Have you decided to impersonate BADecker because he hasn't graced this thread with his presence yet? You even ended the post with a smiley! All that's missing is a some christian fundamentalism or a diatribe against the courts because "something something common law" and you'd have me convinced!
lol, I think we are coming from different places. I'm an atheist. But I am cool with most people and that includes religious people. If you want to be part of the world and spread peace then I don't care how you got here, I'll stand with you. Just as I stand with the families of the victims in Charleston. They are my brothers now and I will do more to end raceism in my community.
Sorry Dylann (Ruf?, roof?), your actions are inspiring people to show their best side and support each other. I think taking the confed flag from all government flags, license plates, etc. is a start. Something that, in fact, you started Dylann!
There is terrific irony in his actions of hatred inspiring people to come together. All this focus on the confederate flag though, it almost seems to me to be scapegoating and definitely knee-jerk. I do wonder if all the focus on the flag is robbing us of an opportunity to deal more directly with the problems.
Yeah' I think your right. It is just a symbol and does not directly address the problem. But at least is a disincentive for those who think this kind of killing furthers their cause. Plus it's a little weird that the flag of revolt against the United States appears on state flags and licenses plates. I have heard the arguments about Southern pride and history, but I'm sure the neo-Nazies would say the same thing about the swastika.
I think there's a great danger in defining what symbols mean to other groups of people. I'm not from the south, I can't understand the history and heritage of their symbol. As an outsider, any attempt to 'understand' the symbol is going to be superficial unless I am able to immerse myself in that culture. Having the inability to do that, I'm not going to be so bold as to say that my opinion of what that symbol is supersedes everyone else's. That stance is ridiculous, yet that's very much what is happening. Symbolism is fungible, and allowing a symbol to be defined statically as only one thing doesn't seem like a reasonable position to take.
Two ways to illustrate this:
1) The treatment of the Confederate Flag and the American Flag. The Confederate Flag means slavery, it's a terrible symbol. However, the American Flag - which also oversaw slavery, oppression of different groups of individuals by the government at different periods of time (Native Americans, African-Americans, Japanese-Americans during WWII, gays, mentally handicapped, etc.) - is a proud symbol of patriotism.
2) John Calhoun's statue is being vandalized as a racist slave owner. Yet many of the reasons he is being vilified now he shares in common with our "greatest" patriotic heros: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Monroe all owned slaves and allowed and supported the oppression of an entire race. The difference is perception, not necessarily reality.
Perhaps these stark differences in perception are because the North won the war and gets to be deemed morally right, therefore their symbols are "good" while the losers of the war and their symbols are "bad." Seems to be the only logical explanation to me, because objectively looking at the reasons we deem those symbols to be bad, I'd have to also conclude that our patriotic symbols are bad for the same reason.
