The Confederate flag means different things to different people. To some, it represents Southern heritage, independence and defiance of the federal government's never ending quest to destroy state's rights.
To others, it represents a civil war where those represented by the flag fought for the continuance of slavery in this country. Some who believe in the former meaning of the flag dismiss its representing slavery. I believe to them it does not represent slavery but while there may have been other causes for the Civil war it cannot be denied that slavery would not have been abolished soon after the war if the South had won.
I am not from the South so the Confederate flag has no meaning for me and thus, I have no reason to fly it. Even if I was from the South I would like to think I would not fly it because it does represent a dark time in our country's history and because the Confederate flag has been used by many in the past to symbolize their hatred of blacks.
I want our country to be united and I see the flag as being divisive. I frequently rail against the divisive actions of Obama and the "Unholy" Left so I would be hypocritical I did not also come out against flying the Confederate flag.
However, I will not disparage our American men who fought for the Confederacy. They are Americans and this was recognized as soon as the war ending. Grant and Lincoln both believed in treating the South with dignity and respect to heal our country. I follow their lead.
I will not fly the flag and I will honor all American veterans including those who fought for the Confederacy. We, as Americans, must challenge and question the wars our government wages, but we should always honor the men and women who fight them because as soldiers they must fight the wars their government command them to fight.
As Memorial Day approaches, a day on which those who died in active military service are remembered, let's set aside the need to further political agendas that divide. Let's mourn all those who died in service to this country.
Our country is as divided today as it was just after the Civil war. I believe Lincoln is one of our greatest Presidents and I will honor his legacy by working to unite our country.
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KTT I let them know over on CJ, I will be back haven't read this one yet. You are a good man I am ready to read other opinions on this.
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent post, KTT. The ability to see both sides of an issue seems to be an ever-diminishing trait these days. This is an excellent discussion of a surprisingly divisive issue. It probably helps that I concur with both your precepts and conclusion, but this is a good summation that, frankly, deserves wider dissemination than it is going to get here. I'll try to clue in Pike - wait, I see Sarge already did so.
ReplyDeleteKtt I am from Michigan and have very little interest in it but having said that I do respect most that do, note for some I said some that do, but my beef is and always will be destroying monuments and taking History of the Civil War out of our schools. And I reject that the south soldiers were not americans. Thanks for the blog here ktt, this way I can tell battshit to fuck off.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things about the Civil War that people believe based on poor education and never taking the time to really learn about the war.
ReplyDeleteExample. Robert E Lee never owned slaves. Ulysses S Grant did.
Both Lee and Stonewall Jackson were resistant to the war, in fact to the secession. Both wanted unification. Lee was a dedicated soldier in the US Army before the war. He was offered the command by Lincoln. He only entered the war when Virginia was invaded by the North. Same with Stonewall Jackson.
Most of the hundreds of thousands who fought for the Confederacy were not fighting for slavery, they fought because their homeland was invaded. Most of them never owned slaves nor had much to with the whole process.
Abe Lincoln didn't use the emancipation proclamation because he felt the slaves needed to be free. It was a political tool. He sat on it for quite some time, needing a victory by the Union to issue it. He never truly believed he had the authority to free the slaves, and said he if he could unify the country without doing so, he would. He emancipated the slaves for military reasons, not for humanitarian reasons.
Lincoln suspended habeas corpus illegally and imprisoned thousand of people who opposed him politically.
Lincoln is remembered with reverence and part legend, part myth and part lies like most historical figures.
When Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant, Grant ordered all his officers to show him respect. They all tipped their hats to him as he rode out of camp.
When Lincoln announced the end of the war, he asked the band to strike up Dixie, saying he never knew a more beautiful song.
Those who label the South as terrorists and such only exhibit their own ignorance of the facts. Lincoln and Grant wanted nothing more than to put the war behind them and reunite the Union. They both told the country in some form these men are your fellow citizens and we are now at peace. Those who deny that deny the beliefs of the people who actually fought the war and lived through it.
It's always easy to judge people from 150 years ago by today's standards and morals. But it's wrong. There is a lot to learn about this war, if you desire to learn. If you only want to demagogue those who lived through it, well that's your own ignorance on display.
All good stuff but your statement about judging the actions that occurred 150 years ago by today's standards is powerful.
DeleteI will add that many people are selective in doing this. For example they condemn Columbus and the South but praise the American Indians without regard that they invaded neighboring tribes to kill, rob, pillage and to take slaves.
The same with tribes in Africa.
Let's recognize that we as a nation has evolved and that the rules in place at the time of the action should be used to judge those who committed them. Doesn't mean we embrace the action just means we recognize the times in which they lived.
Safe or someone else answer this for me.
DeleteAt the time of the Civil war wasn't Slavery still legal? If so, wasn't the federal government overreaching in their actions?
SSAH, when I have a chance I am posting that on cj with all credit to you as alway. :)
ReplyDeleteKTT, slavery was legal, mostly. It's very complicated. The Northern states had freed the slaves. The South had not. The real issue was over the expansion of America. Kansas was at the center of it because we were poised to become a state. The North wanted us as a free state, the South wanted us as a Slave state. Because there was a big country yet to settle, it was generally thought that would set the precedence for how the rest of the states joined the Union. So it led to a fight.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue was escaped slaves. Slaves were considered property and there was much disagreement over whether an escaped slave could be recovered by his owner if he made it to a free state.
