Catriel Lev's Blog: VeHaShalom VeHaEmmet

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Catriel Lev
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Aug 6, 2015

Shtikipedia 0001 - Internet Encyclopedia Parody

This is an entry on my blog solely for the purpose of use for the "Shtikipedia" internet encyclopedia parody:

This an official Shtikipedia entry, which is ABSOLUTELY TRUE (since it says it is!  ;-) ), verifying that:
1. Pittsburgh, when written on a birth certificate from the State of Pennsylvania, really means Zimbabwe!
2. Ally County, when written on a birth certificate from the State of Pennsylvania, really means Africa!

Jul 3, 2015

The Confederate Flag Revisited

This is an article of mine which appeared in the Times of Israel.


Now that in my previous post I noted that display of the Confederate flag (clearly an anti-USA symbol, though an historical artifact) is totally inappropriate in official government buildings, I find that an exaggerated version of the thoughts I expressed has led to the cessation of selling Confederate flag artifacts by many retailers. This appears absolutely ridiculous to me; I think it is time to come to grips with the Confederate flag in a sensible manner.
To put it simply: The Confederate flag is an artifact like any other; though it is inappropriate for a place in any official government setting, the freedoms guaranteed in the USA demand that it be available to the public. It DOES belong in museums, as I noted in my previous post - and also in private collections, universities where historical periods are studied, and the like.
I do not see why any reasonable freedom-loving American would want it to be otherwise. Like many historical artifacts, it has many unpleasant associations (many of which are opposed to the ideals which the USA holds sacred), but that is no different from historical artifacts relating to Czarist Russia, to give one example.
As I always understood it, the fact that an object has objectionable associations does not justify banning it in a free society. It does justify speaking out and noting those objectionable associations, and of course it makes such an object totally inappropriate for display in any official government setting (which would be like validating the objectionable ideals of which the object is a symbol). However, it does NOT justify making the object unavailable to those who wish to study it for historical purposes or to own it for whatever purposes they may have (such as collectors, or those who see positive things from the southern heritage in the Confederate flag).

Legitimate problems (like the display of the Confederate flag in state legislatures, etc.) should not drag us into extreme and exaggerated responses. Let’s just remove the Confederate flag from official government settings without getting hysterical over it!

Jun 28, 2015

Deliberations on the Confederate Flag


This is an article of mine which appeared in the Times of Israel:


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.