WES FRANKLIN: Don’t attack what you don’t understand
Sep 19, 2017
Today I must deviate somewhat from the course of my usual column and take up a subject most close and personal. I don’t intend to go tit-for-tat on this, but I would think rather low of myself if I did not respond. Regarding the Confederate Battle Flag, the topic of a September 5 column in this publication, there are a few points to note.
Today I must deviate somewhat from the course of my usual column and take up a subject most close and personal. I don’t intend to go tit-for-tat on this, but I would think rather low of myself if I did not respond. Regarding the Confederate Battle Flag, the topic of a September 5 column in this publication, there are a few points to note.
To address one error in the Sept. 5 column, the Battle Flag was actually carried by regiments from all 13 Confederate States (yes, 13) and in all geographic theaters of the War Between the States. That is easily verified by simply running a Google search of any of the aforementioned 13 states. Pick one of those Southern states at random, type it in, and then follow it with the words “infantry” and “flag.” The image results are examples of typical St. Andrew’s Cross Confederate Battle Flags, both square and rectangle, from units of every Confederate State, including Missouri. You can do this 13 times, once for every state, if you wish. Search any of those unit histories and you’ll find they served in various armies spread from this side of the Mississippi River to Virginia. On a sidenote, although most people just call it “the Confederate Flag”, the Battle Flag was the soldiers’ flag, carried on the battlefield, and not the national flag of the Confederate States of America, though the last version of the national flag did incorporate it.
Secondly, I think it is in rather bad taste to sneeringly question the patriotism of anyone who displays the Confederate Battle Flag, considering that Southerners have shed blood for this country in disproportionate numbers in every foreign war from 1865 on, and may be the most openly patriotic people of any region of the country. My brother, father, and various uncles have all served our country in the military while simultaneously displaying the Battle Flag with the pride that it embodies. Has one never seen the photos of U.S. Marines planting the Confederate Battle Flag on Shuri Castle on Okinawa in World War II? Or the photo of the Confederate Battle Flag proudly waving from the radio antennae of an American tank in Vietnam? Or the the picture of Marines gathered behind a spread Confederate Battle Flag – marked with their unit designation – during the latest war in Iraq? I might add these photos aren’t just isolated examples. How can one question the patriotism of these men wearing their country’s uniform in a hostile land? How can one question the patriotism of American military veterans and their families who choose to display the Confederate Battle Flag today?
I would venture to say that the vast majority of people who display the Battle Flag do so with absolutely no malice to anyone whatsoever. For those that do, they are a very slim minority, and they have also hijacked the American and Christian Flags and used them for their purposes. Some people do things they shouldn’t. That’s the way of the world. It’s wrong to blame the American Flag for the sins of those who may misuse it, and it’s wrong to blame the Battle Flag as well. I know some people use it flippantly, as a symbol of personal rebellion perhaps, but that doesn’t automatically mean there is any racial malice behind it. For most, the Battle Flag represents a pride of place and culture and heritage. It was the soldiers’ flag, and is the mostly commonly recognized symbol of the South as a distinct region, though that distinction is in danger of one day going extinct, partly due to cultural genocide.
For myself and many others, it was the flag of our ancestors. My great-great grandfather was a private in Co. H, 12th Texas Cavalry. Per the records, he never owned any slaves. He fought for his home and for his state, which back then many people considered their first country. He survived the war and had 11 children, at least two of the descendents of which later died in combat – one in World War II and the other in Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq.
The Confederate Battle Flag is also a symbol of Jeffersonian principles of self-government and true federalism, which is all but lost now, and for which 13 states once fought to preserve by formation of their own second republic, intended to coexist beside the first. There were many reasons for secession of those 13 states and formation of that new republic, the Confederate States of America, not the least of which was the planned or actual invasion of other states – or their own state (as in Missouri’s case) – by national troops. Remember, the last six states didn’t secede until after the war had already started. It is a gross oversimplification to break it all down to simply about slavery, which existed for far longer under the United States Flag, and before that the British Union Jack, than it ever existed under any Confederate States flag. Not a single slave was brought to these shores under any Confederate flag. The institution of slavery on this continent would have ultimately died a peaceful death prior to 1900, as it was allowed to do almost everywhere else in the world. The end of American slavery was a byproduct of the war, not a reason for the war itself. I know it’s heresy to say that these days, but there it is.
I realize that for people who view the world through the dark lenses of social injustice and see racism everywhere they look, whether imagined or not, this all may be difficult to comprehend, even if they make the attempt. That’s fine. They don’t have to understand it. But they don’t have to attack it. All we ask is to be left alone.
Web Source: http://www.neoshodailynews.com/opinion/20170919/wes-franklin-dont-attack-what-you-dont-understand
