I don’t understand how one nutcase with a picture of a Confederate flag can cause so much uproar over a silly piece of cloth, and the history behind it. I’m more worried about how that idiot got a gun than that flag. Obviously, getting rid of that flag will solve the problem of murderous, bigoted pricks shooting innocent people in our society.
If it’s “well and good” then let’s do it. No, it’s not directly connected to Roof and played no part in the shooting. The shooting and S. Carolina capitol imagery gave people reason to pause and think “You know what? That we’re flying this at all is pretty fucked up” and re-evaluate something that’s coasted by on momentum and casual acceptance of racism.
It doesn’t need to be connected to roof, it stands on its own merits. Roof’s actions were just the catalyst to make people think about it. While it won’t bring anyone back to life, it is nice to think that Roof’s attempts to instigate a race war resulted in people honestly evaluating a symbol of racism and judging it as deplorable.
The colonies were committing treason against the crown.
But they never claimed the crown were the aggressors, and they were just defending themselves. They claimed they were under a tyrant and fought it. And won.
And if they’d lost, you wouldn’t see American flags flying on British government grounds with the bullshit excuse, “It’s heritage!”
A nitpick, but I’ll concede the point. I’ll amend my post to “I won’t argue that if the Confederacy hadn’t started a war, the United States wouldn’t have eventually done so.”
Yeah, that romanticizing didn’t begin with GWTW, but GWTW certainly helped spread it far and wide. The book sold >30 million copies (and counting; the damned thing is still popular), and the movie has also been seen by tens of millions of Americans.
Scarlett didn’t give one fuck about the Cause, but Mitchell certainly did, and that comes through loud and clear in the book. Especially when it came to Reconstruction, which she (in her narrative voice) described as a worse evil than the war itself. And while it’s impossible to actually portray Reconstruction as being more destructive than the war, her slanted portrayal of Reconstruction paints a picture of poor helpless Southerners being victimized by an unholy alliance of Carpetbaggers and freed Negroes.
(I re-read GWTW for the first time in 40 years, several months back, so my recollections of the book are fresh in mind.)
Thanks for bringing this up. Lincoln was exceedingly careful throughout his Presidency to avoid doing anything that would remotely appear to recognize the Confederacy as a nation rather than an illegitimate rebellion.
Indeed. Certainly we could name a few forts after Presidents and Vice-Presidents who were from the South but were not Dixiecrats and the like. Could rename Fort Benning, GA after Jimmy Carter, a couple of the Virginia bases after Bill Clinton and Al Gore since there aren’t any Tennessee or Arkansas bases on this list, and rename Ft. Hood, TX after…(drumroll)…George W. Bush. Let Texas own his stupidity.
ETA: Forgot LBJ. We can rename a base after him too.
I find it odd that the primary result of Dylann Roof’s murder spree has been to launch debates about a completely unrelated topic. But then, that’s been the result of MOST murder sprees in the recent past, hasn’t it?
The Columbine massacre’s chief result was huge growth in the anti-bullying movement. Even though bullying had absolutely NOTHING to do with Klebold and Harris’ crime!!!
The shooting of Congresswoman Gabbi Gifford led to cries for “civility” among conservative political commentators. Even though the shooter had never listened to any conservative political commentators!
And now, a shooting spree has led to arguments about the Confederate flag. Even though the Confederate flag does NOT fly over any state buildings in South Carolina and hasn’t in decades!
When the Confederate flag was removed from state buildings in Columbia, South Carolina, keeping the flag by a monument to the Confederate dead was seen as a reasonable compromise. I STILL think it’s a pretty reasonable compromise.
Why don’t you use the original flag of the CSA–the Stars & Bars? It’s historically correct but does not have quite the racist baggage as the Battle Flag.
