Tuesday, August 11, 2015

it's not just a flag

The confederate battle flag is now gone from government buildings in South Carolina.  There is talk, petitions, and main stream news calling for the removal of statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and any other southern hero who fought for the confederacy.  The removal of these likenesses aren't limited to government buildings, but parks, universities, schools, town squares, and any other place a member of the general public might catch a glimpse of confederate civil war history.

It seems there are people out there that think the civil war was all about slavery and nothing else and the confederate battle flag is a symbol of our racist past when every white southern man and woman owned plantations filled with black slaves working for nothing while the Scarlett O’Haras and the Rhett Butlers lived lives of royal excess.

This tunnel vision distortion of the war between the states is reason enough to remove any public reference of that evil period in American history, to let the American people heal and move forward.

Of course, removing the flag from government buildings was just the beginning.  Why stop there?  The south is loaded with statues and likenesses of great men who happened to have loyalties to their state more than the federal government.  These were the best men and soldiers this country ever produced and they sacrificed everything they had for what they believed in.

Robert E. Lee graduated second in his class at West Point.  He chose to lead the confederate states rather than take a union command and wage war on his home state, Virginia.  Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial was once Lee's home.  It overlooks the Potomac River and the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  During the Civil War, the grounds of the mansion were selected as the site of Arlington National Cemetery, in part to ensure that Lee would never again be able to return to his home.  Spoils of war, I guess.  The United States designated the mansion as a National Memorial to Lee in 1955, a mark of widespread respect for him in both the North and South. 

Winston Churchill once said "Lee was the noblest American who ever lived and was one of the greatest commanders known to the annals of war."

Two holidays have been struck from the official calendar and replaced with the innocuous term "state holiday."
A list of 2015 state holidays on Georgia's website proclaims Robert E. Lee's birthday on January 19, but notes it will be observed on November 27. It also lists Confederate Memorial Day on April 26 with its day of observance as April 27.

There's an effort in Mobile, Alabama to change a street named after Robert E. Lee.  The new name of the street hasn't been decided yet.  It seems they just want the name changed.

The University of Texas wants to move all confederate statues.  

Saying he didn't want to offend people, Bubba Watson on Friday elaborated on the rationale behind his decision to paint an American flag over the Confederate battle flag on the General Lee, the 1969 Dodge Charger featured in "The Dukes of Hazzard."

TVLand will no longer show reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard and refuses to comment if the decision had anything to do with the name of the car or paint job.

These aren't isolated events but a small part of a growing trend to re-write history by removing any and all references of southern pride with the excuse that these symbols might offend someone.  We've seen this before.

Chinese emperors routinely re-wrote history to put themselves in a better light.  Stalin sent millions to the Gulags who knew too much about Russian history.  The de-nazification and social engineering of Germany after WWII is still in place, making even talking about Hitler a crime punished by imprisonment.
The victors write the history books and they're always the good guys.

So, what's the big deal with the battle flag now?  Why is anyone remotely interested in the hyper sensitivities of a few idiots who are suddenly offended by a flag that was flying for 150 years?

Dylann Roof, what's why.  He's the guy who took some selfies holding a confederate flag before he killed nine black people in a bible study meeting in a Charleston, NC church basement.  The logic and reasoning is since he had a confederate flag, he must be a murdering racist and his flag is proof because the south was the only place on Earth that had slaves and they killed lots of Yankees to keep em.  Really?

Personally, I think the Charleston shooting was just as fake as Sandy Hook and served to launch another agenda.  The importance of the agenda is directly proportional to the level of Obama's involvement.  After Sandy Hook, Obama got on TV, wiped off non-existent tears, and went to Newtown for some photo ops.  For the Charleston shooting Obama not only went on TV with his gun control speal and went to Charleston for a photo op but did the eulogy, indicating a higher level of importance.  The primary agenda is always guns and crazy white people getting guns and doing crazy shit with guns and gun control.  Each event has a secondary agenda that isn't as clear but is definitely Hegelian in nature.

Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.  Or, problem, reaction, solution.

Problem... Crazy white racist kills black people in a southern church.

Reaction... Terror in the streets.  Race riots, race war.

Solution... Neutralize the opposition by capturing their flag.

Soldiers strongly believed they represented their home state and much of the morale of Civil War units was focused on that pride. And a state regiment typically carried its own flag into battle.

To a Civil War soldier, the loss of a regimental flag was a colossal disgrace. The entire regiment would feel shamed if the flag was captured and carried away by the enemy.

To capture the battle flag of an opponent was considered a great triumph, and captured flags were cherished as trophies. Accounts of Civil War battles in newspapers at the time would generally mention if any enemy flags had been captured.

150 years ago, a Civil War soldier's first loyalty was their home state.  Only the bravest had the honor of carrying their state's colors into battle.  South Carolina not only gave up their flag without a fight, they fought to bring it down.  Bunch of cowardly bastards sucking Washington ass, if you ask me.

Obama said he was going to fundamentally change America.  Ya think this is part of what he had in mind? 

I wonder if Obama has a confederate battle flag as a trophy.

        

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