Certainly, white middle class people are more comfortable here than the
people who live in the countries that the US and other western countries
have colonized, exploited for their natural resources, or waged war on.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of R. E. Driscoll Sr
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2015 8:22 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the Confederate
Flag Go
All:
My opinion.
By and large all of the peoples who live in this country are better off than
the peoples who populate other countries. At one time or another I have
lived and worked in several countries. While I found some of them to be
quite comfortable (England, France, Germany) I found others very
uncomfortable (India, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia) and I always found myself
to be very thankful to come back here.
R. E. Driscoll, Sr.
On 7/7/2015 2:03 PM, Charles Crawford wrote:
Hi Miriam and all,
You certainly make points that would lead any reasonable person to
conclude
that we have, if anything, barely next to nothing to recommend us.
Now
comes the bottom line as I see it. I would argue that there are
many people
in this nation who have experienced kindness, hope, accomplishments,
family, liberty, and a sense of security and wellbeing which in no
way
relate to all the ills you have mentioned. Yes, there are real
problems and
activities which none of us would condone, but we also have rights
of
redress, checks and balances to help us seek and achieve justice,
law and
courts to protect our interests, and a political system which while
very
much flawed by " Citizens United, " can still be made to respond to
the
needs of our people.
Are these and other features of our Democracy sufficient to, on
balance,
call our nation a great place in which to live? I believe the
answer is a
qualified yes. We do have to speak out or the silence would only
add to the
corrosion created by our problems and apathy of folks who would have
given
up. As long as there are forums like Blind-Democracy, and groups
like Move
On; there will be hope and satisfaction. Rose colored glasses?
Maybe, but
I think not so much that as I know we all know that there is another
way of
being and hence our disapproval of what is going on. This potential
for
another way of life and the periodic manifestations of goodness such
as
Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, Save the Children, and relief
efforts to
ease the pain of disasters in various places, along with everyday
good
people around us, all point to a direction we all believe is
achievable.
Lastly, I will say that perhaps the downside of hearing about these
constant
examples of things not going right, is that we are tempted to become
very
cynical and cast an almost nihilistic eye on everything. These
things are
upsetting, but they are not nearly the sum and substance of everyday
life.
Otherwise, we would all just conclude it is not worth it an either
do
ourselves in, or decide to grab what we can for ourselves and the
heck with
everyone else.
Charlie.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam
Vieni
Sent: 07 July 2015 13:55
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the
Confederate
Flag Go
Charlie,
You know, I'm not sure at all about that, not after all the history
I've
been reading about our country. I think that we certainly have a
mythology
about justice and freedom for all. I think that some people have
lived
useful and satisfying lives here. But I just finished reading a
history of
what this country did to Puerto Rico and is still doing, which is an
example
of how it acquired and treated territories. And even within the US,
aside
from what it does to its poor and its people of color, there is a
history of
inhuman exploitation such as its experimentation on 20,000 people
with
radiation. Right now, I don't see evidence that we're moving toward
the
fulfillment of those ideals that you mention. I see a corporate
state which
is beginning to treat its citizens as disposable, in the same way
that it
treated its conquered people like the Puerto Ricans. Towns are dying
or dead
because industry has fled and there is nothing to take its place to
employ
people except low paying service jobs and the military. It's a very
sstrange
time with same sex marriage and a black President on one side, and
increasing police killings of unarmed black people, enslaved workers
in our
prisons and disappearance of women's health on the other. And a
silence
regarding our drone murders of civilians and military support of a
slow
genocide in Palestine on the other.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charles
Crawford
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2015 11:15 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the
Confederate
Flag Go
Hi Miriam and all,
Your points are well taken. Still I have to ask if it is not true
that the
American revolution may have been a rebellion of business folks, but
did it
not ultimately turn into a nation dedicated to the increasingly
freedom,
liberty, and dignity of all? Sure we have lots of problems and I
don't know
if we will ever become perfect, yet I know that the idealism that at
least
our leaders preach have in them the seeds of a great nation. Not
there yet,
but still traveling in that direction, despite the best efforts of
some to
turn us into some kind of oligarchy.
