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"African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social, and a political blessing." - Jefferson Davis
A house in Lancaster at the corner of Pine and Jefferson streets has a Confederate flag flying (the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia). It is at the top of a long flag pole. No national flag flies above it. I can only imagine what the reaction to this would have been in the latter half of the nineteenth century, for this city sent many of its sons to fight against the slavery and rebellion represented by this flag. Many did not come home. To see a symbol such as that flag flying in the streets of their beloved city would probably have been cause for severe action. This county was also the home of the Pleasant Ridge African American community, many ex-slaves. Brave men paid a very high price to keep the nation whole and end the scourge of African-American slavery. Seven hundred men from Grant County were killed or wounded. Jefferson Coates lost his eyes in the Battle of Gettysburg and won a Medal Of Honor. General Callis, from Lancaster, was gravely injured there, and lay on the battlefield for three days. They fought at Antietem and Vicksburg and a hundred other places. There are as many stories as men who volunteered to fight for The Union, and now we have a flag, detestable to them and even more so today flying in our city. Of course the owner has the right to fly anything he wants, but I object.
Dennis Wilson
The response from the flag flier to my blog about the confederate flag. Oh well, at least he knows my opinion:
ReplyDelete"Confederate flag stands for heritage not hate. even though a majority of individuals believe the flag is for SLAVERY, or a bunch of hicks in the south, more so over the flag really stands for a way of life in the south. the south was based on family, heritage, and the right to live how you want. "for one there a 13 stars on the flag and they represent the 13 stated that joined the confederacy the thirteen states represented were: South Carolina, mississippi, florida, alabama, georgia, louisiana, texas, virginia, arkansas, north carolina, tennessee, missouri, and kentucky. thats all i need to say...i really dont even need to explain to you why i have that flag up! if you want to more take a history lesson! until then keep your mouth shut and worrie about yourself and not everyone else!!!"
There is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s heritage. Men who fought on the side of the Confederacy were often brave and self sacrificing as were men who fought for the Union. I would never disparage those individual or the sincerity of their beliefs, but they were wrong. Denying people the very liberties that the leaders of the old south wanted for themselves, because of those peoples heritage, was not only hypocritical but evil.
ReplyDeleteI could quote statistics about how the planter class in the old south lived their beautiful lives on the backs and blood, dreams and talents of the people they enslaved. I could ask if the rape of countless women and the enslavement of the children born of those rapes was a good thing or an abomination? I could tell you that most of the people fighting for the confederacy were poor people convinced by the rich that somehow it was in their interest to continue a system that devalued the worth of their labor by supporting a pool of slave labor.
So, the flag. Yes, you not only have a right to fly the stars and bars, but I would defend that right. But why? Why fly a flag that symbolizes, for anyone who knows the history and not the myth, not a noble way of life but a parasitical one? Not individual rights, but the denial of those rights. Not family values but the destruction of countless families. Not the rebellious spirit of the common man but the deception of the common man by the lies of the landed elite.
If you decide to fly that flag know that what you think it represents; heritage, family and freedom is not what it is saying to the world. Think about who you are and what you want the flag you fly to say about you.