As
a Civil War buff, I’ve felt like I should weigh in on the whole Confederate
flag debate, but I sort of put it off because I feel that the incidents that
started this discussion warrant a deeper discussion on bigger topics, like
violence and the roots of racism. But I
suppose this debate is long overdue.
First,
it’s important to note that the flag that is commonly referred to as the
Confederate flag is not actually the flag of the Confederacy. It is the battle flag intended only for use
by the military. Therefore, no one was
ever supposed to wave it unless they were a soldier. Anyone who waves it who is not a Confederate
soldier is like the a-hole who wears a fireman’s outfit to go into a bar to
pick up ladies when he is not, in fact, a fireman. To put it another way, you have to earn the
right to wear that uniform, or wave that flag, by risking your life in either
endeavor.
That
having been established, the fact that the flag belongs to the military says
that it has no place on a government building.
To place it on a civilian public building implies that a military coup
has taken place, and the government has been taken over by force by the
military. This is a type of government
that neither the USA nor the CSA claimed to want to be. It therefore further had no place on public
location.
Finally,
even those who had a right to call themselves Confederate soldiers were ordered
in 1865 to furl their flags and “unfurl them no more.” That is a direct quote from none other than
Robert E. Lee when he ordered his men to put the flag away and to serve the
United States flag.
So
those people who wish to wave the flag on any official building are not only
waving a symbol of rebellion against the country and a sign of lingering
racism, they’re disregarding its very meaning, trying to set up a military
government, and disobeying a direct order from the head of the Confederate
armies.
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