Charlie Crawford.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam
Vieni
Sent: 05 July 2015 22:19
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the
Confederate
Flag Go
Charlie,
The issue of states' rights is used as a rationalization by people
who are
opposed to civil rights. It was used to rationalize the right to own
slaves.
It is used as a rationalization for resisting women's right to
choose,
people's right to marry whomever they love, the right of everyone to
receive
medical care, the right of people to vote on the basis of national
standards
that are fair to everyone, et cetera. It has nothing to do with
southern
traditions which benefit people like southern hospitality or
southern
cooking or a slow, leisurely pace of life. States' rights is always
used as
an excuse to withhold certain rights from certain people. Roger
reminds us
that the confederate flag about which we're talking is a battle
flag. Well
obviously, that flag has been used by Southerners who do not wish to
comply
with federal laws with which they disagree. It symbolizes rebellion.
I see
nothing to respect about that. And if we're going to go back to the
rebellion of the colonies against England, well, it was certainly
not a
rebellion for freedom and equality for everyone who lived in the
colonies.
It was a rebellion of businessmen who didn't wish to pay taxes to
the Crown
because they felt that their business interests weren't being
properly
represented. Our propagandists have turned that into a glorious
revolution
for freedom and justice for all. But that isn't what it was.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charles
Crawford
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2015 5:37 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the
Confederate
Flag Go
Hi Miriam and all,
I do not dispute the fact that owning slaves was at the heart of why
the
southern states formed their confederation and left the Union. Yet
the
classic protestation offered by those who favored the confederacy
was not
ownership of slaves, but rather the imposition of too much national
government over the rights of states to govern themselves in union
with, but
not controlled by other states. When viewing the difficulty through
this
lense rather than the slavery issue, it became more justifiable in
the minds
of many to support the confederacy.
>From the above scenario, two features can be identified. First,
there was a
South with a community identity greater than simple ownership of
slaves, and
secondly that irrespective of the slavery issue, didn't the states
have
rights which could not be violated by the federal government? This
latter
question still flares up even in our modern times and is not likely
to ever
go away completely.
So, yes, the ownership of slaves was clearly a major problem and had
to be
addressed, however the idea that states have rights not given to the
Congress which Congress cannot violate is still a living question.
I would
submit the two recent issues of the Affordable Care Act and the lack
of
state created exchanges as well as the issue of same sex marriages
are two
very current and potentially contentious matters. While I agree
with the
Supreme Court on their decisions in these matters, I am concerned
that some
folks will attempt to exploit these decisions as violations of
states'
rights. So what is my point?
The act of rebellion is a basic American value. We did it to form
the
Union. The lesson we must take from the Civil War is that all of us
have
civil rights and denying one is denying all. We fought a major war
to
guarantee the right of liberty to all people irrespective of race,
creed, or
national origin. That same civil right to liberty implies respect
for the
dignity of all people. In as much as I agree that the confederate
flag
needs to be retired to museums since it unfortunately is associated
with the
tyranny of slavery; we do need to be sensitive to the broader issues
that
distinguish Southerners which have nothing to do with slavery. I
admit it
sounds a bit over the top to me as well, however, I do feel that
blanket
condemnation of the south and all southerners as confederates who
simply
wanted to own slaves as somehow really not fair.
I know that some will find my logic to be tortured. All this is to
say that
the confederate flag is a symbol of rebellion which albeit for the
wrong
reasons, did and does occur in our nation. We must find ways to
accommodate
the opinions of others which may be even annoying, but do have a
place in
the marketplace of ideas, while not allowing the kind of evil that
is
represented by slavery and like activities to exist.
Charlie Crawford.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam
Vieni
Sent: 05 July 2015 14:47
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the
Confederate
Flag Go
Charlie,
I guess that's where we differ. I don't see that any good was ever
attached
to it. The southern pride you speak of, was the pride of southern
landowners
to have the right to own slaves. That's why they seceded from the
union.
