Some psycho kills 9 people and the 10th victim is American History.
I was pleased to see that the potential for Anti-Gun Politics to flare up didn’t happen. The shooter had a photo with the Confederate Flag on his Facebook Page, so obviously the Bad Guy here is the Confederate Flag… So in order to stop Hate, people are pulling down all the Confederate Flags everywhere.
You know what? I’m fine with that. Let’s throw the General Lee’s Battle Flag under the bus. That’s our Scape Goat for this horror, so be it. But then they started talking pulling down books, movies, and video games. And there’s talk of pulling down statues and a National Monument.
Wait one second.
American History may not be all Rocket’s Red Glare… but it’s our History. We need to OWN IT. For good or bad, it’s our history… OURS. We need to Remember It. We need to Learn from it. So we don’t need to Repeat it. Glossing over the bothersome bits… glossing over the parts we don’t like… the parts that make us uncomfortable… is intellectually dishonest.
What is called the Confederate Flag was really not the Confederate Flag. It was Robert E Lee’s Battle Flag during The War of Norther Aggression. To some, it’s a symbol of Hate. To others it’s a symbol of Rebellion. To others, it’s a symbol of Southern Pride. And to others it is a part of our collective American History. To the Democrats, it’s all about that Southern Pride. The Democrats with deep ties to Racism and all it’s ugly collateral that goes with it, loved the “Dixie Flag”. Bill Clinton’s campaign used the hell out of it. So did so many Democrats around the south. Personally, to me, it’s the Rebellion. The standing up to and fighting against the Federal Government. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT WAS.
I don’t care if you like it or not. You don’t have to like it. But you should respect it. Before you call for it’s removal, you should understand it’s significance. Censuring that flag as a symbol of hate is just ignorant. Especially when other things are not censured. Such as the Swastika. Che Guevara T-Shirts. Censuring one and not all… means your offended Self Absorbed Holier than Thou situational Moral High Ground is a Fraud. It’s False. So that means that you are either ignorant or dishonest. One or the other… maybe both. If we’re going to censure hate – there’s so much out there that also needs to be censured. And if that’s what you’re wanting to do… Then you become one of those tyranical, hysterical book burners and you’ve just become that very thing you’ve been against. Congratulations, you slobbering moron.
Own your History. Learn from your History. And don’t Repeat the bad History.
These people have no principles.
To them, “1984” is an instruction manual.
This is going to get worse. I need a new gun.
You don’t get it Ogre. It goes like this for the left: Something terrible happened, so you HAVE to give me something I want, even though it has nothing to do with the terrible event. And we FALL for it every damn time.
It’s because of the Media.
Call me paranoid of you wish, but more and more I feel like eradicating the culture of the groups they disagree with won’t be enough for the Social Progressives, that sooner or later they’ll move on to the groups themselves.
I’ve visited Mauthausen-Gusen. I’ve seen the end result of that kind of unbridled hatred with my own eyes. And I don’t care if by some miracle I don’t wind up on that list: I will fight to my last bullet, my last blade, and my last breath to keep that from happening here.
I thought that this country ruled by majority rule, not by the minority just because they have the biggest mouths and whine the loudest to get what they want. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of southerners would want to keep the flag, but because the loud minority is offended they have to get their way.
Of course now that the flag is pretty much “officially” a symbol of hate the people who choose to fly them on their own property are now identified as racists no matter why they decide to display the flag.
I always considered that flag to be a symbol of treason; those that flew it wanted to secede from the nation after all. As far as our history as a nation goes, how many of us learned about the buffalo soldiers, or the Tuskegee airmen in school? Ask a black man about how much of our history is taught in school. Hell, I was fully grown when I found out we put Japanese Americans in prison camps during WWII.
I need a new gun as well.
Sure, it’s a flag of treason, what do you think, King George thought of the American flag? Depends on where you are.
It’s only treason if you lose.
Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.
-Harington
Issue of slavery aside, (which Lincoln didn’t really address till later in the war when he was losing), the institution itself was dying from pressure from the North and activists, Britian had stopped transshipment of slaves via sea for instance using her navy and it was evil and needed to be destroyed….I am still waiting for somebody to explain to me what constitutional or legal principle Lincoln used to justify mass machine assembly line style killing. The south was comprised of states that entered into a voluntary union why was mass slaughter justified to keep them in it?
South cecceded due to Financial burdens of special tax that did not apply N. of Mason Dixie line. Slavery issue was a rationalization. The articles of confederation prescibed no sanctions for a break up.
I don’t see any in the more recently adopted Constitution ither….
AMEN!
gfa
Well said, George. Well said. And for the record I like most of the comments as well. Carry on gentlemen.
As a native Mississippian whose state flag prominently pictures the Confederate Battle Flag in its upper corner, I was one to have supported a change in the flag when we voted on this in 2001. I still support that change.
But I completely agree with George that there is important history which needs to be remembered and which can be lost when we engage in politically correct “cleansing” of reminders of our past.
To me, as a graduate of the University of Mississippi that flag carries a very important historical significance. It happened to be the regimental colors of the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia. One company of that regiment. the first, “Company A” or the “University Greys” consisted of the entire student body of the school. All of them. Enlisted together, shipped of to Virginia and fought in the campaign there.
On July 3, 1863 in what was later called “Picket’s Charge” that company sustained the highest unit casualty rate of any unit in the entire three day battle: 100%. Every student participating in that charge either died on the field of battle that day or was so severely wounded as to be unable to continue to fight — even those captured were wounded.
It was for that reason that the University adopted the colors of the 11th as its symbol. It had nothing to do with any underlying social or political issue. We need to remember these things.
Of course, the University has since abandoned the flag as any official symbol and disfavors its display during sporting events, so as not to offend. I understand that it can offend and I also agree that it should not have any “official” status, given that the University is public.
But, we can go too far. In doing so, we forget important events from our past.
In doing so, we forget who we are.
Symbols of hatred? Evil people have adopted various symbols throughout history to justify their evil actions. If we ban all such symbols used by various hate groups through history we would no longer be able to fly the flag of the USA, display the Christian cross or Star of David or be able to read the Koran or the Holy Bible.
The sad thing is how this Confederate Battle Flag controversy illuminates just how dumbed-down our education system has become. Most people today seem to be clueless of their history and the lessons it should have taught us all. Proves the axiom about being doomed to repeat that history, doesn’t it.
Well said George.
This attack on southern culture is disgusting beyond words. Ft. Bragg was named after my ancestor, I wonder how long it will be until that is changed.
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Nothing revives an antique cause like the tardy persecution of its symbols.
——————————————————————————
Penned in the days following Appomattox…
______________________________
The Conquered Banner
By Abram Ryan
“Poet Priest of the South”
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“Abram Joseph Ryan was a catholic priest, poet, and strong believer in the Confederate cause. He wrote “The Conquered Banner” shortly after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in 1865. The poem first appeared in the New York Freemen, a pro-Confederate newspaper, on June 24, 1865.”
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/amverse/BAD9548.0001.001/1:73?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
“According to historian John McGreevy, the poem became one of the most popular of the post-war era and made Ryan famous. Southerners sympathized with Ryan and recognized that their cause had ended in defeat. The poem proved to be timeless, as it remained popular in the South through the turn of the century.”
https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/5780