The day after they announced they were going to take down the Confederate Flag in North Carolina, I almost changed the header on this blog to the stars and bars. I may still. I've railed in my mind trying to find the proper way to express myself, in writing, but haven't had much luck. Fortunately, Jazz Shaw came pretty close to putting into words my seething anger over this issue in a post at HotAir. I'm going to excerpt bits and pieces of it here and I'll add a few comments at the end:
"Speaking as one of the dead enders, I’m going to pause on this Friday evening to say that this was not a moment of national pride...this was a national embarrassment.
Congratulations to all of the Republicans who dutifully lined up to allow the SJW to redefine that flag into what they wanted and bent a knee at the new alter. Who knows? Perhaps you’ll win an election or two out of it. Probably not, though. Is there one of you out there who honestly thinks that using Dylan Roof as an excuse to tear down a few square yards of cloth is going to change anything?
The flag flew on battlefields, it’s true. And there have been some hateful folk in more recent generations who chose to adopt it to their cause. But there were many others at various times who found a different meaning. There are families who pass down memories of not only the war, but of the crushing treatment the South received in the post–Reconstruction era and the postbellum South during the late nineteenth century. Traveling in time well beyond that, many of today’s families still feel the frequent reminders of the defeat. They understand that “The South” is still the safe harbor for comedians on stage and at the local bar… the butt of the last offensive jokes which can be told without fear of censorship. The stupid, southern rednecks who listen to unpopular music, go to NASCAR races, gig frogs, wrestle gators or whatever other stereotype you wish to apply. They speak more slowly. They have funny accents. And you can treat them like lesser people without fear of the SJW coming down on your heads. They’re just southerners… they don’t know any better.
In the past few decades, long after everyone in the nation had rejected slavery and all it stood for, young people stood up and managed to find a way to embrace their unique southern heritage against the slurs and insults. You saw that flag flying in places where nobody was talking about black people or slavery or white supremacy. They were talking about loving the south and all it stood for in the modern era… pride, civility, and a sensibility born from a need to survive a crushed and broken past.
None of that had anything to do with endorsing slavery. None of it had to do with a war that happened more than a century before aside from the wreckage left behind. It didn’t matter if you were black or white as long as you remembered that you were southern. And in that we find the greatest embarrassment of all in this debate. It seems that any other demographic group in the nation can be proud of their heritage… except for The South. If you are from below the Mason-Dixon you will seemingly live in perpetuity with the scars of the antebellum past. And if anyone wants to spit on you in the gutter after you’ve been beaten down in the contest of public debate, there will be nobody to defend you. It’s always okay to make fun of the southern man. And if you want to tear down his flag or even his flagpole, the nation – and most particularly the media – will throw you a ticker tape parade.
The South – at least as defined as a unique, richly flavored heritage in the American melting pot – nearly died at the end of the 19th century. But it hung on in the tenacious way that southerners have always held on...And as they held on and regrouped through the 20th century, they had a symbol to cling to. It might not have been the best symbol, and others would obviously see it as a sigil of war, but it was the symbol they had. And they hung on to it. It grew to mean something deeper and more profound about the cultural identity of just being from The South when everyone else wanted to pretend that The South had never existed.
Now you’ve torn it down on the State Capitol grounds in one place and you’ve chopped down a metal tree which held it. I hope you’re proud of yourselves. If you’re a politician you’ve bought a few minutes of positive press from a media complex which will go back to hating you tomorrow. And you’ve earned a dark cloud over your head from those who know you sold them down the river in the name of political correctness."
Congratulations to all of the Republicans who dutifully lined up to allow the SJW to redefine that flag into what they wanted and bent a knee at the new alter. Who knows? Perhaps you’ll win an election or two out of it. Probably not, though. Is there one of you out there who honestly thinks that using Dylan Roof as an excuse to tear down a few square yards of cloth is going to change anything?
The flag flew on battlefields, it’s true. And there have been some hateful folk in more recent generations who chose to adopt it to their cause. But there were many others at various times who found a different meaning. There are families who pass down memories of not only the war, but of the crushing treatment the South received in the post–Reconstruction era and the postbellum South during the late nineteenth century. Traveling in time well beyond that, many of today’s families still feel the frequent reminders of the defeat. They understand that “The South” is still the safe harbor for comedians on stage and at the local bar… the butt of the last offensive jokes which can be told without fear of censorship. The stupid, southern rednecks who listen to unpopular music, go to NASCAR races, gig frogs, wrestle gators or whatever other stereotype you wish to apply. They speak more slowly. They have funny accents. And you can treat them like lesser people without fear of the SJW coming down on your heads. They’re just southerners… they don’t know any better.
In the past few decades, long after everyone in the nation had rejected slavery and all it stood for, young people stood up and managed to find a way to embrace their unique southern heritage against the slurs and insults. You saw that flag flying in places where nobody was talking about black people or slavery or white supremacy. They were talking about loving the south and all it stood for in the modern era… pride, civility, and a sensibility born from a need to survive a crushed and broken past.
None of that had anything to do with endorsing slavery. None of it had to do with a war that happened more than a century before aside from the wreckage left behind. It didn’t matter if you were black or white as long as you remembered that you were southern. And in that we find the greatest embarrassment of all in this debate. It seems that any other demographic group in the nation can be proud of their heritage… except for The South. If you are from below the Mason-Dixon you will seemingly live in perpetuity with the scars of the antebellum past. And if anyone wants to spit on you in the gutter after you’ve been beaten down in the contest of public debate, there will be nobody to defend you. It’s always okay to make fun of the southern man. And if you want to tear down his flag or even his flagpole, the nation – and most particularly the media – will throw you a ticker tape parade.
The South – at least as defined as a unique, richly flavored heritage in the American melting pot – nearly died at the end of the 19th century. But it hung on in the tenacious way that southerners have always held on...And as they held on and regrouped through the 20th century, they had a symbol to cling to. It might not have been the best symbol, and others would obviously see it as a sigil of war, but it was the symbol they had. And they hung on to it. It grew to mean something deeper and more profound about the cultural identity of just being from The South when everyone else wanted to pretend that The South had never existed.
Now you’ve torn it down on the State Capitol grounds in one place and you’ve chopped down a metal tree which held it. I hope you’re proud of yourselves. If you’re a politician you’ve bought a few minutes of positive press from a media complex which will go back to hating you tomorrow. And you’ve earned a dark cloud over your head from those who know you sold them down the river in the name of political correctness."
Now let my add my two cents:
As we rewrite history to remove the real cause of the Civil War, as we scour the names of Confederate Generals and leaders off schools and tear down memorials to the dead . . . who are you going to blame the next time some wack-job decides to go on a killing spree? All you cowardly, politically correct spineless conservative politicians, what will you offer up to the SJW and the media to show how you're on the supposed right side of history? A political commentator? A news channel? What? Like our current feckless President, if you keep drawing lines in the sand, then backing away from them . . . what do you stand for?
So to Nikki Haley and every so-called conservative Republican who jumped on this trumped up bandwagon -- this proud southern man says FUCK YOU!
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