That's what they were fighting for. What Barbara Kingsolver is
saying in
the article is that there were poor white southerners who fought
because
they were forced to and that to some of them, the flag symbolizes
valor. But
my feeling is that most of them were brainwashed into believing in
the
southern cause and that cause was the right to own slaves. There may
be
other fine southern traditions, but they're not what the flag was
created
for. It was created as a symbol of a new country formed on the basis
of
slave ownership.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charles
Crawford
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2015 1:56 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the
Confederate
Flag Go
Hi Carl and Miriam and all,
OK, I will admit it. I like the confederate flag! Why, well
it has
a better look to it as far as I am concerned and I was also a fan of
Colonel
Molsby on TV back in the 50's. I am saddened to see what has been
done to
that flag and all the hate, evil, and downright racism that has been
attached to it. So whatever good was once associated with-it has
been
overwhelmed with the horror that has become its legacy. I agree
that
putting it in museums and maybe fly it over confederate graveyards
is a good
thing to do, but let's now come together in our celebration of
freedom and
humanity and say goodbye to a flag that was not just a symbol of
slave
ownership, but one that also represented the much broader pride of
southern
people for the people they were.
Charlie Crawford.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: 04 July 2015 16:46
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: A View From the South: Let the
Confederate
Flag Go
What is the function of a flag?
In my disinterested opinion, a flag is a symbol of a Belief or a
Place. A
flag or banner containing a cross indicates a belief in Jesus
Christ. A
flag with 13 alternating red and white stripes, with a blue field
filled
with 50 stars, tells me that it represents the United States of
America. A
light blue flag with orange and gold zigzag stripes and dueling
Humming
Birds, means absolutely nothing to me.
National flags, such as the Stars and Stripes, not only represent a
geographical territory, but to the citizens that flag represents the
history
and traditions of that nation.
So what can we say regarding the confederate flag. There is no
Confederacy
for it to represent. Does it represent the history and traditions
that were
of the short-lived confederacy? If not, then what does it
represent. To
say it represents the pride of the South is to suggest that this
includes
the Southern Traditions. That tradition of the short-lived
confederacy
included slavery. Wouldn't it seem better to design a new flag,
proclaiming
the goodness and love of the New South toward all people of all
color and
ffaith?
Carl Jarvis
On 7/4/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<mailto:miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
If the author of this hadn't been who it is, I would have
skipped it
because so much has been written about the subject.
Miriam
Kingsolver writes: "My little town is proud to have reared
citizens
like Carolee, an honour student and star athlete who offers
a helping
hand to anyone she meets. She wears her blonde hair in a
ponytail and
a delicate tattoo on her wrist. It's the Confederate battle
flag."
Kingsolver: 'Around here we see it on license plates and
T-shirts. A
ragged one has hung for years on the side of a barn in my
neighborhood.'
(photo:
Stephen Morton/Getty)
A View From the South: Let the Confederate Flag Go By
Barbara
Kingsolver, Guardian UK
04 July 15
The Confederate emblem was about pride as well as hatred,
but racists
have twisted its meaning
My little town is proud to have reared citizens like
Carolee, an
honour student and star athlete who offers a helping hand to
anyone
she meets. She wears her blonde hair in a ponytail and a
delicate
tattoo
on her wrist.
Its
the Confederate battle flag.
That flag has come crashing into the global conversation
after an
avowed white supremacist massacred nine parishioners in an
African
Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina. He
tore up
hearts and families, left a state without its senator and a
nation
bereft. A crime so senseless leaves us grappling for
something we can
blame, or fix. Were sickened by Dylann Roofs self-portrait
with a
semi-automatic pistol and Confederate flag. In the wider
world where
its seldom seen, people must wonder how that emblem waved
by a racist
vigilante could ever have held appeal for local historians
or
thoughtful
honour students.
No story is ever simple here in the south, least of all the
American
civil war. Its easily reduced to a morality play a
conflict between
northerners who wished to abolish slavery (the Union) and
southern
whites who refused (the Confederate rebels). In that
version, any
invocation of the lost Confederacy looks like nostalgia for
slaverys
return.
But history is nuanced. Economics divided an industrialising
north
from an agrarian south, where cotton plantations exploited
enslaved
labour for their solvency. Most white southerners, of
course, didnt
own plantations or other humans. Poor farmers and
sharecroppers were
brutally conscripted to fight for the interests of wealthier
men. The
region where I live southern Appalachia, was occupied to
enforce
compliance.
