My Two Cents About the Confederate Battle Flag - Part 2

Now that some of these people in office are coming to their senses and removing the Confederate battle flag from government buildings, I’m sensing a disturbing trend in overzealousness.  It’s become a venerable witch hunt for anyone, public or private, who displays the battle flag in any way.

In an absurd example, Apple has deleted all games from their sales library that has the Confederate flag; i.e. Civil War games.  Stores are removing any books that show the flag, as if deleting the Civil War itself from memory will solve our problems.  Even battlefields and museums are being pressured to remove the flag, even though their primary purpose is to teach history.

The fury of course comes from the bastardization of the flag by racists since the formation of the KKK and other hate groups.  They had no right to bring back the Confederate battle flag and make it theirs, but they did, and I understand why it is viewed with fear and anger.  However, consider this.

Slavery did not begin with the Confederacy.  It existed under the American flag for many years before the south seceded.  It also existed before that in the UK for many years.  Both of those countries also slaughtered indigenous people in North America, reducing their numbers in America by 96%, the largest atrocity of people per capita in history.  The UK also slaughtered people across the globe in their colonization efforts.  The Spanish killed countless Indians in South and Central America.  The Chinese murdered millions of their own people, as did the Russians, and several other nations.

So here’s the question, why aren’t their flags banned?

If you’re really going to criticize individuals for waving the Confederate flag because of slavery, then you have to criticize individuals for waving just about every flag on Earth, because no one is innocent.  Every country is guilty of something as atrocious as the Confederacy, the United States included.

So yeah, the Confederate flag has no place above government buildings, and people need to be sensitive about where and why they place it, as it has been misused by hate groups.  However, to bury it completely, even from our museums and other historical locations, is overreaching and downright hypocritical.  And if we’re not very careful, it may be turned into a symbol of freedom of speech.

My Two Cents About the Confederate Battle Flag Controversy - Part 1

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.

So I just have one question for those who want to keep raising the Confederate battle flag… Why are you hating on General Lee?