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Originally Posted by flstf
I assume you are equating the display of the CSA battle flag as something offensive to some people like giving someone the finger would be. I hope you also understand that tearing it down offends those of us who wish to honor our ancestors bravery as well.
It is truly a shame that the memory of these brave men should be tainted because some radical minority hate group like the KKK have displayed it. It is disappointing that some people have let the actions of a few hate groups determine the meaning of the symbol.
Once people decide the symbol is negative they begin to re-invent history. As an example of this just read some of the misinformed posts in this forum.
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I'm not sure that I do understand the offense at 'tearing it down'. I mean, sure, if they were litterally tearingit down and treating it disrespectfully, sure, but that's not the case here. Let me be clear, as I understand it, the symbology we are discussing (primarily the name 'Confederate Memorial Hall' to be clear) is specifically related to the CSA or Confederacy, which is a very time-specific entity. It did not exist outside of the years 1861-1865. The Confederate flag and Confederate symbology does not reflect southern history prior to this period, although it would of course be silly to ignore the importance of those years on the history of the south. It is fair to say that no time before or since better represented what the 'south' means to a lot of people.
The defense that we need to maintain these symbols to honor the dead doesn't really hold water. Symbols aren't needed to maintain honor. Germany honors her war dead without needing to display Third Reich symbology or give Nazi effects any kind of place of honor to maintain the honor of those soldiers who fell for their country.
I make the comparison to Nazi Germany not to try and say that the CSA rivalled Hitler's evil or even was that kind of country at all. It is because, like the CSA, the Third Reich was a very time-specific entity. The flag of Nazi Germany, like the flag of the CSA, was not a historical symbol, but instead one crafted during the period and which only flew over a very brief and delineated period of history.
With these kind of symbols, it is hard to tell somebody to ignore the bast body of what they stood for and allow them to be displayed as some kind of memorial. The simple fact is that a lot of people do not want those types of things memorialized. They don't want to honor what they consider a criminal and treasonous confederacy which rose up in arms against their nation, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of American citizens. They don't want to honor the fact that this was done primarily over whether or not states should have the right to maintain slavery or whether the federal government had the authority to interfere in states affairs on that matter, even if it was a matter or precident and/or principle.
In the end, most people understand that symbols aren't really used to maintain the honor of the deceased, but instead to keep alive the ideals that they stood for. Given that these ideals are in a great number of ways counter to what many Americans hold, and to those upheld in our Constitution, when it comes to public places of honor, it is not necessarily appropriate to put Confederate symbology up.
In the case of this school, they are a private institution and have the right to fly Confederate flags if they desire. They also have the right to do the opposite.
Josh