One Man’s Reply
From: cliftonpalmermclendon@yahoo.com
Mississippi is pretty, except for its flag
Hattiesburg American
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20110805/OPINION03/108050305/Mississippi-pretty-except-its-flag?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs
[Some of the replies compared the Confederate Battle Flag to the swastika flag.]
If you seek a flag to compare to the swastika flag, look no farther than the thirteen-stripe United States flag.
Under that flag, hundreds of thousands of Africans were transported to slavery in the New World in the 1700s and 1800s.
No Confederate-flagged ship ever made a slaving-run.
Under that flag, non-combatant women and children and old men both black and white were robbed, raped, and slaughtered between 1861 and 1865 for the unpardonable sin of wanting a government of their own choosing rather than having a government crammed down their throats.
No government was ever forced upon anyone under a Confederate flag’s authority.
Under that flag, an Army Order (General Order No. 11) was issued 17 December 1862 forcibly removing all Jewish people from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
No Confederate authority ever practiced anti-Semitism. To the contrary: Jews served as both officers and enlisted men in Confederate service, and Judah Philip Benjamin of Louisiana served in the Confederate Cabinet during the entire War. (The first Jewish member of a United States Cabinet was Oscar Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labor from 1906 to 1909.) Under that flag, thousands of men, women, and children were systematically hunted down and killed, and other thousands forcibly removed from their homelands and relocated to less-hospitable environs in the 1800s for the shocking offense of being Native Americans/Indians.
No such actions ever occurred under a Confederate flag. To the contrary: Many Native Americans/Indians served in Confederate forces, and the last Confederate general to cease fighting was Stand Watie, a Cherokee.
Under that flag, thousands of American citizens were placed in concentration camps in the 1940s for the heinous crime of being of Japanese ancestry.
The Confederate States of America never put anyone into a concentration camp based on his ethnicity.
So — if you seek a flag of slavery and genocide, go for Old Glory.
Clifton Palmer McLendon
Upshur County, Texas
If you seek a flag to compare to the swastika flag, look no farther than the thirteen-stripe United States flag.
Under that flag, hundreds of thousands of Africans were transported to slavery in the New World in the 1700s and 1800s.
No Confederate-flagged ship ever made a slaving-run.
Under that flag, non-combatant women and children and old men both black and white were robbed, raped, and slaughtered between 1861 and 1865 for the unpardonable sin of wanting a government of their own choosing rather than having a government crammed down their throats.
No government was ever forced upon anyone under a Confederate flag’s authority.
Under that flag, an Army Order (General Order No. 11) was issued 17 December 1862 forcibly removing all Jewish people from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
No Confederate authority ever practiced anti-Semitism. To the contrary: Jews served as both officers and enlisted men in Confederate service, and Judah Philip Benjamin of Louisiana served in the Confederate Cabinet during the entire War. (The first Jewish member of a United States Cabinet was Oscar Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labor from 1906 to 1909.) Under that flag, thousands of men, women, and children were systematically hunted down and killed, and other thousands forcibly removed from their homelands and relocated to less-hospitable environs in the 1800s for the shocking offense of being Native Americans/Indians.
No such actions ever occurred under a Confederate flag. To the contrary: Many Native Americans/Indians served in Confederate forces, and the last Confederate general to cease fighting was Stand Watie, a Cherokee.
Under that flag, thousands of American citizens were placed in concentration camps in the 1940s for the heinous crime of being of Japanese ancestry.
The Confederate States of America never put anyone into a concentration camp based on his ethnicity.
So — if you seek a flag of slavery and genocide, go for Old Glory.
Clifton Palmer McLendon
Upshur County, Texas
