You are proud of this as your heritage?
This past week a lot has been said about a flag. A flag that flying is akin to someone wearing a T-shirt that says,
Buffalo Bills 4-time Super Bowl Champions. It is a flag that belongs to the losing side. The arguments we hear from those who support this flag are that it is about heritage and history. So they are proud that their ancestors were on the losing side of a war? Seriously? Why would you be proud of, for lack of a better term, getting your ass kicked?
It is often said that history is written by the victors. Those in the South do not get to rewrite history. The U.S. Civil War was not about states' rights, it was about a quarter of the southern population that kept slaves and wanted to keep the institution of slavery going. That is something to be proud of, keeping people in bondage.
More below.
Then there are these guys ....
Proud of this?
Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders.
Now, the Republican Party of 1866 is a far cry from the Republican Party of today. If anything, the Republicans of 1866 would be the Democrats of 2015. But again, I ask: Is an underground campaign of intimidation and violence something to be proud of? Is that the heritage you want to pass on to your children? And this campaign of intimidation and violence has continued to this very day. Yes, that is certainly something to be proud of.
Jim Crow, literacy tests, poll taxes, and treason. Those are the things that are Southern heritage.
Segregation is southern heritage
Lets talk about segregation as Southern heritage. Here's
George Wallace's take:
"Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us, and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw a line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever."
Segregation, another piece of Southern heritage to be proud of.
To me, the flag you hold so dear to your hearts ...
... represents the absolute worst in America. Slavery. Treason. Jim Crow. Segregation. Racism. Intimidation. Violence. That is not the South that I know; you are all far better than that. The people I know from the South are warm, friendly, and hospitable. They always greet you with a smile, have no problem setting an extra place for dinner, and would give you the shirt off their back whether you needed it or not.
The Civil War ended in 1865. The Confederate battle flag should have been retired then. We are all Americans, and the only flag we should look to for our heritage should be this one:
Since the Civil War we have sent men and women of to war many times under this banner, in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan, to name a few. Soldiers from both the North and the South have come home covered by it after making the ultimate sacrifice. We have planted this flag on the surface of the moon. It brought us together after September 11, 2001. Southern heritage is—and should be—American Heritage.
Instead of taking up the flag of a lost cause to symbolize the heritage of the South, maybe it is time to leave it in the past where it belongs.