It's a silly little flag. And the wrong one.

The "Confederate" Flag is such big news after a disturbed young man committed mass murder, there is just no way to ignore it.  Here in South Carolina, there are so many people wanting to keep the flag where it's at.  I'm not even sure why.  It's not the Confederate Flag.  It's the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, the unit of General Lee.  It's not the flag for South Carolina.  It's not the Battle Flag of the Army of South Carolina.  Of course, it's just a flag when it comes right down to it.  But as we all know, the flag of any country or state or ideal can take on a life of its own.  "Don't Tread on Me" is a flag that sparks all kinds of American pride and reminds us of our fight for our Independence.  The snake cut into 13 pieces representing the divided we fall and together we were tired of unfair treatment comes into many people's minds when they hear those words even if they don't know the history behind the it or even the details of the flag.  For many, the Virginia Battle Flag has become a symbol of heritage, but for many it has also become a dark reminder of the oppression of two centuries now gone by.  We don't need to debate either of those opinions.  That is what the opinions are.

First, as I pointed out, it is not South Carolina's Battle Flag, aka. The Sovereignty Flag or Seccession Flag.  So using the Virginia flag to honor South Carolina Civil War veterans is kind of like honoring Army Airborne veterans with The Air Force Academy flag.  It's really not about heritage unless we're in Virginia, because the true heritage is represented by a totally different flag.  That being stated, it is a flag that the Ku Klux Klan used quite freely as a symbol of white authority and black oppression.  It is a symbol that has even been further embraced by the Neo-Nazis of the entire planet of white supremacy.  It's offensive to so many people.  It's not the flag's fault, but once that bell was rung, there is no unringing it.  When I have friends that insist it's about heritage, I cringe.  I know they think it is, but it isn't.  They've lived with that story most if not all of their lives.  It was a story that South Carolina perpetuated by writing their own history books for their schools.  I never quite understood why.  Of course, those school books were written when the Klan ruled.  They were still being used just a decade ago.  Everything before the Civil War was great; everything after was great.  And the Civil War was the War of Northern Aggression.  The Civil War was about States' Rights.  Well, yes, but it was about one single state right--slavery.  Of course, since only 10% of the whites owned slaves in the South and the same owned all the newspapers of the time, it's not hard to see how easily the actual slave owners could convince the masses otherwise.  There was no Virginia Battle Flag so prominently displayed initially after the War.  It wasn't until the 1920s that most of the Confederate memorials even displayed that particular flag.  South Carolina was even a little miffed during the 4 years of the Confederacy because they had been the first to succeed from the Union.  Why would Virginia's flag be on the Confederacy flag?   There were several iterations of the Confederacy Flag during those years and many of the suggested had the Virginia Battle Flag incorporated using Richmond as the justification.  South Carolina was appalled because they had been the first to secede from the Union.  They were insulted, but all that history has been lost.  All that is left is a systemic attempt to intimidate and create a sub-culture of acceptance of white supremacy united under a flag that some people have just accepted as a Southern thing.

OK, so flag aside.  Racism is not a Southern thing.  I have very vivid memories growing up all over this country of racists all over the place.  Ohio, Michigan, California, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Florida.  I served in the United States Navy with people I would classify as racists from all those states and from Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, pretty much name the state.  The Ku Klux Klan may have held on to power in the South for the better portion of a century, but the original "million man" march was the organized and walked down the same road up to Capitol Hill in the 1920s.  Yes.  Klan was prevalent all over the United States then.  There were branches of the Klan all over this country and they were considered perfectly acceptable.  People didn't rent to "coloreds".  As I've said before, my grandparents rented exclusively to blacks.  My grandmother was often chastised by her friends.  She started calling them blacks because that was what she was told by one that they preferred.  Her friends chastised her for even caring.  White Northerners moved out of neighborhoods with just as much racism and hatred if a black family bought or rented there.  They made threatening phone calls and burned crosses.  There were race riots in the United States in the 1960s in Southern California, Detroit, Chicago, the Bay Area, not just the Deep South.  All the people pointing fingers at the little state of South Carolina need to take a long, and I mean LONG, look in the mirror of their own history.  My father and mother were threatened in Detroit and Toledo and in towns all along the Pennsylvania Turnpike when they would travel.  Those that think that they've come so far need only to see the race riots in Missouri recently to know that it is not a Deep South problem.  It is an all over the United States thing.

