I’m concerned about the presentence of demonizing an idea/physical object in order remove it, not because of the view by those who use it but because of the fear of others. We pride ourselves on accepting all views, not just those of the majority, but then we turn around demonize something and those who believe in that idea, even if we misidentify why they believe in it.
The nice thing about growing up in a government family is that I grew up across the U.S. and overseas. I went to an international school (where even some of the primary school teachers held doctorates). They taught us that the civil war had multiple causes from the political to sociological, economical to technological (many matching the views that led to the American Revolution). In comparison, my neighbor’s niece visiting from the NE for the summer comment her school taught them that the sole reason for the war was slavery. She actually believed that the majority of the south owned slaves. I believe it was actually less than 20% and even then maybe only one slave (still wrong but much different from perception taught). How much of this is the victors write the history. I know, the past is what happened, history is what is written, and half of writing history is knowing what to write, and more importantly what to leave out. I do wonder how much of that is power focused; in that the south is heavily republican and in order to demonize the party/region, history was adjusted to create perception of continual ideals for political power.
Some say the flag is centered on hate and racism, but for many (I would say most) it a pride in the region. Much in the way people fly Cuban or Mexican or Japanese flags of their historical roots, or take pride in being and Irish-America or Korean-America or Pakistani-American, or to be from the Midwest, or Northeast or whatever region of the U.S. They are all proud Americans, but why is okay to be proud of your historical roots (good and bad) for some but not others? I was stationed in Georgia and Florida, and worked in Alabama during college (still talk to many of these friends). For them it was the ideals of the south that they focused on; independence, states’ rights, family, helping others. Is it right that we demonize them because others look at the flag and focused on racism? What about Islam, some have used it to attack others in the name of Islam, should we ban any mentioned of the religion in the U.S. because of a few people or because of what some people outside of Islam focus on?
Some have pointed out that this was the flag of the CSA, so what? If the meaning of the flag is now to represent the south instead of the CSA isn’t that distinguish a good thing. Things evolve, and what represented one small thing has evolved into something a larger things is normal. The title Commander in Chief was used only during times of war but not synonym for the President of the United States. To use my nerdism, the symbol of the USS Enterprise as a ship (a command patch if you will) in TOS, now represents the Federation as a whole. Do we say, you can’t stand behind that symbol and what it stands for now, because originally it stood for something else?
What happened in Charleston was bad, but to demonize someone because of your belief and forcing your views on others is wrong. Again, I’m concerned about the presentence of demonizing an idea/physical object in order remove it, not because of the view by those who use it but because of the fear of others.
