Who Banns Symbols

The Daily Times
307 East Harper Ave.
Maryville, TN 37804

Dear Editor(s):

While all the controversy that has been played out in the Maryville area regarding the Confederate Battle Flag, and what it means or doesn’t mean, the real question is who gets to decide what offensive symbol gets banned, and what symbols remain regardless of their being offensive.

The US Supreme Court just ruled that the 10 Commandments by itself is offensive and must be removed. If surrounded with other legal symbols it may remain, even if you are offended. By those standards the School Board’s decision is a mountain of wisdom. On the other hand let’s consider the following information.

Would the school board approve, and would the Daily Times Editorial Board endorse a decision to fly a flag of a country that killed over 4 million of its own citizens, removed even more citizens of that race to Concentration Camps where medical experiments and germ warfare were conducted on those same citizens? What if that nation confiscated land and property of those people just because of their race? Would the school board want that flag to fly representing their school and their student body?

Of course I’m speaking of the German Flag, right? Nope, sorry about that, it is old Glory, the American Flag; the people of course are the American Indians, and a reservation just sounds more reasonable than Concentration camps. Didn’t know about the Germ Warfare, sorry but its true, the Germans learned from the American’s, who gave Indians blankets which had been taken from people who died from smallpox. The Medical Experiments, well they were included in the forcible move of the Indians to the west. This force included the Cherokees from East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, most of which were Christians and had adopted white dress and manners.

Shall we recap briefly, the US flag flew over the beginnings of Slavery in the US, and more than 75% of all Slaves who arrived in the US did so on ships flying the US flag. Slaves in the Union held states were not freed until 8 to 20 months after the end of the War of Northern Aggression, and after their Southern Counterpart were freed.

The United States under President Lincoln signed the Geneva Convention which dealt with the treatment of civilians during wartime; in keeping with the long standing policy of the United States of never honoring a treaty (with Indians) they promptly broke the rules of warfare by attacking Southern Civilians and property.

The use of the Atomic Bomb against Japan also violated the Geneva Convention, but as long as you win, you get to make the rules as you go along.

While we are at it the official flag of the KKK, the Aryan Nation, the Church of the Creator, and most other hate groups in America is the American Flag.

Before some jerk says if America is so bad why don’t I leave it, my people were here first! I have Cherokee Blood, and for the record I’m a disabled Viet Nam Vet wounded in defense of that American Flag. The Bible says before you worry about a speck in your neighbor’s eye, get the log out of your own eye. The Confederate Battle Flag never flew over Slavery, and while it is true some asses in White Sheets misused it, it was never their OFFICIAL Flag. I risked my life once and would do so again to defend the American Flag, but it is a thousand times worse than the Confederate Flag. If we are going down the slippery slope of not offending anyone, we better retire the American Flag right now, because it offends almost all Native Americans, most Japanese Americans, a lot of Mexican Americans and at the rate we are going they will be the majority in the next couple of years. Remember the next ox that gets gored may be your own!

Confederately Yours,