Flags and American History
CHANGING HISTORY TO FIT OUR EMOTIONS
The U.S. Flag ("Stars and Stripes") that we know today was first flown in 1777. It flew over legalized slavery until 1865 when slavery was ended by Constitutional Amendment. This means that slaves were sanctioned legally by the United States under the Stars and Stripes for about eighty-eight years. All who have studied anything about Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation know that slaves were not freed in the areas controlled by the Union (U.S.) Armies. At the end of the war when the Constitution was amended to prohibit slavery. segregation continued for another eighty-three years in the
U.S. Armed Forces until halted by Presidential proclamation in 1948. It continued in Northern and Southern schools and society until the 1954 Brown
vs. Topeka Board of Education. If segregation is "racism", racism was sanctioned in the U.S. Armed Forces until integration was completed in the 1950's. Northern schools were (and some still are) segregated. which is "racism", and none of these were under a Confederate Battle Flag. So guilt by association, the U.S. Flag is "racist" as demonstrated by the prima facie evidence that it flew over legalized slavery and over segregation, both supported, sponsored and sanctioned by the U.S. government.
The Confederate Battle Flag is now called a "racist symbol" because it is used - or I think misused - by racist of today in some instances. The Battle Flag is one of many used by the Confederacy. It was designed to identify military units on the battlefield, the primary purpose of all flags on 19th century battlefields. The flag was never called the "Slavery Flag" or the "Racism Flag". All of this "hoopla" by anti Confederate Battle Flag folks is much to do about nothing. It is invented rhetoric designed to attack a symbol which is convenient. If the U.S. Flag and the Christian Cross are not condemned as well, then this is outright hypocrisy! Both the U.S. Flag and the Cross are used extensively by the KKK and other racist organizations. It is clearly a double standard when the Confederate Battle Flag is condemned but not the other Flags and symbols used by racists.
If the facts be known, then the anti-Battle Flag folks would be hauling down our Stars and Stripes. This won't happen anytime soon for reasons which are intuitively obvious to the casual observer. Or maybe they aren't obvious. As long as people are not willing to study the facts they will attempt to change history to fit their emotions. This is all part of the dumbing down of America and fits nicely into the stereotypes promulgated by those who think the sinking of the Titanic started WW II.
Taken from the writings of Edwin L. Kennedy,
Jr.
Lt. Col. U.S. Army (ret.) Leavenworth, Kansas
