It isn’t wrong to place a flag of a long-dead and short-lived nation into a museum, and let it be only allowed at federal government battlefield monuments. As a Texan, I don’t agree with the Southern Revisionism of the past 50 years where the historic Confederate flag was mis-used as a self-identification of southern pride. The flag was not viewed that way by the Civil War veterans from the South after Reconstruction: it was only used by veterans during battleground anniversary cermonies and parades commemorating the end of the war. Each parade with Southern vets made damn sure the United States flag was first ahead of the Confederate flag — and always held higher than the Confderate flag. And then it was put away, either in family heirlooms or museums. It wasn’t until about 80 years after the war, in the 1940s, when Southern “Dixiecrat” politicians used the Confederate flag as a symbol to rally people to support racial-segregation laws. From the 40s right up through the Civil Rights protests, the flag began to adorn state and government flagpoles. It’s use as a symbol of racism only increased tenfold since then.
Some say the Confederate flag is a harmless reflection on southern rural culture, but many people display it for the wrong reasons. As a child I remember watching the Dukes of Hazard on TV and I had a toy General Lee car and lunch box. The show was just a (commical) reflection of some rural southern counties with corrupt politicians like Boss Hogg (inspired by Smokey and the Bandit). We still have Robert E. Lee elementary schools, and we still have streets named for Northern and Southern generals. It was just a part of that time, and the Dukes was a fun TV show (I heard TV Land was banning it, which is just ridiculous), but that era is past and the Confederate flag belongs back in the museum. You can’t govern the individual who will insist on slapping it on their truck’s mud-flaps or car windows — but the flag has no place at state government buildings, nor does it have a place at any non-battleground war monuments in cities.
As proud-southerners, we are not proud of the slave-era the flag was trying to preserve and keep. We all know that traitorous secessionists led brother to fight brother. Those leaders deserved to lose, slavery deserved to die, and the Confederate flag deserves no reverence beyond the fact that the Southern rebellion was defeated by the United States of America. The blood of many people was spilled to stop evil de-humanizing slavery: so the flag of that defeated, and forgiven, army belongs only at war battleground sites and museums — not as any kind of respected or exhaled symbol in our modern times. It is a meaningful emblem of a deserved-defeat: the Northern victory allowed the USA to re-unify and go on to save the world from Hitler 80 years later and be a beacon of freedom.
I am not proud of our history of Reconstruction, but I know many who would talk about it as if it were a massive post Civil-War success. But I suppose we stubmled into a different place in the world by the middle of the 20th century anyway. And if you’re proud of the South’s history, I say fine. But do not worship historic relics. They are false idols. The last of our Civil War vets are gone, and they take with them the memory of the birthing pains of a nation that moved on from slavery. The tree of Liberty was watered with the blood of heroes who defended these United States, who fought and died under a very different flag. Whatever flat you’re flying: Happy 4th of July, to all Americans.