The LuLac Edition #2973, June 27th, 2015

LOCALS AND THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

(Photo: www.styleweekly).

This week The Citizen’s Voice’s James Halpin did a story on what some of the local folks think about the Confederate Flag. The comments were both varied and stunning. One person stated that it was a symbol of freedom. He also mentioned a “colored” friend of his who he stated wore a Confederate flag bandana. The man’s age was listed as 42.
Another guy said he had his flag on his truck, he too saw it as a symbol of freedom and thought it was cool. He’s 47 and went on to tell about his 16 year old son that has rebel bed sheets, a rebel shower curtain and even a tattoo on his arm that surprise, surprise has gotten him into fights with African American students.
A few things here. When I was growing up there were people of my parent’s generation that used the word “colored” and said other questionable things. But they didn’t have the education nor the knowledge of how offensive their behavior was. But when they were schooled, they stopped.
What is truly depressing is that the under 40 age group equates The Confederate flag with freedom. Freedom is the most bastardized word in the English language these days. If these guys mean they are free to be well you know, unknowingly non tolerant, then fine.
But there is cause and effect here. The Civil War was fought because the South wanted to keep Slavery. The North did not. The South seceded from the Union fighting for the right to maintain slaves under that flag. They were fighting to preserve the practice of keeping human beings in slavery. THAT AIN’T FREEDOM!
Finally this, the flag was pretty much dormant until George Wallace started flying it in Georgia as a “screw you” to Attorney General Robert Kennedy and the AG’s office. Wallace was blocking the doorway of a school preventing a black student from being educated.
It’s about freedom all right but it is about denying freedom to a race, and a segment of this population that helped grow this country. One has to wonder why the guy from Nanticoke said he was the only one around town who had a flag on his truck. Believe what you want but somewhere along the numbers have to have an impact. When you’re the only one and your kid is getting in fights over it, maybe it’s time to rethink this thing. Heyna?