All this talk about the Confederate battle flag has ignited a side discussion.
It deals with “heritage.”
There are those who contend that the battle flag doesn’t symbolize hatred, bigotry and enslavement. It symbolized people’s “heritage.” They say it’s a historical symbol that embodies a region’s pride.
Interesting, don’t you think?
The South Carolina Legislature’s decision to strike the flag from the statehouse grounds was a welcomed event to many of us. I cheer the fact that the flag is now down. It was put there to protest the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s.
The flag, of course, is displayed prominently at Ku Klux Klan rallies. I don’t need to remind you what the KKK stands for.
Heritage? Do we want to look at other elements of our nation’s heritage? Do we want to salute these chapters?
* Our heritage denied women the right to vote from the founding of the Republic until 1920. Do we celebrate that denial?
* U.S. heritage also contains the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during much of World War II after the Roosevelt administration decided it couldn’t trust these Americans to be loyal to their country. Hey, let’s celebrate that event, too.
* Native Americans had their land taken from them as settlers marched westward in their conquest of our continent. Oh, and those settlers slaughtered millions of head of bison along the way. Let’s honor that, too.
The word “heritage” has become almost a throw-away line in the discussion about the Confederate battle flag.
The flag that’s been part of this discussion flew over the Army of Northern Virginia, which fought with other Confederate forces to tear apart the United States of America. The Confederates State of America sought to form a new nation and sought to preserve the right of human beings to own fellow human beings.
That’s the heritage some Americans want to honor?
No thank you.
