By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2015) — When revisionist history meets political correctness, you can be sure a hasty and usually mistaken overreaction will result. Hence the hysteria over the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, a banner mistakenly called the flag of the Confederate States of America.

The Stars and Bars

That’s point number one in the controversy over the Stars and Bars in the wake of the horrendous and rightly condemned mass murder of nine black people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina: This flag is not the confederate flag. The distinction is important, since at issue is the symbolism that people invest in this otherwise neutral and inert piece of fabric.

As the battle flag of that particular regiment, the Stars and Bars flew as a field identification for commanders and troops.  The national flag of the confederacy featured the Stars and Bars saltire, a white body, and a red vertical stripe on the right side.

The national flag of the Confederate States of America

But how do we take the Stars and Bars banner? Those who want this flag exorcised from public life say the banner represents racial inequality and white supremacy. Defenders of the flag cite national, cultural, and regional heritage. A question for the PCers: Who is anyone to say that the defenders of the Stars and Bars do not have the right to their interpretation and are sincere in that investment?

Knee-Jerk Reactions Cannot Fly

The knee-jerk reaction to remove the flag has many problems.

First, it tarpapers all Southerners with the foul coverings of Dylan Roof, the young shooter and obvious racist. Are all Southerners such “redneck racists?” Obviously not. In fact, few if any in THE PLANET‘s experience fit that description.

In the course of our career, we have traveled and lived in the South, spending ample time in South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. These travels have included metropolises (Atlanta, Tampa), small cities (Huntsville, Winter Haven), and rural communities (Olanta, Turbeville). We have met many of the South’s finest, from sophisticated corporate types to Goober Pyle mechanics. These people were, almost without exception, fine human beings who were no more or less racist than a similar random number in the enlightened North. In fact, in general, we can say that in their daily doings, white Southerners as a whole got along much better with blacks than their Northern counterparts.

Second, over-reacting to a symbol is, itself, merely symbolic. Take down the flag, and you still have what remains in the human heart. Whatever poison was there to start will still be there after the flag comes down. The PC-types may feel morally superior and smug for having forced the issue of the flag, but they will not have begun to solve or even address the real problem, which is the disturbing nature of what lies in the human heart. If anything, their symbolic action will become the substitute genuine endeavor.

Third, what of the U.S. Constitution? Our hallowed First Amendment guarantees the right of free speech. That must include speech that we find offensive, disturbing, and controversial. We must allow the expressions of freedom to include those that are unruly and those that sting. We need to be strong, tough, and rugged in our discourse. Is a person that weak to be hurt by a piece of fabric waving in the wind?

You can keep civility. Give me lusty discord and hale disagreement. How else can we have a debate and arrive at our truths? THE PLANET reminds everyone that in a democratic republic, truth is not handed down on high from a Generalissimo or a Duce. Arriving at personal truth is messy enough. Hammering out our local, regional, and national truths is mind numbing at best and has to involve a multiplicity of views. If the Southern flag is what its critics say it is, then it falls on its own. It needs no help, thank you.

Fourth, try to cooly assess what banning this flag will do: (a) It will make the authentic redneck racists and hate mongers more entrenched and enflamed in their sick views. That cannot have a good outcome. (b) It will paint all decent Southerners with the tag of racist, a label they do not deserve. (c) It will limit freedom of speech, a further erosion this country absolutely cannot afford. (d) It will reward the insincerity of political hacks who see in the issue an opportunity to score cheap support.

The Confederate Flag ‘is Not the Sole Domain of Dylan Roof’

Allow us to close with this:

Here’s the problem I have with people who froth at the mouth every time they see someone with this flag. If you’re going to burn the Confederate flag because you think it stands for racism and slavery, I suggest you get started on the American flag shortly thereafter.

If I recall correctly, and maybe my history is a little rusty so feel free to call me out on this, but didn’t the Union government accept slavery right up until the Civil War? Heck, there were plenty of Northern states that allowed slavery, which they abandoned in the early 19th century, largely for economic reasons rather than ethical concerns (and also because the British Army had liberated most of them during the Revolutionary War).

Even after the Civil War occurred, there were a few slave holding states that stayed in the Union such as Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland. There were even slave-owning officers in the Union army. There’s a reason why the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in states that seceded. Lincoln didn’t want to anger many of his own officers, or cause any more states to leave.

And while we’re on the subject of Lincoln, let it be known that he could have cared less about the institution of Slavery. His main goal was to preserve the Union. Freeing the slaves was incidental in that process. He said so himself:

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery.

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”

And long after Lincoln was dead, the Federal government proved itself to be one of the most racist, genocidal, and imperialistic regimes in the history of the world, as they marched westward, brutally subjugating every native tribe they came across, before entering the 20th century as the world’s preeminent superpower. In this regard, the American flag is stained with more innocent blood than the Confederate flag ever was. — (Joshua Krause, The Daily Sheeple, “In Defense of the Confederate Flag,” 6/23/15).

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The well-intentioned and the do-gooders who wish to burn the Confederate flag had better remove the beam from their own eyes. Only then can they see clearly enough to remove the speck that is the Confederate banner.

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“Defenders of the flag have insisted vehemently that the Confederacy did not exist to defend or preserve slavery, and they impugn the motives and intelligence of those who argue that it did. . . . [Historian] James McPherson’s study of soldier motivations suggested that most Confederate soldiers did not fight consciously for the preservation of slave property. Confederate soldiers believed they were fighting, above all, to defend their states, their country, and their homes from invasion and to preserve the individual and constitutional liberty that Americans won in 1776.” — John Coski, author, The Confederate Battle Flag: America’s Most Embattled Emblem, (2006).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.