Ironic that Flag Day was less than a week ago, here in the US …
In the wake of the Charleston killings, a lot of people pointed at the proud location of a Confederate battle flag on the statehouse grounds, noting it as a symbol of a civil war fought to preserve a nation of slavery and racial hatred.
That criticism came hot and heavy enough that there was an inevitable backlash. "What, a flag killed those people? No, that's a distraction! We have to deal with the problem of …" and then fill in a problem that's arguably more proximate to the cause.
But while there's some merit in the argument, it's not that simple. Flags are important (especially, it seems, in the US) as important symbols. If not, why fly them at all at the statehouse? They represent a variety of values, some of them individual, many of them corporate. They tie folk (or tribes of folk) together. Just as they originally serve to do, to mark territory or to rally troops around. Our national anthem is about a flag. We pledge allegiance to flags. People have died for flags. People have killed for them.
The Confederate battle flag is a very particular symbol. I have no doubt that for a lot of modern Southerners, it's a matter of some vague pride and tradition, a reference to battles fought for freedom and the like. Part of that is the lesson of faded history. Part is the mythos that has been intentionally inculcated in the region.
To my mind — and I don't seem to be alone in this — the Confederate battle flag represents treason, rebellion against just authority, in the name of a cause that had at its roots the oppression and slavery of an entire people. I can admire the genius and dedication of, for example, individual Confederate commanders, or even the "between one's loved home and the war's desolation" of the common Johnny Reb. I can admire the same thing about Erwin Rommel or the standard Wehrmacht grunt. But that doesn't mean the regime they fought for, and the standards they represented, and the horror they cause, aren't reprehensible blots on history.
Flags mean things.
I would not do as the German government has done, and try to erase those symbols from the past. I don't propose banning the Confederate battle flag. It is, by its nature, political expression.
But there's a difference between letting Joe-Bob fly one on his front porch and having one flying on the grounds of the state capital. There's a difference between some lady with a tattoo and Lindsey Graham saying that having a Confederate war memorial, complete with flag, on the statehouse grounds, and having a memorial to African-Americans nearby, is a reasonable "compromise".
For the state government to be involved with the display of the Confederate battle flag on its grounds (it used to fly atop the dome until the 1990s) is to have the state speaking in support of what it represents. And it is to give implicit support to the racial attitudes and the violence necessary to enforce them that led to the murders in Charleston this week.
Did the flag pull the trigger? Of course not. But what was done was implicitly done in the name of that flag and its cause. And that's part (only part, but not a trivial part) of what should be addressed.
And here is an interesting article on the history of the Confederate battle flag in modern times. Seems South Carolina first started flying it over the statehouse in 1962. Fascinating timing… http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420015/two-thoughts-confederate-battle-flag-reihan-salam
I think flags should represent, not reminisce. We don't fly a Union Jack because we were once a British colony. The southern states are no longer a part of the Confederation. Stick with flags that pertain to the present. Fly the flag of your country and your state (and if you're Sheldon Cooper, your apartment).
Scott. The SC state flag has been in use from the revolution to now and was used during The War for Southern Independence. Should that be done also . Do you know where and which flag it is. The flag flies next to the Soldier monument and the flag is the battle flag only. Most folks have no knowledge just loud voices and screaming ignorance.
I have no objection to flags that are still in use. But we don't fly the old flag with thirteen stars even though it's part of our heritage. Remember them, keep them around, revere them if you like. But don't fly flags for obsolete political entities. The Confederate flag is no more appropriate than the 18th century US flags.
+Scott Randel It is if you are trying to revive the sentiment (or how you envision the sentiment) of the era in question (cf. the use of the Gadsen flag by the Tea Partiers).