I'm not so much a "Flagger", but the message below which I had seen somewhere else seems pertinent to the issue in this thread:
"Famed Union Generals U.S Grant and William T. Sherman were slave holding yankees who did not free their slaves until AFTER the end of the civil war (The Emancipation Proclamation was applicable only to slaves in the confederate states, intended to cause chaos and destabilize the South). Abraham Lincoln stated in 1862 "I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District [of Columbia]." he also stated "If I could save The Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it" in a letter to Horace Greeley. One of his more awful statements in the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate ends in "I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race."
Racism and Slavery are not a southern or confederate legacy, they are an American legacy. Racism was not a Confederate problem, it was an American problem - anyone stating otherwise is trying to absolve themselves of the shame of this atrocious institution and scapegoat those who fought for "the lost cause".
Whether or not the confederate flag is flown on government property is a separate debate... I am just annoyed that our populace lacks the critical thinking ability to question the claims that the confederacy and the south, and the symbols used to honor our ancestors who fought for what they considered their right of self determination, are evil and atrocious symbols of hate and racism. Has the confederate flag been used by the KKK and white supremacists? Of course! But so was the Christian cross. After Pearl Harbor, it was the US flag that flew over internment camps that ruined the lives of hardworking Japanese Americans, so do we abolish the US flag because it was used in that campaign that destroyed so many lives purely because of racial prejudice? No, we observe the good and the bad that symbolizes the American struggle for freedom and embody our continued search for self determination and a "more perfect union", for me, these symbols includes the Stars and Bars"
I'd give attribution for the above if I had it. Our little hometown newspaper rarely takes any position on political stuff, but yesterday I saw an editorial in it headlined: "Exploiting Tragedy Inexcusable". Silly me, I thought the paper had criticized the despicable political habit of never wasting a good tragedy. Nope, it was about scams related to the Charleston tragedy...Geo
