Monuments NO – Confederate Flag YES!!!

Suppressing the hatred of bigotry and racism today is every bit as challenging as it was in 1861 and 1964.  It will take a national resolve to succeed.

Perspective on Civil War monuments has strayed into the Twilight Zone.  Unfortunately, they are viewed as vinegar rather than the sweet honey they actually represent.  It is yet another classic case of demanding our hatreds guide our thinking. 

There is currently a movement to convince us that these monuments somehow support and glorify the ugliness of racism, slavery and the suppression of blacks.  

In reality, what they should represent is America’s unrelenting quest for justice and humanity.  They should remind us that these monuments led to the saving of the union and the Emancipation Proclamation.  They should remind us of our commitment as nation in forbidding selfishness, violence and hatred to dominate the American spirt.  They should remind us of our struggle and success in defeating evil within our own shores.  They should remind us of the greatest we are capable of when we put our will and minds to the task.  These may be, to a degree, very painful reminders of the injustice and horror that once gripped our nation.  That pain should be focused on the forever evil in the waging of war and not on any glorification or injustice in a war lost.  We need to simply recognize they are all part of our historical heritage that needs our constant and forever awareness.  

The same cannot be said of the Confederate flag.

The Confederate flag was, and still is, a symbol of divisiveness, selfishness, greed and unspeakable hatred.  It led the charge of the Civil War and remains symbolic of hatred and the promotion of a reign of terror.   

 

It is impossible to view it without sparking the pain of Fort Sumter that began America’s most savage war.  It can’t be ignored as embodying a violent and vicious demand to tear apart the union of the United States.  It’s impossible to disregard the vicious insistence for the continuation of slavery, unquestionably the greatest inhumanity every inflicted in American – OR - the horrifying cruelty that caused the loss of over 600,000 American lives. 

 

This demonic symbol was also often and proudly displayed long after the Civil War during the “Jim Crow” reign of terror.  When looking at the very heart of that flag one can easily see blacks being whipped and beaten and lynched, along with the burning of black homes and churches.  One sees the faces of Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael Henry Schwerner all savagely killed in Mississippi in their efforts to establish voting rights for blacks in 1964 while further reminding us that all those guilty of the atrocity were set free by a Mississippi court.

 

Can we really look at that flag and not realize that it, along with the Nazi flag, is proudly and publicly displayed today by the Ku Klux Klan and every other bigoted organization as they spew their hateful venom?  Some of these deranged groups go as far as displaying both flags side by side.  After all, white supremacy doctrine is no different than Hitler’s Aryan/Master race rantings.  It is assured, through 18 months from living in Germany, that a Nazi flag cannot be found proudly or publicly displayed anywhere on German soil.  Yet Mississippi still, to this day, proudly and publicly displays the Confederate flag as part of their state flag. 

There could be no better way to begin current reparations in America than to do what should have been done over 100 years ago.  Time to burn the Confederate flag and finally relegate it to the ash heap of history where it belongs.  For nothing in America runs more contrary to the Gettysburg Address than the Confederate flag.

American War Machine Ignored

To be sure, World War II was indeed necessary and admirable and – YES - a remarkable and inspiring achievement for which all Americans should be proud.  

After World War II, and with the exception of Desert Storm (Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait), our wars have ALL been senseless slaughters and the waste of trillions of American dollars.

If we could determine the total price tag for all the armaments constructed after 1945 and those now in the planning stage it would hardly be an exaggeration to speculate it totals trillions upon trillions of dollars. 

Over the years we have been told time again that the Defense Department is impossible to audit. The stated reasons are; the building is too large and has too many systems that don’t link up, to give any kind of helpful result that would be worth the cost of an audit.  There has been some effort to get a handle on the money over the last couple of years.  In 2019, 1,400 auditors, visited 600 sites worldwide and requested more than 100,000 samples of equipment as they surveyed the department’s $2.9 trillion in total assets and $2.8 trillion in liabilities.  The last two findings have reported that the department “failed its audit.”

There  are two stark realities here.  One is that we will NEVER know how much we have spent and misused.   The second is that for a country that often cries “We don’t have the money” for a humane health care system, to end homelessness, poverty and hunger, for improvements to a pathetic educational system for our poor and underprivileged, to provide college tuition assistance, along with so many other compassionate and humanitarian needs is detestable.  It is mystifying how comfortable we have become in dismissing the loss and mismanagement for unaccounted trillions of dollars.  Considering this outrage in conjunction with the additional waste and fraud in government; “We don’t have the money” is pure hogwash and a grievous insult to our common sense and intelligence, compassion and human dignity. Obviously, the very last problem we have in this country is money.

