So-called patriots in the Senate recently wasted 2 days debating an amendment to the Constitution which would have banned flag desecration. In all honesty, I believe that most of these holier than thou nationalists could give a flying fricassee about the stars and stripes. Indeed, I suspect that many of them are far more loyal to this flag and all that it represents:
The claim is often made by its supporters that this symbol of slavery, racism and prejudice represents “heritage” not hate. That is, it’s just a source of regional pride, and respect for ancestors who fought to defend their way of life once upon a time. To which I have a nice, succinct reply: Bullshit.
Make no mistake, this “heritage flag” is all about hate in the minds of its adherents. And they are far more loyal to what it represents, than they are to the principles of freedom and equality which are the hallmarks of our Constitution, as amended.
(cont.)
That qualification, “as amended,” is important, for the Constitution as originally drafted upheld the right to own slaves, and did not extend the right to vote to minorities. That did not occur until after a bloody civil war and the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. The ability to exercise that vital right, however, was suppressed in many states for the next hundred years until passage in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 mandated federal protection of the right to vote for African-Americans and other minorities.
Yet, it was the Civil War which irrevocably changed what the Stars and Stripes represents. No longer was it the mere flag of a loose union of former British colonies. Instead, our flag became the true symbol of freedom, justice and equality for all people, because our Constitution now required that those principles being given the force of law. For a long time we, as a nation, failed to live up to those, not just ideals, but Constitutional requirements, but we couldn’t abandon them completely no matter how hard we tried. The wheel of history grinds slowly, but it does progress when you point yourself down the right path.
Those who disagreed with the new, improved version of America, did not go quietly into the night. They raised up an old banner from that horrible civil war as a symbol of the America they had lost, and would seek to regain again. An America that would celebrate the dominion by white protestant men over all others who call this land their home. An America that would forever keep the womenfolk and the “colored”, the Catholics and the Jews, the Asians and Latinos, in their proper, subservient place beneath the boot heels of white christian men.
For over a hundred years they held back the forces of progress, until the evil of their racist ideology could no longer be squared with the ideals which our nation claimed to espouse. After the brutality and horror of the Second World War, where militaristic regimes in Germany and Japan ran roughshod over the planet, killing and murdering their “racial inferiors” with impunity, America could no longer tolerate the skeletons in its own closet that the Stars and Bars had come to represent.
Now, after a long journey in the wilderness, these bigots once more seek to bring their vision of America to fruition. The signs are everywhere: from Congress’ failure to reauthorize the Votings Rights Act, to the active recruitment by our armed forces of white supremacists and Neo-nazis. From organizations like Stop the ACLU which targeted a Jewish family and forced them to flee from their home in fear, to leading conservatives who gleefully “joke” about bringing death and mayhem to their political opponents.
These “conservatives” may claim to be American patriots, but the flag they worship is not this one:
This flag, the only American flag, cannot be desecrated by being burnt, or spit upon, or trampled underfoot. It can only be desecrated if we surrender our most cherished values, and abandon our Constitutionally protected rights out of fear or hatred. For it is only when we put into practice the values and beliefs of those who fly the Stars and Bars — a flag that stands for everything the I despise: injustice, inequality and violence in support of irrational hatred for those who are different — that we truly bring shame and dishonor upon our Nation’s flag. And upon ourselves.
Why didn’t they have you on Cspan……oh yeah, you aren’t a Senator yet. Man do I not buy into that whole Heritage not Hate thing down here either. Gimmee a break, pick a different symbol of Southern heritage. I’d even wear a silly antebullum dress made out of old drapes a couple of times a year if they would cash that silly rebel flag in!
Oh, Miss Tracy! You look divine. I hope the corset isn’t too uncomfortable.
I hadn’t let myself even consider the comfort part, so divine is she.
But since it is a Friday, I’ll take my whoppins for my chauvinist thoughts, humming Randi Rhodes’ (courtesy of Rusty Warren) theme song for Fridays: “Bounce your Boobies”.
LOL
Heritage OF Hate is more accurate.
the art of understatement (from the Times link):
Really? SkinHeads in the Army? Who’d a thunk it.
But I guess they gotta git trained up for the ‘beer-hall putsch’ somewhere.
I just laid in another couple of hundred rounds.
Suggest you do the same.
but the racist skinheads have commandeered the term and culture of skinheads, so that all skins are supposed to be neo-Nazis now.
I remember walking down the street in the Haight (again, 1980s, during the height of some publicized skinhead activity against blacks in the area) and passed one guy wearing a black leather studded jacket sitting down with his friends, who suddenly said, “Hi.”
I was surprised. I turned back, looked at him in the eye, and said, “Hi.”
Another skinhead up the block gave me some directions to where I needed to go. I thanked him and he smiled.
Yes, I know that skinheads are supposed to be nonconformist, clannish, anarchistic, street fighters, and turf protectors. They’re also supposed to be Nazis. And some are just assuming the pose, looking for something.
I say we start ripping the flag off their vehicles, their govt offices… because they don’t follow it’s laws… they don’t cherish rights and America.
Instead of just symbolically taking it back.. why not strip them of it.
“You sir/ma’am disgrace that flag!!!” or something like that.
I just want to rip it of their lapels, their antennas and their platforms.
Wow. Of course I know this, but the way you expressed it just hit me between the eyes. Very powerful.
comments I heard during this abuse of U.S. Senate time was during a radio interview. To paraphrase:
I had never looked at it that way, and I found it a refreshingly simple way to explain to misguided individuals who buy into the Republican agenda of distraction over symbols, instead of worrying of ideals and actions.