In no way am I advocating keeping the Virginia Battle Flag over any Confederate dead or memorials, unless veterans of the Northern Virginia Army during the Civil War.  I think it is a travesty that manipulative organizations or organization skewed the meaning of one flag to create a symbol of oppression.  And make no mistake, Robert E. Lee himself would be mortified.  He was the original general that Lincoln offered the position to lead the Union Army to get SC back in line.  He considered it, even after Virginia split over the whole thing--creating West Virginia even.  Finally, he responded that he could not in good conscience go against his state.  Would he have lead the Union Army if Virginia had chosen a different course of action?  We will never know.  If it had been the case, it would most likely be the South Carolina Battle Flag which would be a racist symbol today.  Of course, bless us, it is not.  It is truly an emblem of the men who died for a cause that they believed in whether it was or wasn't misguided.  It is the flag that should be flown over all SC Civil War memorials.  Those memorials should also include the United States flag.  Ultimately, the goal might have been to save the Union or leave the Union, but the secession proved two things:  A nation for the people by the people will not perish from the Earth and for all our differences we are all Americans.

As far as the racist question, the Virginia Battle Flag didn't choose to be the emblem it became, but ultimately, no emblem has ever chosen itself.  The ramifications that it was the chosen emblem are not its fault, but it has come to represent a bitter past that while it flies reminds us that too many people haven't learned from the past.  I remember pictures of lynchings that my grandmother had clipped.  That Virginia Battle Flag there.  The Civil War was over.  We had fought two World Wars that had really nothing to do with us for freedom.  The flag became the emblem of the quiet ugly war hidden behind sheets that was taking place day in and day out for some people in this country.  Not just in the Deep South.  EVERYWHERE.  The 1960s Civil Rights movement focused on the South because it was the place where the racist rhetoric was more out in the open, but I remember the blacks riding in the back of the bus in Ohio and California.  Not by choice, but because it was easier than arguing the point and eventually as some kind of badge of honor.  Regardless, it was everywhere.  Every state.  Point the finger at South Carolina all any of you like.  Look at how you view the areas in your own city or state that are a majority of minorities, a majority of blacks.  Look at how realtors still steer people in many areas to where they will be "socially acceptable".  These are real issues because some of you still look at anyone other than white moving into your neighborhood as a travesty or "there goes the neighborhood".

Sure that can be the case I guess, but it becomes the proverbial chicken and egg right?  Did the neighborhood go downhill because one black family moved in or because everyone that was living there bailed at a lower price before "there went the neighborhood":?  I don't know the answer.  I'm not researching it because I don't care.  I really don't.  I'm just as bad as other people saying I don't care and I'm not going to research it because I really don't care.  If a black engineer moves into my neighborhood with his middle class kids, I'm not going to care.  I'm going to completely freak out if it's a pregnant single woman with 5 kids  and 6 baby daddies collecting welfare, regardless of color.

What I care about is that the wounds that torment this country and how we get viewed by other countries.  We are so young in the grand scheme of things, just over a couple centuries.  How we react to this symbol, regardless of what we would like to think of it representing, speaks volumes about who we are, how far we have come and far how we have to go.  I'm praying that our country starts acknowledging that every state still has issues and that this emblem is the least of the problem.  I'm also hoping that South Carolinians lead this charge.  The Virginia Battle Flag is not representative of the men who fought for South Carolina.  It is very representative of a silent war against minorities.  While its removal from any place is only a tiny gesture compared to the bigger problem, it is taking off the tip of the iceberg and putting the focus back on the real problem.  We still have some racial issues to overcome.  A silly flag that the men of South Carolina did not fight for should not be one of them.