Re: Attack on Lee-Jackson Flags
From: vaproto@optonline.net
To: jeclark@ntelos.net, editor@thenews-gazette.com
http://shnvalerts.blogspot.com/2011/03/attack-on-lee-jackson-flags.html
To the Editor:
Any intelligent person has to wonder where it will all end – that is, the war against Southern history and heritage. First, I dare anyone to show me someone who can demand the removal of Confederate flags under Title 7. Who feels "threatened?" Who is being "intimidated?" No one. These are just excuses to demand that a particular mindset and viewpoint regarding the past be fortified by law while denying those who have quite a different – and more accurate – viewpoint their rights under the Constitution. As far as I know, the First Amendment trumps Title 7 every day of the week.
And speaking of the Constitution, there is nothing in that document that guarantees freedom from being offended. If there were, a lot of our present "culture" would long ago have been disallowed because it offends a lot of folks, myself included. However, I’ve been told that as long as no law is broken, I have to allow other people’s freedom of speech and expression under the First Amendment. When did Southerners and those who value their heritage lose that right?
It would be bad enough if this politically correct nonsense were based upon historical fact, but it isn’t. It is based solely on Marxist revisionism which makes of the South – past and present – some sort of wicked treasonous place where the black man was hated and oppressed while the noble Union of the North admired and liberated him. Even the most superficial examination of the facts show this to be absurd and false. Indeed, if Confederate flags offend "persons of color," then the American flag should make them positively enraged. After all, it was the Stars and Stripes, not the Stars and Bars or the Confederate battle flag that flew from the masts of slave ships in the 18th and 19th centuries and was carried by the Klan for most of its history – google it, and see for yourself!
If the majority of Virginians don’t want Confederate symbols displayed or the state’s historical figures honored, that is one thing. It is quite another to allow a small cadre of individuals with an agenda to dictate to the rest how things will be by using "the race card" and threatening to be "offended." Let the government of Virginia put it to the vote; let the people decide at the ballot box. Enough of a minority (of both races) determining what the majority (of both races) will or will not be allowed to do by virtue of governmental fiat. Ours is supposed to be a representative form of government in which the WILL of the majority prevails so long as it does not contravene the RIGHTS of the minority. What we now have is the triumph of the WILL of the minority negating the RIGHTS of the majority. That’s called tyranny, folks.
Valerie Protopapas
Huntington Station, New York
