I've been out of the proverbial loop for the last month. Of course, this had the unintended consequence of my many friends and family members not being privy to my opinions on all the exciting events of June 2015. The good news is, I've spend most of the day catching up and am ready to share them. Here they are:
1. The Battle Flag of The Army of Northern Virginia (aka the "Confederate Flag")
First, the flag you see on this Dodge Charger isn't the Confederate Flag. It is as stated above the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Second, my personal opinion is the flag shouldn't be flown over any government building. However, I don't live in South Carolina or anywhere in the South, so my opinion doesn't matter in that regard. If the people in those states want to fly over the state capitol building or place it on their state flag, more power to them. (See the Six Flags over Texas display in Austin which uses a lesser known, but historically correct version of the Confederate Flag)
Third, and most importantly, it concerns me that the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia has morphed into some sort of symbol that is so offensive that it must be scrubbed from existence. Assuming for the sake of argument that the Battle Flag has no value beyond being a racist symbol (I do not agree with this, but I concede it is very offensive to many people and is often used as a symbol of racism), the people who choose to display it have every right to do so for whatever reason. And, if the Battle Flag is so offensive, what symbol is next? I imagine every symbol can be offensive to some people, some of the time.
2. Same Sex Marriage
The dissents (especially the Scalia one) make some good points about the dangers of the Supreme Court acting as "super-legislature" which can by a bare majority vote overturn the democratic will of the people. I agree with those sentiments. However, the justices penning the dissents are essentially hypocrites as they have routinely found other laws unconstitutional as seen in the Citizens United and Hobby Lobby cases.
Without getting into arcane legal and bar exam-esque concepts like "rational basis" and "strict scrutiny" (and the very vague "intermediate scrutiny"), the rationales for banning same-sex are tenuous at best. The rationale of "responsible procreation" sounds great, but not all married opposite sex couples have or want kids. The religious arguments are even weaker as the legality of same-sex has nothing to do with ones religious views on marriage.
At the end of the day, it'd be optimal for same-sex marriage to enacted by legislative action and it probably would have been shortly in most states, but the holding is just making official now, what would have happened in a few years anyway.
3. The Demise of Alexander Hamilton on the $10 Bill
Apparently, the US Treasury is giving the currency version of the pink slip to Alexander Hamilton. I disagree. Hamilton was a very influential person in the founding of our country and to add icing on the cake, he served in the artillery during the Revolutionary War.
I think having a woman on a piece of currency that people actually use is a fine idea. I don't have any strong opinions as to what woman should be, I'll leave that to the feminist crowd to figure out. I do think that if anyone on paper currency should be given the pink slip, it should be Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. If you think otherwise, you are basically saying F You to every person of Native American (or American Indian or whatever the PC term is these days) descent. Read about the "trail of tears" if you any questions about that.
4. Other
I'm glad to NY prison escapees have been apprehended. I don't know what the punishment is in New York for the prisoner workers who helped them but it should be severe. I didn't read much about Obama's eulogy in South Carolina, but I guess it was controversial to some. I really couldn't care less what Obama says or doesn't say at funeral. Terms like "divisive" are meaningless political buzz words best left to the talking heads on MSNBC or Fox.
And while this is sort of related to point #1 -- I do think the Army should re-name installations named after Confederate officers. It isn't because I think they were bad people or bad officers, it is just a recognition of the simple fact, they chose to fight against the country they swore to protect. There are many, many other deserving soldiers who didn't make that choice.
5. Conclusion
It feels good to be back. Here's to a good second half of 2015.
As far as the Battle Flag goes, I can understand a very proud region wanting to hang on to the memories of valor and sacrifice that their ancestors bequeathed to them. As a Soldier, there are fine examples of courage, skill, and sacrifice in every engagement to CSA fought. However, like US Grant, I agree that there has never been a worse cause for which a nation has taken up arms. The CSA was a structure dedicated to White supremacy, as explicitly claimed by its founders. We should honor the sacrifice of the soldiers of the CSA in museums, books, video games, movies etc (and last I checked there are more books written about the Civil War than any other topic in US history), but ALWAYS remember that their cause was indefensible. There may have been fine men in the CSA, but they were in the service of an evil that was recognized by many as evil at the time. They ought to take down the flag from government buildings, even if does fly over graveyards, museums etc.
ReplyDeleteAs to the US Army bases, I disagree. In a purely military setting, many of our Soldiers are descendents (figuratively or literally) of Confegerate soldiers, and their campaign histories are part of our collective military heritage as a nation. In inculcating a martial spirit, their memories serve a good purpose in strengthening our Armed Forces. Having said that, we should always remember that they lost.
In the end this should be a teaching moment, where we can better understand the Civil War for what it was...a war to keep the Black population in an inferior position (and though the CSA may have lost the battle they may have won the peace through Jim Crow). The US victory in that war is what gave us a fighting chance to make good on the promise (not yet fulfilled) inherent in the Founders' fine words.
Excellent point on the military installations. I largely agree.
ReplyDeleteAs to the battle flag, to me it is more of military symbol but I understand how many feel it is a symbol of racism. But there are many symbols of racism --- among the flags owned by the South Carolina shooter was the Rhodesian flag (an obscure flag, and in the pantheon of racist regimes probably less offensive than a Confederate flag or Apartheid era South African flag).
Along those lines, one could easily argue a Zimbabwe flag is racist (though honestly, I doubt anyone white, black or otherwise would show much solidarity with Robert Mugabe). Same is true for a Serbian flag (Albanians, Croats ), British flag (Indians, Irish among others), and many more exmaples.
My point is society shouldn't banish the flag in some vain attempt to make a point against racism. It is part of our history and it is better to learn about it as opposed to erase any mention of its existence.