You are right though. The Federal government did not have the authority to set law for the states. That's what the fight was really about. The South believed they could ignore and not abide by laws they considered unconstitutional. The Federal government disagreed. It led to secession. Of course, it's much more complicated than that, but that's the thumbnail version.
By the way, when liberal cities declare themselves sanctuary cities and refuse to cooperate with Federal immigration laws, they are doing the exact same thing.
Well another one for CJ SSAH, hope I get to use them.
ReplyDeleteSSAH Just found out I will CaptHowdy plans on a blog on this subject in about two weeks.
ReplyDeleteI posted this on Cj, thought it was fitting here too.
ReplyDeleteHow many of you remember the Tiananmen Square Protests?
This event in world history has been blotted out of school books in China - there are generations of Chinese children, Chinese teens, and Chinese young adults who do not know this even happened. Why? Because it is forbidden.
Let's cross the big pond over to the USA... look what's happening here!
History is history, the Confederate Flag, Stars and Bars, good - bad - and ugly - is what it is - part of American History. You can't rewrite American History -
Rikki
ReplyDeleteGood points about remembering history and how so many young people don't know it.
Think about what Safe shared and how important it is for kids today to know and understand that states have rights and the federal government has limits. And, most importantly, that there was a time in our history that the overreach of the federal government caused this country to ignite into civil war.
We are seeing the anger that silencing people, imposing the values on them that they don't share and the federal government overstepping its authority and infringing upon states rights is causing.
Our country was set up to allow states to be different. It was designed to have a federal government with limited powers and not a national government
We have to allow people and states to be different within limits. Easier said than done because some things like slavery are wrong.
Still the message is we need to be careful or we will have another civil war.
thanks KTT
DeleteKTT, the government we have today is the government the writers of the Constitution most feared. Overreaching, exceeding it's powers "as enumerated" by the Constitution. Imposing it's will on the states and punishing them if they refuse to yield under the whip.
ReplyDeleteThe Constitution and the bill of rights was created to limit the government's power. The writers just fought a revolution to overthrow their government, that's called treason by the way. But they won. The thing they feared most was another tyranny like the British Monarchy.
Today's ungodly left imagines the ever powerful Federal government would be a great thing. Until the other side gets elected. Then you will see them crying like babies.
I don't want either side to have this kind of power.
If John and Sam Adams and Thomas Jefferson were around today they would be stockpiling ammunition for their AR15s and raising a militia for the coming fight.
You're right. Wait until president Trump does something by executive order that the left doesn't agree with. They will scream abuse of power.
DeleteThey'll scream bloody damn murder.
ReplyDeleteThey'll all the sudden be concerned about the president using a pen and his phone.
Suddenly they'll learn to love the constitution.
Piss on em.
Their beloved Barack Hussein Obama set the standards...
"Suddenly they'll learn to love the constitution."
ReplyDeleteNo...they won't. They have already learned to disrespect it, and to manipulate it into what it never meant. Remember...Obama has pretty much admitted to despising it, and so do all liberals.
They'll just keep learning new ways to keep trying to misuse it...("rights" where they never existed), to ignore it, to disrespect it..and to destroy it.
They will never EVER learn to respect it. Not as long as they are liberals, anyway. They are taught NOT to, from an early age in National Liberal Indoctrination Centers (public schools.)
About 'flags', maybe soon, I can write a little discussion about another flag that represents conquest, oppression, slavery, brutality, etc., and how Buttstache can join us in eliminating that one from the American public? (Here's a hint...it's largely green, white and red, with a symbol in the center).
Good Grief I should have did some practicing out at the summit, we maybe getting closer to that revolution than I thought damn Be prepared I say, hahaha
ReplyDeleteI think a more accurate statement is they will pretend to love the constitution. They do that now when it suits them, and dismiss it when it doesn't.
ReplyDeleteHow many times have you heard the ungodly left tell us abortion, sexual pervert rights and obamacare are settled law and found constitutional and we shouldn't even talk about it any more, when in fact neither has any basis in the constitution.
However the right to keep and bear arms, which is enshrined in the constitution in the bill of rights they just can't seem to find it. Besides, that old document was written by old white rich slaveowners so who cares what it says anyway.
The ungodly left has no principles or morals. They just go with whatever they need at the moment.
Hillary and obama were both supporters of marriage between a man and a woman. Hillary's sex abuser husband signed the law establishing it. Then when the left went full pervert they jumped right on there and pretended they never felt anything different. Hell, obama even claimed it was his Christian faith that led him to conclude marriage was between a man and a woman, which was just another lie because he certainly is no Christian and actually holds Christians in the highest contempt.
Ungodly left wingers just blow with the wind. Whatever is popular today is what they support, always have supported and always will support no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.
Shots fired by the anti American Bernie the commie supporters at a Trump rally last night. These people are a violent dangerous group of people, bent on the destruction of our country and replacing our government system with a Socialist/Communist one.
ReplyDeleteBernie the commie should be placed under arrest by Homeland Security for attempting to overthrow our government and inciting riots leading to violence. In fact the entire democrat party should be under a cloud of suspicion.
No wonder buttstash supports Bernie. He's obviously a commie in cahoots with the communist movement to overthrow our government.
These people are traitors and terrorists and should be dealt with in the harshest way possible.
Remember, a riot only sustains due to a lack of incoming fire. Let's end these Bernie the commie riots now.