The Confederacy seceded so why pay homage to that flag?
By Don Valentine
My supposition will require you to eradicate certain verifiable facts. First, delete any documentation that the Confederate states wrote that their primary grievance was the desire to retain slaves. Second, you need to accept that the Confederacy seceded for stronger state rights. In this premise you have to ignore that the stronger state rights included the ability to own people as property.
The patrons of the Confederate flag would endorse the above premise to be accurate. They would have to acknowledge that the Confederacy quit the union globally known as the United States of America. There is no reason to cherish, observe or honor a group that colloquially told your country “To pound sand!”
Do we display an I.S.I.S. flag on any government property? No, because they are the sworn enemy of our union. Does anyone in the U.S. attempt to argue that it is fine to honor their familial lineage to Al Qaeda by displaying that flag? Imagine attempting to display that flag in your yard in New York or Boston. My guess is that the police would not even bother answering that call for assistance. The First Amendment right to free speech would not protect you for long from the general public if you displayed that on your truck.
If you read the clear evidence that the Confederacy left then the decision is easy. So we can close the discussion on displaying this flag in any manner other than in a museum. It should be documented in the historical chronicles along with the Japanese internment camps, Klu Klux Klan atrocities and the theft of Native American lands.
People of German ancestry don’t get to raise a swastika flag on public land to honor their lineage. Righteous people and people of the Jewish faith would be up in arms if that were at-tempted. Why should African Americans be forced to see this display on public land?
The most significant point in this discussion is to reflect on where you see the flag of Great Britain displayed on Federal grounds. You don’t see it. The reason is transparent – like the Confederacy they lost that war as well!
Don Valentine, Free Lance Writer, U.C. Berkeley ’89 B.S. Psychology, McGeorge Law School J.D. ‘92
