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The US flag is ugly, like most flags. I assume the process of selecting a flag is as petty, corrupt, and messy as anything else in government. Respecting and pledging allegiance to a flag starts at silly and gets scary when the pledge is required. Proudly waving other flags is equally silly.
The design of the American flag is given to New Jersey Congressman Francis Hopkinson and was adopted as the U.S. flag on June 14th, 1777, today we call that day "Flag Day".
If you haven't studied history of the United States I can see why you think the flag is ugly and a silly idea, but for those of us that have served under this flag it is anything but ugly and silly. It is what this flag represents that matters most, just ask those in Europe who were liberated by the U.S. military forces during WWI and WWII, ask them what the American flag means to them. A lot of young people today see it as a symbol of oppression, bigotry and hatred, but of course, they only hear one side of its story. This flag may not mean much to you, but for me it means the hopes and dreams of all those who have come before and the countless generations of those who will come after. I just hope that the American people are smart enough to understand the difference between being an American and being a member of a political party, the two are completely different.
We should not eradicate history, just because some find it offensive. Eradicating history removes it from the minds of those who shall live in the future. And then, history can repeat itself. We should not forget.
If you need the Battle Flag of Northern Virginia to remember that there was a Civil War and the South lost the war, then I guess that war and who won/lost just isn't all that important to you afterall. For the rest of us - we don't need the flag to know about it.
I can remember a day when the rebel flag was really about rebellion, and came to symbolize any kind of rebellion. Billy Idol, Tom Petty, and Lynard Skynard all used the rebel flag to that effect.
But now, it means something more hateful...and I can respect that, and live in the present, and know that many people find it distasteful.
It's actually the other way around. The flag you refer to as the rebel flag - that most people refer to as "THE Confederate flag" (emphasis on the word "the" to distinguish it from "a")...
is a very specific flag. It isn't the Confederate Flag. It isn't the primary symbol of the confederacy, or of the Civil War.
It is the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. One specific army of one specific state.
It came to symbolize something much more hateful - the symbol of the south's interest in owning other human being as slaves and rejection of those humans' humanity. What's worse - many slave owners who insisted that these slaves weren't human, and therefore weren't entitled to the rights of fellow humans - would rape these slaves, who would become pregnant and give birth to children who were then taken away from them and sold, or kept as "house slaves" if they were pale enough.
They considered these slaves as animals. And they raped what they believed were animals.
Filthy, disgusting - debauchery, everything their so-called religion stood against. Sex with animals. Unless they were lying and really did consider them to be humans, but wanted to justify owning them so pretended to believe they were animals.
This is what that flag came to stand for - the dominion over other humans as chattel to be bought, sold, traded, raped, killed, tortured, whipped, shackled, hung - however their owner saw fit.
At some point, it stopped standing for that, and became a generic "southern pride" flag. Southerners tried to - eradicate history - by retconning the entire Civil War, renaming their flags, pretending it wasn't about exactly what it was about.
Now, it's come full circle and we realize that the ORIGINAL meaning of these flags needs to be remembered.
There has been a bunch of stuff in the news lately about the protests, the confederate flag, and confederate statues. Let's consider something.
The American flag stands for the US Constitution. As a part of that Constitution is the right to assemble and protest. So, the protesters are displaying a critical part of what it means to live in America. It celebrates the US flag.
Now, let's remember history. There were a group of people that hated American so much that they broke away from America. To add insult to injury, they went so far as to OPENLY REJECT the American flag and created their own flag. The confederate flag.
History tells us that the confederate flag is a clear symbol of anti-Americanism. That's the logical conclusion. So why are folks defending it and the confederate statues? The confederate soldiers fought AGAINST AMERICA.
My husband was a career military officer, spent most of his career on bases in southern states, and never said a thing about it to me. He, we, were born in Pennsylvania. He studied political science in college.
No flag ever fought in a war, or took a bullet, or ever took a breath of air. Better to put value and symbolism in living things, than manufactured cloth rectangles.
I think the Confederate flag to most has nothing to do with promoting slavery but everything to do with identifying as a rebel.
No Southern guy is going to secede from America even if Biden is elected... they Love America but they also love the heritage of the South (there is so much more to it than slavery and racism) and the pride of being a Rebel with displaying that confederate flag.
Living in Mass. we live under old Glory but we have another popular flag that was inspired during the Revolutionary War and that is a yellow one with a snake on it that reads "Don't Tread on Me" .
Of course the ultimate "rebel" flag is the skull and cross bones that Pirates used to hoist. I wonder when the mob will come for that one or the "don't tread on me" one. When you think about it both were used and flew over indentured and owned humans so why not??
Please expand on that .... I want to have a good laugh
When Lincoln met with a black delegation of ministers to propose his "recolonization" of blacks to Africa, he told them them that if it were not for the black race in America the war would have never of happened.
Here is his address to the Black Minister delegation.
“You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated.”
“I do not propose to discuss this, but to present it as a fact with which we have to deal,” Lincoln continued. “I cannot alter it if I would. It is a fact, about which we all think and feel alike, I and you.”
The address continues but for the sake of your post I just highlighted his remark about the Civil War.
“See our present condition—the country engaged in war!—our white men cutting one another’s throats, none knowing how far it will extend; and then consider what we know to be the truth. But for your race among us there could not be war, although many men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or the other. Nevertheless, I repeat, without the institution of Slavery and the colored race as a basis, the war could not have an existence.”
Lincoln did have a change of heart, when drafting the Emancipation Proclamation he realized that both blacks and whites were in the struggle for the saving of this nation.
Should we demand that Georgia change its State flag? The Georgia State flag is modeled on the Confederate States National Flag. The only difference between the 2 flags is that Georgia inserted its State Seal into the center of the Confederate National Flag canton.
When Lincoln met with a black delegation of ministers to propose his "recolonization" of blacks to Africa, he told them them that if it were not for the black race in America the war would have never of happened.
1. He was trying to send them to Panama
2. I don't see what's wrong with sending them to another country where they will be free from Southern slavery
3. He can't send people to other countries that are "owned" by somebody else
A lot of flaws on that story
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