Bullets, illness and starvation killed hundreds of thousands
during
that brief Confederacy, and some six generations later,
families still
decorate the graves. Some feel their ancestors are as nobly
and
tragically dead as any soldiers under any flag, and would
honour them
independently of the worth of the war that consumed them a
distinction weve accepted since the moral quandary of
Vietnam. If the
Confederate flag only flew over cemeteries, the discussion
would be
over.
But it doesnt. Around here we see it on licence plates and
T-shirts.
A ragged one has hung for years on the side of a barn in my
neighbourhood, making me wince daily. My neighbour is a
decent person,
so far as Ive seen.
I can only guess he nailed it up in a spirit of defiance,
maybe akin
to the way some rappers use the N-word: as a belligerent
gesture of
identity politics. Southerners, especially Appalachians,
live in a
shadow of condescension. Popular culture wages a steady war
on our
dignity, decking us out as ignorant, vaguely incestuous
hayseeds.
Reality TV digs deep to find trashy families to reinforce
the
stereotype. In a nation with a hair-trigger sensitivity to
disparaging
labels, the word hillbilly still flies with impunity.
Attaching banality or meanness to every element of our
culture is
unfair, but defining southern pride is an endless
navigation. In our
town, high-school football games are community
entertainment. Our team
is the Rebels. My daughter played in the marching band known
as the
Rebel Regiment.
We decided to embrace the title: rebels, in my opinion, are
the pilots
of most human progress. The school cafeteria once bore a
mural of
Confederate soldiers and their flag, but it was painted over
decades
ago when the schools first African-American principal
arrived.
Our Rebels only remaining civil war tie is the schools
fight song,
Dixie.
Its a simple song about a southerner far from home who
wishes he were
back on his native soil, south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Countless
soldiers surely identified with the sentiment, back in the
day, but
Abraham Lincoln also used it at campaign rallies it was
never the
official anthem of the Confederacy. Id vote to retire it
anyway,
knowing its tainted for those who hear it as such.
Alternatives get
proposed, without success, because most people here identify
it as the
anthem of a touchdown.
Dylann Roof tore up hearts and families, left a state
without its
senator and a nation bereft
were sickened by his
self-portrait with
a semi-automatic ¬pistol and Confederate flag.
(photo: AP)
Who gets to draw the line between tradition and callous
intransigence?
Where
does sensitivity become censorship? Tarring whole
communities with the
brush of racism doesnt bring us grace. I could have whisked
my
daughter from the home of the Rebels to a private school
where she
wouldnt have to play Dixie. But this is our home, and I
believe
public schools function best when we all support our kids
together. I
think theyre better citizens for having grown up with many
kinds of
people, to be judged by the contents of their characters,
not their
tattoos.
When I claim my Appalachian identity Im embracing some
things that
are often mocked: the poetry of our dipthong-rich language;
a
fine-tuned interest in crops, the weather, and everybodys
business.
The fact that when I throw a party there will be spontaneous
music,
and someone will bring homemade whiskey. The fact that we
never say
the words hostess gift but would never show up without
one. Loving
your neighbour is a commandment we take seriously.
But I dont have to love his barn art, or the symbolic
anti-freedom
fighters frozen beneath a coat of paint in the school
cafeteria.
Southern pride doesnt mean loving the lynchings,
segregation and
lingering racial inequality that have bled into this place,
any more
than wearing cotton implies complicity with that crops
awful history.
The modern south, home to our nations most racially diverse
cities,
now has organic farms between tobacco fields, and yoga
studios beside
churches. My favourite bumper sticker this year says
Namaste, yall.
We dont want outsiders telling us what we are. So the duty
is ours,
and ours alone, to distinguish our past from our future. The
Confederate flag is anathema to that project. Whatever it
meant in the
1860s, since then it has been deliberately attached to a
racist
agenda, beginning in 1948 when the new, segregationist
Dixiecrat party
dug it out of mothballs. (Dixie, alas, was their fight song
too.) The
flags presence has grown steadily more menacing. It turned
up
wherever white mobs opposed civil rights marchers. It showed
up at
Klan rallies. Im sure it still does. Swastika was the
ancient
Sanskrit word for good fortune, its symbol representing the
movement
of the sun across the sky. But it was appropriated by vile
people, and
now virtually everyone sees racial hatred in that one too.
