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!
