The American Civil War is long over.
The war part is, at least. Some elements of the larger struggle are still unfolding.
As a Yankee I've thought it a just war to preserve the Union and free those who were unjustly enslaved. Obviously it is viewed differently by many in the South?
There's an understandable and very human impulse to recast the past, to place the things we value in a more favourable light. And while it may be understandable, the effort to reinvent the past only clouds the issue, as does bringing up accurate but irrelevant complaints concerning side issues. Yes, Lincoln and the North in general were only committed reluctantly to ending slavery, and yes Sherman should have behaved better, but that doesn't improve the fundamental failing of the Lost Cause.
I owe allegiance to only one flag. And that flag is a symbol of The United States of America.
Personally, I don't even care about that. I don't have a lot of allegiance one way or another to a country or a flag, and I don't fault those who follow a different one in principle. What I do find fault in is the convenient whitewashing and revision of history and the reverence for a symbol of hate and oppression.
The battles are over and the folks who fought and died were laid to rest. To disturb their bones is a contemptible desecration.
My understanding is that some of these corpses were exhumed in order to by placed where they were. If there was no harm in the first place, why would there be in the second?
I am not into aggravating other peoples sensibilities. The Confederate flag means nothing to me. It neither aggravates nor inspires me.
Well, it meant something to state Senator Rev. Clem Pinckney. It was an attack on him personally, and on people who look like him. And it also meant something to the loser who murdered him, an official nod toward the hate that propelled him. The people who live in that culture, on both sides of that divide, understand what the flag means.
It is not worth a brouhaha.
No. But the lives of the people lost by our ignoring the issue are worth it.
But Liberals like to fasten on trivialities and make them major issues whilst ignoring things wherein their efforts might make a difference for the good?
Like gun control? I promise you, I would do something about that if I could, and I'm sure in another place, I will discuss it. But as far as it being a triviality, do you notice how the other side never has to justify their obsession with a triviality? Symbols matter, especially those that enjoy official support, and if they didn't matter, no one would bother defending the stupid thing. There wouldn't have been a stupid law insisting that the flag fly on the capital grounds of South Carolina if it didn't matter.
I read where some members of Congress wish to make the words "Man and wife" illegal? They wish the words "Spouse and Spouse" to be used instead.
Talk about jousting at windmills....
Well, it's hard to see how Congress would have any say in that. But then, since marriage isn't necessarily between a man and a wife, it does seem like a less than artful phrasing.
oly: The more you know.