 Now for the American lives Lost:

·         Korean War – 36,516

·         Vietnam War- 58,209

·         Iraq                  4,497

·         Afghanistan      2,356

These figures do not include the maimed, lifetime health afflictions (Agent Orange and Others), mental disorders, alcoholism and drug addictions, suicides and whatever else that may have been omitted here.  The costs in suffering and pain are enormous without demonstrating anything even remotely close to what was accomplished in the Second World War.

We are currently involved in seven war theaters worldwide.  They are never reported on and continue to flourish costing us even more trillions in taxpayer dollars.  No number of bullets or bombs are going to solve one problem in any of those war theaters.  MY GOD!!!!! Have we all forgotten that 9-11 was planned in Hamburg Germany????? 

Ike warned us this was coming (military–industrial–congressional complex (MICC)) and we were either to apathetic and callous or too busy chasing the almighty dollar to even notice or care.  This is ALL a clear-cut sign of moral decay.

Yes – World War II is worthy of devotion, but since then the scales are badly out-of-balance in almost exclusively favoring the disgraceful over the admirable.  The wanton destruction, waste of human lives and endless taxpayer dollars are part and parcel as to why a movement now exits to refuse to remove our caps or stand for the playing of the national anthem.

All Americans need to take this movement seriously and engage in this show of defiance until we return to compassionate and humanitarian endeavors in our public polices and behavior.

Why Unrest is Necessary

The purpose of a demonstration or a protest is to create an awakening or a greater awareness within the American people.  It is a demand for an end to injustice, the protection of establish liberties, or the establishment of a liberties which are denied.  Its primary purpose is designed to end the ignorance and/or apathy responsible for creating and sustaining an unhealthy and totally unacceptable climate - to propel those in power to adequately, finally and completely respond to rational grievances.  

The labor movement and humane treatment in the workplace, slavery and civil rights, an end to the Vietnam war and, naturally, our revolutionary war, all needed the spark of serious unrest to succeed. 

Passive or peaceful methods and means always preceded the uprisings.  Americans are not normally stirred to take action until or unless a real sense of urgency occurs.  Therefore, protests and demonstrations, by their very nature, must be messy to instill a real sense of urgency through fear and the threat of loss.  That sense of urgency acts as the catalysis to seriously address the issues and injustices that are commonplace and systemic.

Our history has taught us that just verbally and vocally demanding change isn’t enough.  Those with power wield the biggest clubs.  We must be willing to fight for it.  We must be willing to disrupt daily life, business operations and if necessary to break some windows. These acts awaken the American public to the helplessness and awful sense of frustration that festers.  Initiatives like blocking traffic can create this far greater understanding.  The anger it generates in those being hampered or inconvenienced through becoming powerless to freely move about, correlates exactly to the same sense of anger and frustration the demonstrators are experiencing.  Eventually this anger finds the correct focus and target and thus aids in the changes necessary to establish or restore the liberties being denied.   

If we are unable to appreciation this reality and rise above our own desires to the broader concerns of the suffering and dying, then we are unable to accurately understand the necessity and methods employed in forming a “a more perfect union.” 

The current uprising also reminds us that we can’t remain apathic forever.  Sooner or later, the bill comes due.  

The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 didn’t save George Floyd’s life or the lives of so many others murdered at the hands of law enforcement.  The Brady Bill didn’t prevent the unprecedented horror of the slaughters in Las Vegas or at Sandy Hook.  Wages have failed to keep pace with inflation.  So the awful struggle and battle must continue.

The exact same unrest will have to accompany any meaningful change to end our gun carnage, our forever and putrid waring or to even establish a humane health care system. 

Freedom is a constant struggle for each and every generation of Americans.  In a free and open society hatreds will be forever fostered.  The vast majority of us are indeed sickened by the hatreds and the inevitable violence they spur.  Yet this vast majority ALSO desires change to end unfairness and brutality – to reinforce the principles that have defined the spirit of our nation - to achieve justice. 

So, either we create a new and very firm national resolve to attack hatred and eradicate its viciousness in its infancy or we will have to accept disruptions and yes, even violence, as the price we must pay to establish and protect our liberties.  While we may not be happy about it, we need to clearly understand the necessity of it and accept it - just as we have had to accept the immoral acts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as having been necessary.  

We live in a perilous time.  Let’s not fail to recognize the blessings it offers us.  It is an exciting time. A time of rejuvenation and hope for a brighter tomorrow.  We are witnessing firsthand a rebirth of our history through a fierce determination to strengthen our Republic and a fervor for the common good and general welfare of our nation. 

Historically, voices raised must be loud and noisy. Those who create the ruckus will always be cruelly and publicly demeaned.  Yet it is in large measure their courage and abandonment of self for this greater good that is often seen as the essence of their movement and what makes them and their cause ultimately irresistible.