Banning The Confederate Flag

The Confederate Flag debate after the Charleston, S.C. shooting has been an interesting one to observe. Conservatives agreeing with Liberals, Liberals agreeing with Conservatives, cats loving dogs, wolfs raising fawns, utter and complete chaos! There are strong emotions on both sides, and it is a matter that has needed to be settled for over 140 years.

The call for taking down Confederate flags, statues, and the like has been built upon the historical fact that the Confederate States of America, referred to as the Confederacy from here on out, supported and upheld slavery. Slavery was a reason why at least some of the Southern states seceded and formed the Confederacy [1]. It is not a coincidence only slave-states seceded, and an anti-slavery region almost seceded from Tennessee [2].

The logic behind taking down the confederate flags, et al is simple. Slavery is one of the most disgusting human rights violations. The Confederacy supported the institution of slavery. The Confederate flags still stand for the Confederacy. Flags symbolizing something morally repulsive should not be used, at least on government property. Therefore the Confederate flags stand for a government that supported one of the most disgusting human rights violations, and the flags should be taken down from government buildings, if not everywhere.

The problem for this side, which is ironically created by their own logic, is if the logic is applied to the American flag, then it should be removed as well. Think about it. The U.S. government allowed the institution of slavery to exist for 89 years [3]. The American flag still stands for the U.S. federal government, and has since 1777 [4]. The flag — if it does have some external, objective meaning — represents a government that supported one of the most disgusting human rights violations. The American flag is a symbol for a government that did something extremely morally repulsive, and, according to the logic, should be taken down.

Many would call this a false comparison between the American flag and any Confederate flag. The Confederacy stopped existing long ago, and the meaning of the flags stands still in time. The U.S. is still operating, and the meaning of the flag is ever changing. It is true the U.S.A. still exists, but that does not remove from history what it has done in the past. It is still a historical fact that the Union supported slavery for decades. The American flag does stand for a government that once enforced laws to make sure people remained slaves, and that is exactly what the Confederate flags stand for as well. A government that once upheld the institution of slavery.

Moreover, many who fly a Confederate flag consider it a part of their heritage. They see it as a symbol of self-defense and war fought in vain. Those who use the Confederate flags see the Confederate soldiers not as traitors to some Union, but as defenders of their homeland. This sentiment worsens when others implicitly suggest that the soldiers should have just stood down instead of fighting those who were invading their states, counties, and even homes. Yes, there are those kind of people; there are idiots on both sides.

This is what the Confederate flag REALLY means: whatever you think it stands for. A flag has no meaning separate from the human conscious; there is no philosophical, universal meaning of a flag for any nation, organization, etc. If the Confederate flags stand for slavery to somebody, then in their reality it stands for slavery. Likewise, if some other person believes that it stands for their heritage, then it stands for their heritage.

I, personally, will never fly a Confederate flag because it symbolizes a government — it is safe to say that to most people, if not all, believe the flags do stand for a government. More importantly, both sides need to bring less emotions into the debate. Once each side sees the other as they are, human beings, and not vile creatures with the intent to harm them then we can have more productive public debates.

In other news: 9 were killed in Charleston, S.C. after a young racist man shoots them in church, and the nation has overlooked it to worry about a piece of clothe.

Sources:

[1]http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

[2]http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/the-switzerland-of-america/?_r=0

[3]http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html

[4]http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=lljc&fileName=008/lljc008.db&recNum=90