Burn that flag

Rant alert. Any views expressed here are my own and do no represent my family, friends or employers.  I maintain the ability to be objective in my professional work and strive for fairness in any coverage I contribute to.  

An old high school friend and I were discussing politics years ago on Facebook via private messages. I was probably defending President Obama's policy on something. Near the end of our exchange he gave me a backhanded compliment. He said, “You know, I gotta give you credit. You are the only liberal who doesn't call me a racist whenever arguing politics.” In the moment I didn't feel patronized, I only said, “Well you didn't say anything racist.” Later on I thought about our conversation and wished I would have told him, “You are the only conservative that doesn't say racist things all of the time,” just to see how he would have reacted to that cheeky reply. But it's one of those “what I should have said” moments. Everybody comes up with awesome comebacks after the fact.

He was being a smart ass and I guess was frustrated that I was at worst holding my own. He probably tried to goad me into “playing the race card.” I didn't and he gave a sarcastic pat on the back. What gets me is that I continually see “the other side” play the race card, but when one brings up a disparity in context at an appropriate time it's as if they used it as a crutch. As if the right is allowed to use racial differences as a stone to throw, but the left doesn't play fair when we use the racial divide as a shield. I guess that's not a right offered to the oppressed.

I'm sorry, but you know what? I'm not sorry. My eyes involuntarily roll when I hear about how bad white Christian hetero sexual men have it. Give me a friggin' break. Especially in regards to so-called “preferences” minorities enjoy. "Oh, it's not fair!"  What's not fair? That in some cases, not that many, minorities get help? Get over it. Affirmative action and Civil Rights have been the law of the land for how many years? 50? As opposed to hundreds of years of cruel treatment and no rights? I mean remember that the South got to count slaves as three-fifths of a person. Why three-fifths a person? So the South could have “adequate representation” in Washington. They had slaves with very little rights and no representation. But they depended on those same slaves to help them get MORE disproportionate rights at the Federal level. They used slaves like a golfer has a handicap. What the hell? Those three-fifths of a person got them extra representatives and a boost in the electoral college. And they still lost the electoral vote in 1860!

Hell, slavery ended. Blacks should be happy with that. But reconstruction fell through and we got Jim Crow for 70 years. I know, I know, “get over it.” I mean I just said it a couple paragraphs ago. But how does one wipe out all of that evil in less than three generations? You don't. Sorry. And the same racists (I'm sorry, some of them are just racist sympathizers) talk about Democrats and the Klan or Democrats and the South during the Civil War. Bravo. The Republicans had the moral high ground until 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights act under Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. Many aspects of that same Civil Rights Act are under attack (and even destroyed) by conservatives in Congress and the courts these last two years.

But they will still claim proudly that they are the Party of Lincoln. Lincoln being the best, or second best (behind Reagan) president in history. Yet they cannot admit what the Civil War was primarily about. Here's a hint:

“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth.” -From Mississippi's declaration of secession

“Our new government is founded upon exactly [this] idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. “ -Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy

What was the war about again? State's rights? Like as in a state's right to allow slavery.

And the Confederate Flag...er....I mean Confederate Battle Flag. It astounds me to see so-called patriots waving the Stars and Bars. You don't love the USA ya schmuck. You love the idea of Dixie. Good ole boys sippin' sweet tea watching colored folk sweat and bleed.

If it's about heritage, why pick that as your symbol for Southern pride? Why pick a flag which existed only during the war and brought back in the 1950's in defiance of the Civil Rights movement? Heritage not hate? Really? Decent folk would not wear that rag around knowing it genuinely hurts people, makes them cringe.

A slavery apologist says it harkens back to a simpler time. A time before outhouses when hookworms plagued the south. Slavery is an evil institution and the flag is clearly a symbol associated with it. Yeah, Africans owned slaves and helped slavers acquire them, profited off of them. So what? That doesn't make slavery any better. And it wasn't a racial thing justified by a couple cherry picked versus in the Bible. It was a military and political thing. Evil, sure, but that does not give permission to absolve or justify or condone it one bit.

The good guys won the Civil War. The bad guys lost. Get over it.

The recent tragedy in Charlottesville Virginia has both put a positive look on elected Republican politicians not named Donald Trump, and confirmed the fears about the Right Wing and their enablers. I am encouraged and disgusted by their actions in the wake of the terror attack.

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My sister and me, August 1984.

If I had to pick a single song to be the soundtrack to this post it would be...