The (1)>> Confederate flag is front and center now .New York Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries stood on the House floor Thursday afternoon and delivered a blistering indictment of his Republican counterparts for refusing to support a bill that would have banned the flying the Confederate battle flag on National Park Service grounds.South Carolina's governor used nine pens Thursday to sign a law that will remove the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds and send it to a museum. It has been since the Civil War, a symbol that has cut deep into American consciousness . (***)>>It will always be a "symbol of rebellion" , and repression. The Confederate State of America landed in our nations dark past only to resurface in (2)>> Dylann Roof, the man who shot and killed nine African Americans praying in Charleston, who identified himself as a "white supremacist" , but as we look deeper in this tragedy , we are just being so blinded by the mysticism associated with the "flag". Southerners are quick to claim that the Confederate flag, no matter which version, has nothing whatsoever to do with either white supremacy (racism) or treason. In their estimation they know is a lie, the Confederate flag(s) are just a symbol of Southern heritage and culture. However, that was never what the flag symbolized and there is no better reference to what the flag stands for .Since the end of the American Civil War, private and official use of the Confederacy's flags, and of flags with derivative designs, has continued under philosophical, political, cultural, and racial controversy in the United States. These include flags displayed in states; cities, towns and counties; schools, colleges and universities; private organizations and associations; and by individuals.The flag was kept out of popular culture until the middle of the twentieth century. Southern soldiers waved Confederate flags in World War II, but they were merely seen as signs that the Southerners were in the war alongside Yankees and fighting loyally.The tone was different when in October of 1947 a group of fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill brought Confederate flags and waved them at a football game. A month later U.Va. fans brought Confederate flags with them to a football game against the University of Pennsylvania. Soon the rebel flag became the rage at football games and social events across the South. With the coming of the Civil Rights movement came the beginnings of the controversy surrounding the flag which we know today. White Southerners believed that their exclusive culture was being threatened, and the flag became a symbol against civil rights. The segregationist Dixiecrat party of 1948, who ran Strom Thurmond for president, took on the Confederate flag as its symbol. Anti-Civil Rights sentiment ran strong in the South, which was once again feeling imposed upon by a distant federal government. The conflict was on again. Opinion writer wrote in
"In a fascinating dynamic, it created a feeling of moral obligation to reciprocate in some way. The flag was not material to the crime itself, but its connection to the underlying race history behind the crime suggested that its removal from the statehouse grounds — whatever the endlessly debated merits of the case — could serve as a reciprocal gesture of reconciliation."
I think the battle flag is used because it is universally recognized but to some it is a symbol of hate..Depends on how educated the person is..The confederate flag is just that a flag of a country that use to be. Now it is part of the Mississippi flag and so on . Yes it use to be a flag of a country that use to supported racism, does that mean the American flag needs to be banned too? , because they use to support slavery too. All it really is used for now it to show the pride someone has for where they came from. (3)>> If these idiots ban everything that has the potential to offend anyone, the only flag this country will be waving is a white one.
NOTES AND COMMENTS:
(1)>> Confederate Flag has no intrinsic meaning. The meanings symbols carry is that which humans attach from their own learning. Thus, any viewer of a symbol is free to assign it any range of meanings. The symbol itself, then is constant, but the value symbolized is not. Assuming that the Confederate Flag is an element of our culture, it becomes necessary to define culture.Many Americans of all races today refer to any of the Confederacy’s flags as “the white supremacist’s flag” and they would not have been wrong during the Civil War and they are certainly not wrong in the 21st Century. When the racist flag’s defenders claim it is just an innocent symbol of their Southern heritage and culture, they are defending the white supremacy they know the flag symbolized during the Civil War continuing to the present. It is part of the Southern culture, and their beloved heritage, they have learned all their lives and likely studied in history classes. (2)>> None of the defeatism is warranted. Mass shootings draw attention to the nation’s relationship with guns. They should spur us to action because they demonstrate the easy, efficient horror that guns are capable of inflicting, and they make us wonder about permissive gun policies. But Mr. Roof is not the real face of gun violence in the United States. Gun violence is an everyday problem that has many faces: Abusive husbands who fly off the handle; kids who accidentally shoot their friends — or themselves — while playing with their parents’ weapons; criminals who find it too easy to get illegal guns.The same people that are championing the cause of taking down the flag also need to champion the cause of bringing down guns. This killer is done, even if he does not receive the death penalty he will never see the light of day. We also have to blame the gun because without the gun he would not be able to complete his mission as he called it and he would have lived a non productive life because of his lack of education and died an angry old man. (***)>>The flag is also known as "the Stainless Banner" and was designed by William T. Thompson, a newspaper editor and writer based in Savannah, Georgia, with assistance from William Ross Postell, a Confederate blockade runner. As a resident of Georgia, Thompson supported the Confederacy and its cause during the American Civil War.[1] In 1863, as the editor of the Savannah Morning News he proposed a design that would ultimately become the Confederacy's second national flag, which would be come to known as the "Stainless Banner.In a series of editorials, Thompson argued:
"As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.[4]… Such a flag…would soon take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations, and be hailed by the civilized world as THE WHITE MAN'S FLAG.[5]… As a national emblem, it is significant of our higher cause, the cause of a superior race, and a higher civilization contending against ignorance, infidelity, and barbarism. Another merit in the new flag is, that it bears no resemblance to the now infamous banner of the Yankee vandals"(3)>>Stating that all Americans during the Civil War fought and died for a "symbol of treason and racism" as we are told to believe , can we call it is similar to condemning Japan for still using the same flag when they bombed Pearl Harbor ?.
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