I wanted to comment on this movement to get rid of the
Confederate Flag and those opposed to this flag have used the tragedy of the
church shooting as their platform. My
first observation is that every time there is a tragedy such as this, there is
this faction of people that use the period of time when emotions are high to
forward their political agenda. During the fall-out of such a tragedy, people
are not using logical and rational thinking. We instead react with our gut and
lash out at some inanimate object. “It’s the gun’s fault!”….”It’s the flag’s
fault!” Irrational, right?
My second observation is that this is a slippery slope, this
political correctness movement. This direction that we are starting to move
toward to, for lack of a better term, whitewash our history in order to make it
more palatable for everyone. The obvious problem with this is summed up in
George Santayana’s quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it.”. I, myself love history and have learned that what we were taught
in school is already a very, whitewashed version of history. Thanks to the
History Channel, we are learning more and more of how things actually occurred
and why. Those of you who oppose the Confederate flag may want to research
history and learn of its true meaning then and now.
I personally am not attached to this particular flag, having
been born and raised in Connecticut and consider myself a true New Englander.
But my short stint in Tennessee, I have made many friends in the South. As I
see it today, the flag represents Southern Pride and Southern History, not
slavery. Much to my chagrin, there was also slavery all over New England. Here
in the Northeast we look back at the Whaling industry and how it boosted the
economy of New England. Connecticut
became one of the richest states because of the gun industry. Today, whaling is
a swear word and guns are not far behind. Our history is our history. Some
good, some bad. We as a society can redefine symbols. The “Victory sign” for
example, or is it the “Peace sign”? Instead of deleting history, how about we redefine
our future.
- Sean
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