Very nice diary; well written.
Despite the fact that at least three of my ancestors died as Confederate troops in the Civil War (one in the prisoner of war camp in “Hellmira”, NY), any of the flags of the Confederacy represent the following:
Heritage, my ass, is right. The Civil War, like the war in Iraq, was a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” Those who could afford to hired poorer men to answer for their conscription. Think about W getting his draft notice for Vietnam and hiring a poor guy from Tyler, TX to serve for him for $300. Wait a minute, he did not even have to do that.
Continuing the charade of calling this flag a part of Southern heritage is like calling the Swastika flag a part of Bavarian heritage. Unfortunately, the victorious United States of America never did anything like the de-Nazification that occurred in postwar Germany.
Yes, it was a heritage of quasi-feudalism. Why anyone would wish to return to that era is beyond me.
Btw, I am told by an aunt whose passion is geneology that I had several ancestors who fought on both sides of the war, though I do not know how many (if any) were killed in it.
Good for you THD!
And doesn’t the displaying of that emblem of treason dishonor the many thousands of Southerners who fought for the Union?
I’d rather see a flag burned… than see another child, raped woman or anyone shot in the face and then BURNED.
Why oh why are people so concerned and so passionate about a piece of fabric rather than the what makes up the fabric of humanity.
Oh Jesus–I almost barfed. Literally.
OK, catching breath…it’s just such a large image. Clearly I’ve seen (and every friggin’ time I go home) continue to see it but still. I thought some wingnut hacked the site.
The Confederate battle flag was resurrected in the ’50s as a counter-symbol to the Civil Rights movement. It had nothing to do with “heritage”, it was about putting the blacks back in their place. People who claim otherwise are ignorant or lying. Or, in the case of George Allen, both.
But you knew that. The funny thing is most white Southerners insist indignantly that they don’t have a racist bone in their body. Talk about desegregation with these same people and they oppose it because blacks are inferior and it isn’t safe to go to school with them. They have no concept of logic at all, sometimes I feel like I’m living in a nation full of morons.
One of the many, many reasons I loathe and despise George Allen. My favorite california confederate.
The funny thing is most white Southerners insist indignantly that they don’t have a racist bone in their body.
Lots of folks say that. Far as I can tell it depends entirely on shifting and specialized definitions of what constitutes racism. (as in, “I’m not racist, I’ve never burned a cross on any body’s lawn”) That’s why it’s an exceptionally bad idea to let the dominant race and gender define what is sexist and what is racist.
Barack Obama might take some care when he starts lecturing us on the need to embrace other folk’s notions of ‘faith’ too. ‘Faith’ has done more to bolster and institutionalize the cruelest forms of racism (and sexism too for that matter) than it’s been used to alieviate or counteract these traits and the current day is no exception…
to have a racist bone in their bodies until it’s time for yard work! I do my own yard work……..I guess I’m just yankee scum!
Kick this flag, go ahead.
Seeing the stars and bars always sends a chill up my spine. Seeing it with the word “Redneck” emblazoned across it, well, yeah. That was not photoshopped into the photo.
Spotted this pair in Lancaster, PA while on the campaign trail with Chuck Pennacchio on March 18th, 2006.
Taken all of about 70 miles from Gettysburg. How fucking lovely.
Like they care that they’re 70 miles away from Gettysburg.
Some parts of PA are full of holy-moes…and you guessed it, nonentities like this guy in the white (probably not a co-inky-dink) truck.
When I was coming home on the Muni Metro in San Francisco one night (early 1980s), a couple of supremacists decided to display their white-power jackets and teeshirts on the platform. Do you know that the rest of the whites, Latinos, Asians and blacks gradually moved over to one side and allowed these idiots to prance about? Because that’s all they wanted to do. And provoke someone to throw a fist at them.
We all looked at each other, and at them. Until they hopped on their train.
I’ll continue to watch shows like Blue Collar Comedy for instance. It likes rednecks and black people. They’re even in the audience. However, the minute someone like Larry the Cable Guy starts showing that flag on the air, I’m not watching.
The whole thing boils down to telling them this:
“Don’t make us kick your ass again!”
I used it frequently when working in Austria, when the drunk next to me decided to ‘get real’ (happened nightly).
Don’t get it wrong, Euros still have the same problems. You can kill their grandfathers and their great-grandfathers, but you can’t kill the hate. You can only dominate and control it.
It is time to ‘settle’ the south. Pick a state and flood it with Dems in trailers. You may be able to pull it off with a bunch of RVs, so then you can just redistrict and move on to the next state. Someone should talk to FEMA about all those trailers.
who supports the confederate flag?
is that when they get their cool flag out to show I’m thinking I’ll have to get the drapes out. Then we’ll have to have drape gown sewing get togethers and then we’ll have to have drape gown fashion shows. Look at what women have done to lunch all over America with that red dress purple hat thing…..you try to go out for a nice quiet sandwich and you get run down by a bunch of scarlet peacocks. Women in large groups with clothing on their minds have amazing powers! By the time I’m done, seeing a rebel flag will mean a girl immediately feels a very strong need and desire to buy a new dress and that always means new shoes too don’t cha know……..they’ll be hiding those bastards so fast! Before you know it….they’ll have forgotten all about that silly ole flag!
Honoring the Confederate flag honors armed insurection against the United States in support of slavery. I often wonder ho these patriots square that conradiction?
That further explains why liberals must embrace theAmerican flag,
Wave the flag of Reason, burn the red rag of treason!