of curiosity Jack, although I think I know the answer, is the "gross ignorance" you refer to on the part of SC or the NAACP?

I agree with Helen to a certain degree, but I also think that people who are offended by the Confederate flag are approaching the subject from the wrong viewpoint. The Confederate flag does not represent racism or slavery. It represents a short-lived nation that didn't shy away from those things, sure, but that does not mean those who fly it now hold those beliefs. At best, the flag represents the foundations of freedom and democracy; the fact that people can and should stand up and fight for what they believe in. The issues leading up to the Civil War were so much more complicated than slavery alone. I like to think the Confederate flag symbolizes Americans standing up against what they deemed an oppressor, as we did against England a few decades before. This is the foundation of democracy and liberty.

That said, there's really no reason for the government, which represents the people, to fly a flag many of those people find offensive, regardless of whether their offense is reasonable or not.

 

Hmm, Helen, you may have misread me. :)

Couldn't agree more, Smorg! As an avid War Between the States buff, and a student of both history and political science both contemporary and past, I find the ignorance of the average American on the whole issue to be disturbing. The war had nothing to do with slavery and was not even an issue at the time. Lincoln had no intention of touching the slavery issue. That war, like every war, was an issue of economics and its control.

As you know I spent most of my time outside of this country, and upon returning I was always shocked at my peers (and often superiors) lack of knowledge concerning American history. I learned more American history in foreign schools than I did in American! Add to that the propogandized versions of it taught in our failing educational system, and no wonder we have a generation of people who believe what they do about the war.

It is because of this gross ignorance, that both sides of the issue have been able to manipulate it. Southern rednecks and race mongers have been able to use the flag as a symbol of thier hatred and resultant activism. Southern black rednecks and race baiters have been able to use it as a symbol of their hatred and resultant activism. Anyone who lives here in South Carolina, white or black, knows the issue has little to do with the flag and everything to do with the political advancement through the attention the issue brings.

Any truly educated person concerning this whole issue (and pardon me for sounding a bit pedantic--I often do, but this time I am just being honest) would realize it isn't one.

Sigh...but such is not the way this world works.

Now, concerning the issue of offense. There are many in this nation that find the American flag offensive. No, it is not a majority, but there is a constituency. When does one give way to every idealic fantasy?

On November 22, 1860, a meeting to launch South Carolina's secession from the Union took place in Abbeville, 40 miles from where I live, between Jefferson Davis-the President of the Confederacy; one month later South Carolina became the first state to secede. I have stood in the bedroom that Jefferson slept in that night. To even associate this war with the issue of slavery is almost the equivalent of denying the holocaust took place.

Smorg, this is heritage, this is history, and only the ignorant, ambitious or fearful refuse to look at it in an objective light. Such is the ilk of my fellow Americans who continue to try to remove all vestiges of it from the streets or history books.

It is a proud South Carolina heritage--let it fly.

-Jack

 

Oops, Helen, I wasn't inferring that what you said was wrong--Just that no one really seems to want to face the real issue and that the issue is one of politics--not principle.

Mississippi's state flag would have to be done away with, Alabama's has the same St. Andrew's cross representative of the Confederacy...the whole idea, the whole driving force behind it is of the same variety that drives the atheists to try to get rid of crosses off of county seal (Los Angeles removed the cross from the county seal, etc.)

-Jack