With all of the discussion of the Confederate
flag that I see on the internet, I would like to point out a few things:
1. I think that the most cogent comment
about the Confederate Flag issue that I have heard was, surprisingly, made by a
politician! It was when Jeb Bush said that in Florida the Confederate Flag had
been taken out of government buildings quite a few years ago, and put in
"a museum where it belonged."
2. While I agree that dealing with the
Confederate flag appropriately may hurt the feelings of certain people who have
their own private legitimate interpretations of that flag that are not racist
or desirous of the disintegration of the United States of America or the like,
and I want to be considerate of those people and to be tolerant of their right
to such interpretations, one must be cognizant that the historical entity (the
Confederacy) represented by the symbol of the Confederate flag is NOT in
accordance with such interpretations, and pretending otherwise is just another
form of Political Correctness!
3. Not being a fan of Political
Correctness, and not identifying politically as either left-wing or right-wing
(I like to think of myself, humorously, as sort of "middle of the
bird", as comedian Pat Paulsen used to put it), I want to encourage people
to abandon this particular form of Political Correctness (which is more
identified with the right-wing) as well as other forms of Political Correctness
(more often than not, identified with the left-wing).
4. Let us be frank with ourselves, the
Confederate flag is, objectively, and historically, a symbol of at least
acquiescence in the disintegration of that great union of territory and people
called "The United States of America", as well as a symbol of the
legitimization of slavery.
The information to prove this is available to
anyone who wants it.
If the Confederacy had remained, it is quite
likely that Texas (and possibly other states) would have broken off to form its
own independent country (see:
here,
and
here,
among others), and that the threats to world freedom which the United States
helped fight would have been much more difficult to defeat.
As far as slavery goes, from the mention of
"an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the
institution of slavery" in the South Carolina Declaration of Secession
(the very first such declaration - see:
here)
as a major part of the justification for leaving the Union, to the secession
declarations of other states such as Mississippi (see:
here),
and Georgia (see:
here),
among others, which relate to their attitude toward slavery (that it must be
preserved) as a major reason for secession, one can see that upholding slavery
was a major aim of the Confederacy.
5. The above, it seems quite clear to me,
demonstrates quite definitively that the Confederate flag does NOT belong in
any USA federal, state, or municipal government edifice. The symbolism of that
flag intended by the founders of the Confederacy makes it an object which does
NOT honor any government edifice in which it might be placed.
Of course, private people are free to do as
they please (including inventing new interpretations of the Confederate flag
that do not support racism, etc.), but I see no room for governments in the USA
to display this symbol, and every reason for them to reject its display.
In summary, I think that Jeb Bush put it
quite well, and that the Confederate flag should be put in museums where it
belongs.
