As a Southerner, let me address the Confederate flag issue.
We lost the war, and in April 1865, Grant magnanimously signed terms with General Lee at Appomattox, allowing us to keep our horses and arms to return to and rebuild our homes, it was then time to case our banners and our flags and become one country again. The war was over. NOT to be forgotten, and not to forget the heroes who fought and died for what they perceived to be their country—their state.
When remembrance was due, we uncased the old flags and banners, maybe put on the old grey uniform, and marched and remembered, solemnly and sadly. BUT—the war was over, and we were one America again.
It was in the 1950’s, 60 or so years after Jim Crow laws spread across the South, that the Civil Rights struggle began. I have no shame to say that we treated blacks poorly form a legal standpoint, but still maintaining we also knew each other quite well—so much of our lives were intertwined together—black workers that every white man knew and loved, black nannies raised thousands of white Southerners...
In any case, the politicians of the South, almost ALL democrats, brought out the Confederate battle flag from its case to use it as a symbol not of a sad and lost cause, but as a defiance to black people and their own political aspirations. And it was. We should understand that. THAT was how it was used throughout the 50’s and 60’s.
So when that flag flies upon a state capitol building, or beside it, remember it was put their by RACIST democrats.
It should come down.
Now that’s my personal opinion, based on real history that I’ve either seen or was told from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. My mother, for example, was a proud supporter of Dr. King and his Civil Rights cause. She always hated the racist, back-stabbing democrat politicians, and I suppose a lot of that rubbed off on me.
She also hated the race baiters that came after Dr. King, rightly considering them to have turned what was really a victorious struggle into a never-ending power-play and whine-fest. She hated how Obama was dividing, not uniting the country, but was not surprised. She understood democrats.
Thank You for the History Lesson
As I remember it, it was a Democrat governor who first raised the battle flag over the SC capital. It was also Democrats who were responsible for the KKK, voting restrictions, not allowing access to schools and separate water fountains. All of the negative black history was created by Democrats. Not Republicans.
And, it was LBJ who created a southern strategy saying that blacks (he used the N word, not blacks) would be voting Democrat for 200 years. It appears he was right.
Just because some racists hijacked in the 50’s doesn’t mean I can’t have it back for it true meaning of states right and defiance of all thing Federal.
The Confederate Battle Flag was a battle flag and nothing else. If you want to take down a flag that has been used to oppress people since the country started start with Old Glory. It was Old Glory waving on the top of slave ships carrying ships. Slavery existed under Old Glory for about 100 years, compared to the four years that the CSA exist. It was Old Glory that Union soldiers under Sherman and Sheridan were carrying as they massacred entire villages of Plains Indians. Now am I calling for the American flag to come down, of course not. For good or bad, flags are part of our history. This whole flag story is silly. Just something for the liberal media to latch onto. Both flags have been used by racists. The preferred flag of the KKK is the American Flag, not the Confederate flag. The vast majority of the Sons of Confederate Veterans are republicans, not democrats and the flag is nothing in the world but a symbol of Southern Heritage. It’s time that this Southern genocide ended. And it’s time that republicans grew pair and quit running scared of democrats and race-baiters.
I am also a Southerner and damn proud of it.
Strange times we live in