Regardless
of intent or origin, a symbol achieves its meaning in the
eye of the
beholder.
For some folks who incorporate the battle flag into their
wardrobe or
body art, familiarity may have made it seem innocuous. But
it isnt. A
flag is a potent symbol, purporting to be the standard of a
concordant
nation. By carrying one into hate crimes, racists try to
elevate their
evil by suggesting a nation of racists stands behind them.
My southern home is not that nation. This month the
Confederate flag
finally came down from several southern state houses, and my
neighbours barn. Our governor banned it from licence
plates. The
stock car drivers of Nascar, that bastion of good-ol-boys,
expelled it
from the racetracks. Were honouring heritage by tapping our
well of
kindness, knowing that for too many people those colours
evoke terror
and despair. No more. Now is the moment in history when we
send that
flag to the graveyard.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
reference not
valid.
Kingsolver: 'Around here we see it on license plates and
T-shirts. A
ragged one has hung for years on the side of a barn in my
neighborhood.'
(photo:
Stephen Morton/Getty)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/03/south-flag-confed
erate-
pride-hatred-racistshttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/
03/sou th-flag-confederate-pride-hatred-racists
A View From the South: Let the Confederate Flag Go By
Barbara
Kingsolver, Guardian UK
04 July 15
The Confederate emblem was about pride as well as hatred,
but racists
have twisted its meaning y little town is proud to have
reared
citizens like Carolee, an honour student and star athlete
who offers a
helping hand to anyone she meets. She wears her blonde hair
in a
ponytail and a delicate tattoo on her wrist.
Its
the Confederate battle flag.
That flag has come crashing into the global conversation
after an
avowed white supremacist massacred nine parishioners in an
African
Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina. He
tore up
hearts and families, left a state without its senator and a
nation
bereft. A crime so senseless leaves us grappling for
something we can
blame, or fix. Were sickened by Dylann Roofs self-portrait
with a
semi-automatic pistol and Confederate flag. In the wider
world where
its seldom seen, people must wonder how that emblem waved
by a racist
vigilante could ever have held appeal for local historians
or
thoughtful
honour students.
No story is ever simple here in the south, least of all the
American
civil war. Its easily reduced to a morality play a
conflict between
northerners who wished to abolish slavery (the Union) and
southern
whites who refused (the Confederate rebels). In that
version, any
invocation of the lost Confederacy looks like nostalgia for
slaverys
return.
But history is nuanced. Economics divided an industrialising
north
from an agrarian south, where cotton plantations exploited
enslaved
labour for their solvency. Most white southerners, of
course, didnt
own plantations or other humans. Poor farmers and
sharecroppers were
brutally conscripted to fight for the interests of wealthier
men. The
region where I live southern Appalachia, was occupied to
enforce
compliance.
Bullets, illness and starvation killed hundreds of thousands
during
that brief Confederacy, and some six generations later,
families still
decorate the graves. Some feel their ancestors are as nobly
and
tragically dead as any soldiers under any flag, and would
honour them
independently of the worth of the war that consumed them a
distinction weve accepted since the moral quandary of
Vietnam. If the
Confederate flag only flew over cemeteries, the discussion
would be
over.
But it doesnt. Around here we see it on licence plates and
T-shirts.
A ragged one has hung for years on the side of a barn in my
neighbourhood, making me wince daily. My neighbour is a
decent person,
so far as Ive seen.
I can only guess he nailed it up in a spirit of defiance,
maybe akin
to the way some rappers use the N-word: as a belligerent
gesture of
identity politics. Southerners, especially Appalachians,
live in a
shadow of condescension. Popular culture wages a steady war
on our
dignity, decking us out as ignorant, vaguely incestuous
hayseeds.
Reality TV digs deep to find trashy families to reinforce
the
stereotype. In a nation with a hair-trigger sensitivity to
disparaging
labels, the word hillbilly still flies with impunity.
