TemplarKormac
Political Atheist
Let's start off with one thing here. For any of you getting ready to launch your opening salvos defending the Confederate Battle Flag as "Southern Pride" or "my heritage:" that is fully and rightfully something you're entitled to believe. I also live in the State of Georgia, one of the original thirteen colonies. It was also the breadbasket, and thus the backbone of the Confederacy. So by all rights I should should share the same ideals in regards to this flag. But I don't, nor do I wish to. After a little self introspection, I've come to this one conclusion: The Confederate Flag is not my pride or my heritage, America's flag is.
I've been bouncing around on both sides of this debate for a week now, and I finally stopped and realized what I wasn't understanding. The Confederacy is dead. America is not. When I look up at a flag pole, I see the American flag, not the Confederate Battle Flag. I'm not worried about how it was wrong for the union to suspend habeas corpus or invade the south for seceding constitutionally... I don't really care. Those issues are wholly superfluous to the point I'm making here. The flag I care about now is the American one, one brave men and women fought and died for. It represents my freedom to post this thread, and your freedom to claim the Confederate Battle Flag as a symbol of pride or heritage.
My personal (and now more informed) opinion about the liberal idea of the flag representing hate, or racism, or slavery is this; as a friend put it: there is a lot of hate that doesn't even involve this (the Confederate Battle) flag. There's lots of hate coming from the same category of people who decry this as a symbol of hate, people like Al Sharpton, Obama or Democrats in general.
Moreover, the Civil War ended over 150 years ago, and these exclamations about how the flag "reminds them of slavery" in fact are statements spoken from inexperience; to be frank, their minds are still stuck in the fields, or places they've never been. They were never slaves, they never experienced slavery, nor racism, nor any of the things Blacks experienced in the pre-1860's south.
But on the other hand, to be objective, I must also understand that my reverence of and veneration in the Confederate Battle Flag is sorely misplaced. It is a lack of respect to my country as it is now, a lack of respect for the flag my Dad fought for. The American Flag should hold more meaning to me than that of a battle flag representing a long since dead confederacy. The deeper meaning is this: America should mean more to me than anything else, second only to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A flag is merely nothing more than a piece of well knitted fabric, with a symbol on it, its not something to be worshiped.
I don't see the Confederate Battle Flag as racist, or representing it, or slavery, or hatred. But I also see that this is not the flag I should hold high in glory. It is not a symbol of my pride or heritage, it is a reminder of the history of the flag I venerate today. The American Flag. America. Freedom. Freedom isn't free, and it took the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men to prove that.
I was born in and have lived all of my live in America, and I am glad in it. As for you, feel free to hold on to your Confederate Flag; and I like mine too, but remember where you are, remember what you are: an American in America, and remember where your respect should lie. Think about that as you celebrate your independence on July 4th. Our founding fathers didn't fight for America's independence under a Confederate Battle Flag. They fought under the flag of freedom, the one America's flag now represents, sins and all.
I've been bouncing around on both sides of this debate for a week now, and I finally stopped and realized what I wasn't understanding. The Confederacy is dead. America is not. When I look up at a flag pole, I see the American flag, not the Confederate Battle Flag. I'm not worried about how it was wrong for the union to suspend habeas corpus or invade the south for seceding constitutionally... I don't really care. Those issues are wholly superfluous to the point I'm making here. The flag I care about now is the American one, one brave men and women fought and died for. It represents my freedom to post this thread, and your freedom to claim the Confederate Battle Flag as a symbol of pride or heritage.
My personal (and now more informed) opinion about the liberal idea of the flag representing hate, or racism, or slavery is this; as a friend put it: there is a lot of hate that doesn't even involve this (the Confederate Battle) flag. There's lots of hate coming from the same category of people who decry this as a symbol of hate, people like Al Sharpton, Obama or Democrats in general.
Moreover, the Civil War ended over 150 years ago, and these exclamations about how the flag "reminds them of slavery" in fact are statements spoken from inexperience; to be frank, their minds are still stuck in the fields, or places they've never been. They were never slaves, they never experienced slavery, nor racism, nor any of the things Blacks experienced in the pre-1860's south.
But on the other hand, to be objective, I must also understand that my reverence of and veneration in the Confederate Battle Flag is sorely misplaced. It is a lack of respect to my country as it is now, a lack of respect for the flag my Dad fought for. The American Flag should hold more meaning to me than that of a battle flag representing a long since dead confederacy. The deeper meaning is this: America should mean more to me than anything else, second only to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A flag is merely nothing more than a piece of well knitted fabric, with a symbol on it, its not something to be worshiped.
I don't see the Confederate Battle Flag as racist, or representing it, or slavery, or hatred. But I also see that this is not the flag I should hold high in glory. It is not a symbol of my pride or heritage, it is a reminder of the history of the flag I venerate today. The American Flag. America. Freedom. Freedom isn't free, and it took the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men to prove that.
I was born in and have lived all of my live in America, and I am glad in it. As for you, feel free to hold on to your Confederate Flag; and I like mine too, but remember where you are, remember what you are: an American in America, and remember where your respect should lie. Think about that as you celebrate your independence on July 4th. Our founding fathers didn't fight for America's independence under a Confederate Battle Flag. They fought under the flag of freedom, the one America's flag now represents, sins and all.
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