Posted on 10/19/2004 5:14:54 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
As I drove down 5th street yesterday, I spied a bumper sticker that addresses an issue I have been waiting for an excuse to write about. It was in the back window of a pickup truck, whose ability to operate I found simply amazing, strategically situated between an empty gun rack and another sticker depicting Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) urinating on "Osama" with a devilish grin on his face.
I will leave the "Osama" reference and defamation of an innocent newspaper comic strip character alone for the purposes of this article, and will concentrate on the content of the other bumper sticker. It was a simple, Confederate flag, next to which was written the words, "Heritage not Hate". Now, if I have ever read something more deserving of one of my diatribes, I cannot recall.
This statement, which for the record I believe to be sheer nonsense, speaks of an issue with which I had very limited experience before relocating to North Carolina, but an issue of importance nonetheless.
All my life, the Confederate flag was something of a joke to me. M history classes in high school and earlier had taught me that the Confederate defeat during the Civil War was a good thing, that the moral argument against slavery (espoused by the Lincoln government in Washington) was a black and white issue, about right and wrong, and that the Union triumph is 1865 was righteous.
Granted, the history I was taught spoke from a biased perspective, from the moral high ground of the abolitionists and northern intellectuals, and never really addressed the true, underlying reasons for the Civil War, which I would come to learn much later. After considering all the information I have been able to locate on the subject, after long hours of trying to understand just where the Confederacy was coming from and why they wanted to defend their way of life, I have come to a few conclusions.
Naturally, these conclusions reflect my upbringing and Northern perspective, and I am more than confident than my loyal readers will have more than a few comments of their own to contribute.
First of all, "Heritage not Hate", is an extreme cop out. Sure, the Confederate flag, displayed in the year 2004, some 140 years after the actual conflict ended, may stand for some long forgotten Southern pride issue. It may stand for the struggles that people in the Southeastern region of the United States suffered through and the wars that they fought.
It may stand for some perceived difference between the North and South, which apparently has persisted to this day, and may fondly recall the era of Southern dominance of the United States.
Woops, little mistake there. The South has never "dominated" anything. It is another region within the greater whole, just as it was then and remains so today. As for the "Not Hate" part of the bumper sticker, a more laughable statement I cannot recall. There are far too many damning coincidences that will forever relegate the Stars and Bars to the level of racist propaganda.
Why is it that hate groups all over the country, to this day, fly the Confederate flag as a symbol of their ideology. White Supremacist organizations,
, the sad, pitiful remnants of the Klu Klux Klan, along with many other neo-Nazi and racially motivated groups all include the Confederate flag amongst their symbols of worship.
Is this coincidence? Are people who fly the Confederate flag, be it in bumper sticker form or on the end of a flagpole, trying to align themselves with such openly evil and backward-thinking organizations? I don't think so. I think that people fly the flag to recall the once glorious Confederated states of America and celebrate their history, while at the same time somehow overlooking the racial implications inherent in the very symbol they hold so high.
Make no mistake. Whether you choose to recognize it or not, the fact remains the same: The Confederate flag is a racist symbol. It was during the Civil War, it remains so today. I challenge anyone to show me an African-American person with a Confederate Flag bumper sticker or "The South will rise again" written in their computers screensaver.
Is this a coincidence? You would sooner find a swastika flying outside the Israel embassy as you would a Confederate flag flying at an N.A.A.C.P rally. To me, the symbols have long been morally relative to each other. Both stand for hate, oppression, and the wanton murder and destruction of a group of people because of some perceived inferiorities. Plantation owners in the South, before and during the Civil War, treated slaves the same way they treated horses and sheep.
They were not human beings, quite the contrary. They could be bought and sold like farm equipment and with as much compassion. So to during the Nazi era in Germany; Jews were not considered people in the same way that German citizens were, therefore their wholesale murder could be justified. Anyone who cannot see the glaring similarities between the Confederate flag and the Swastika needs to pick up a history book and do some research.
If you care to display a symbol that represents the brutality and viciousness and lack of humanity that was involved in something like the slave trade, as the Confederate flag clearly does, you are entitled. The first Amendment to the Constitution allows you the freedom to display just about whatever you care to, but consider this. If you are going to fly the Stars and Bars, don't sugar coat it. Don't downplay the racial aspects and idealize the cultural aspects. They are one in the same.
Be up front and honest about your feelings. Confederacy= Hate I think would be a far more realistic bumper sticker, and as we speak I am in negotiations to have a number of said bumper stickers produced. Let us just call a spade a spade and forget about the "Heritage not Hate" nonsense. It is hateful, you know it is, and beating around the bush about it only takes away from the power of the argument. Let the responsive mud slinging commence!
It doesn't matter whether HK Edgerton has legions of black supporters or not. If a black person with a grand vision waited for masses of black people to support him, they'd be waiting a long time. Look at Clarence Thomas. HK's stance is very unpopular with the NAACP and that's why he left. He's far too good a man for that crowd anyway.
'Defend Southern heritage'. Explain the so-called 'heritage' other than the slavery, lynching, segregation, 'separate but equal' sedition, the murder of a president, and still fighting a lost cause, anything else you care to add?
want to have lunch???? my partner will be serving damnyankee, fried & roasted.
free dixie,sw
All the things you mentioned most all Southerners repudiate. There's more to the South than slavery.
There's more? No way.../s
LOL I know. Who woulda thunk it right?
I'll pass. The fattest, sloppiest pig meat is probably cleaner than that! ;-)
BUT watching G____ do a kosher butchering on the DY would be worth the INDIGESTION!
free dixie,sw
good point
free dixie,sw
fyi, i'm just the General's MULE-holder. (he couldn't afford a horse.)
free diixe,sw
...a good vet could have that pig on its feet in no time...
it's too late to start cooking.
fyi, HK has been "spreading the word" that damnedyankees are TASTY. (he says they taste just like CHICKEN!)
free dixie,sw
free diixe,sw
free dixie,sw
LOL
we have MURDER of the UNborn innocents by FEDERAL REQUIREMENT & at the same time LIB judges trying to keep us from killing MURDERERS!
we have federal govt bureaucrats forcing us to do things (& pay for things), which we neither want or need.
we have your ACLU suing everyone in sight about every possible STUPID idea, dreamed up by the SOCIALISTS out of the poison ivy league & DY-land.
we have "gun control" forced down our throats by the likes of dodd,schumer,kennedy,clinton,frank,mikowski,snow,etc. (NOT a single one of them southerners!)
we have the yankee media constantly attacking every traditional religious & cultural icon, which are dear to us.
shall i go on?
in other words, ALL of us want you damnedyankees OUT of our churches/synagogues, out of our lives & OUT of the southland. TRUTH!
free dixie,sw
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