Attaching banality or meanness to every element of our
culture is
unfair, but defining southern pride is an endless
navigation. In our
town, high-school football games are community
entertainment. Our team
is the Rebels. My daughter played in the marching band known
as the
Rebel Regiment.
We decided to embrace the title: rebels, in my opinion, are
the pilots
of most human progress. The school cafeteria once bore a
mural of
Confederate soldiers and their flag, but it was painted over
decades
ago when the schools first African-American principal
arrived.
Our Rebels only remaining civil war tie is the schools
fight song,
Dixie.
Its a simple song about a southerner far from home who
wishes he were
back on his native soil, south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Countless
soldiers surely identified with the sentiment, back in the
day, but
Abraham Lincoln also used it at campaign rallies it was
never the
official anthem of the Confederacy. Id vote to retire it
anyway,
knowing its tainted for those who hear it as such.
Alternatives get
proposed, without success, because most people here identify
it as the
anthem of a touchdown.
Dylann Roof tore up hearts and families, left a state
without its
senator and a nation bereft
were sickened by his
self-portrait with
a semi-automatic pistol and Confederate flag.
(photo: AP)
Who gets to draw the line between tradition and callous
intransigence?
Where
does sensitivity become censorship? Tarring whole
communities with the
brush of racism doesnt bring us grace. I could have whisked
my
daughter from the home of the Rebels to a private school
where she
wouldnt have to play Dixie. But this is our home, and I
believe
public schools function best when we all support our kids
together. I
think theyre better citizens for having grown up with many
kinds of
people, to be judged by the contents of their characters,
not their
tattoos.
When I claim my Appalachian identity Im embracing some
things that
are often mocked: the poetry of our dipthong-rich language;
a
fine-tuned interest in crops, the weather, and everybodys
business.
The fact that when I throw a party there will be spontaneous
music,
and someone will bring homemade whiskey. The fact that we
never say
the words hostess gift but would never show up without
one. Loving
your neighbour is a commandment we take seriously.
But I dont have to love his barn art, or the symbolic
anti-freedom
fighters frozen beneath a coat of paint in the school
cafeteria.
Southern pride doesnt mean loving the lynchings,
segregation and
lingering racial inequality that have bled into this place,
any more
than wearing cotton implies complicity with that crops
awful history.
The modern south, home to our nations most racially diverse
cities,
now has organic farms between tobacco fields, and yoga
studios beside
churches. My favourite bumper sticker this year says
Namaste, yall.
We dont want outsiders telling us what we are. So the duty
is ours,
and ours alone, to distinguish our past from our future. The
Confederate flag is anathema to that project. Whatever it
meant in the
1860s, since then it has been deliberately attached to a
racist
agenda, beginning in 1948 when the new, segregationist
Dixiecrat party
dug it out of mothballs. (Dixie, alas, was their fight song
too.) The
flags presence has grown steadily more menacing. It turned
up
wherever white mobs opposed civil rights marchers. It showed
up at
Klan rallies. Im sure it still does. Swastika was the
ancient
Sanskrit word for good fortune, its symbol representing the
movement
of the sun across the sky. But it was appropriated by vile
people, and
now virtually everyone sees racial hatred in that one too.
Regardless
of intent or origin, a symbol achieves its meaning in the
eye of the
beholder.
For some folks who incorporate the battle flag into their
wardrobe or
body art, familiarity may have made it seem innocuous. But
it isnt. A
flag is a potent symbol, purporting to be the standard of a
concordant
nation. By carrying one into hate crimes, racists try to
elevate their
evil by suggesting a nation of racists stands behind them.
My southern home is not that nation. This month the
Confederate flag
finally came down from several southern state houses, and my
neighbours barn. Our governor banned it from licence
plates. The
stock car drivers of Nascar, that bastion of good-ol-boys,
expelled it
from the racetracks. Were honouring heritage by tapping our
well of
kindness, knowing that for too many people those colours
evoke terror
and despair. No more. Now is the moment in history when we
send that
flag to the graveyard.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
________________________________
Avast logo <http://www.avast.com/> This email has been checked for
viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com <http://www.avast.com/>
