Problems with the Confederate Flag
Of course, certain people have issues with this display:
Robert Hurst, the leader of the local Sons of Confederate Veterans group, calls the display "tasteless and offensive," and demanded the museum remove it.
"That display is extremely offensive. It's very tasteless," Hurst said. "What they've told us, as Southerners, as sons of the Confederacy, is that it's okay to offend us.Yeah, pretty much. Just like it's ok to offend neo-Nazis or the KKK or any other group that is organized around either the hatred of other skin colors and/or the celebration of a massive act of treason and organized murder of fellow citizens that is still the bloodiest conflict in American history. The reason for seceding from the United States was slavery; the documents of the Confederate states make this completely clear. The only concern of theirs for "states rights" was that they retained the right to own slaves. If another state passed a law freeing slaves or allowing escaped slaves sanctuary within its borders, the southern states quickly condemned it and called for federal laws that overturned them. If a territory organized as a free state, the southern states demanded that the federal government require the next territory to allow slavery.
Comments
I don't think it is much different that what you see in the Middle East when deep fundamentalist religious views combine with ignorance.
When you talk about a symbol you have to look at more than just the "symbol" itself and you have to look at it in context of the people that value it. These people view it as their heritage and also a symbol for a "better way of life". They feel that the "southern values" behind this symbol are centered on an innocent, pure, religious way of life free from the rampant crime, greed, and godlessness they encounter "up north". Imagine living your life where your only view of a “yankee” is a mafia hit-man or the owner of a strip-club.
It sounds strange doesn't it? It is hard for us to imagine a better way of life that INCLUDES slavery!!!
Our grandparents saw the world through this lens. Almost everyone that grew up here will be able to remember hearing their grandparents speak of the south in this way. They completely overlooked the racism, pain and suffering that this view created. It is sick and twisted and no excuse.
Thanks for this post. I've never lived in the South -- I don't think Southern California counts-- and when living in Kansas I lived in an old Yankee corner of the state -- Manhattan!!! I have my deep seated problems with the "southern values" and yet I shouldn't be too prideful, for racism has taken on its own hue in the North and West.
Of course, this pining for the good old days is similar to a national pining for the simpler days of the 1950s, but was it really that great? I don't know, I was born in 1958 and grew up in the wild 60s and 70s.
The really bad eschatology that is taught down here doesn't help that view much either.
And yet, nostaligia has a way of coloring things so we forget that things weren't necessarily wonderful for everyone. And so we pine for the days of the founders, when African American slaves counted as 3/8th of a person so that the lightly populated south (at least in terms of white population) could have it's equal share of the government. Washington, Jefferson and all were great leaders, and yet slavery clings to them.
Yes, when conservatism is nostalgia it is problematic!
I'm sure that the fact that I agree with you has nothing to do with the fact that you and I are of approximately the same age. :)