Common way of referring to the flag of the
Confederate States of America. Features a red background with blue crossing strips. Stars are inset on the strips. Currently a debate is raging over what exactly the flag now stands for. Whenever I see it (which is often since I live in Kentucky) I think about the soldiers who died for how they felt government should be controlled. The idea that any of the soldiers fought for slavery is insane since none of them had slaves. They probably disliked slavery as it took away possible jobs for themselves. I believe that they did fight to keep the North from being able to control aspects of Southern life through the federal government. Some people like to say it's stupid to fly a flag of a movement that failed, but I really don't think it totally failed. It had a major impact on the continued existance of
state's rights.
neil: That's a really good point. In fact, I find it hard to recover from it's vicious blow. My main problem is that to me
slavery wasn't the important issue at all. If
slavery wouldn't have been the issue then something else most likely would have been. If were making (somewhat
wild) comparisons then I could say the
American flag has
connotations of slavery. Should we ban the flying of any American flag that flew before the
Emancipation Proclamation?
The United States, not just the
South, is a country that got on it's feet because of
slavery. It seems that a
connotation is not sufficient.
Also, who should define what the flag stands for? I know this has been asked many times in regard to this issue. Should the decendants of the confederate soldiers, or should the offended parties? IMHO, it should be the decendents. It's very hard for me to believe that comdemning the flag is not also condemning those who fought for the South in the Civil War. Their lives are now reduced to being fools who were clutching to an ignorant idea. My feelings for the Confederate soldier are just as strong, and for the same reasons, as my feelings for those who fought and died in the American Revolution.
dragoon: I seriously doubt may of the people who did the fighting were worried aobut "their slaves" as they didn't have any. It is true that they were worried about the North telling them what to do though. In fact, that was basically the whole point. I could see them starting a small fight over "their slaves", but continuing to fight against great odds in horrific battles for that reason is ridiculous. They felt that their way of life was going to be slowly destroyed unless they did something about it. Oh, BTW, the reclaiming derisive terms is cool.