Reply #50: The real danger is that most kids don't realize that. [View All]

[eppur_se_muova]

I grew up in the South, and to a lot of kids that was just part of our regional background -- more like supporting the local team than anything else I can think of. Seriously. I spent years in a school with only two black kids. The white kids were all middle-class. We didn't spend our time on any heavy issues, we just sort of imitated our parents and peers and slowly, amorphously, oozed our way into adulthood. It took many years of seeing the larger world, and more maturation than many kids are ever compelled to embrace, for me to realize that our "symbol of regional pride" was a symbol of hate and fear for so many. And honestly, I don't think that *most* kids who waved the Confederate flag at football games (easy to justify when the team is called "The Rebels" -- *who* picked that name?) meant it as any kind of provocation even when they knew that even some of their peers did. If you never leave the area, and never expose yourself to other points of view, it's easy to fail to see the issue. And after enough years of emotionally accepting the Rebel flag, people get defensive when they see it "attacked". I'm not sure what will change that, and it's not changing by itself fast enough. I can only wish that some brave, mature Southern leader (maybe social, not political) would have the nerve to formally denounce and reject the Confederacy, and stage a formal interrment ceremony for an authentic, historical flag actually carried by Confederate forces. RIP for good. (While I'm fantasizing, I'll hope the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy would endorse the interrment. May as well wish big.)

Southerners want to cherish the fighting spirit and bravery of their ancestors, but that should not preclude an acknowledgment that they were in the wrong. Most can't handle that, or consider it a contradiction. It's not. It's the same message of "hate the sin, love the sinner" they've all heard from their local pulpits. Taking up arms against the lawfully elected government of the nation was the worst mistake that Americans -- as Americans -- have ever made. That's a tough thing to acknowledge, but until (we) Southerners accept that moral task, we will, however indeliberately, continue to feed the resentment and the hatred born from the defeat of a mistaken cause.