From: zursch@whizkid.corp.sgi.com (Jeffrey B. Zurschmeide)
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa
Subject: Re: News Item
Date: 27 Jul 92 22:39:34 GMT
Reply-To: zursch@whizkid.corp.sgi.com (Jeffrey B. Zurschmeide)
Organization: SGI TechPubs

In article <16831DFF5.M20614@mwvm.mitre.org>, Hugh Pritchard writes:
>  --  In my personal opinion, Confederate flags (Stars & Bars, etc.) represent
>      regional pride in many of the ideals of the Confederacy (spunkiness,
>      self-sufficiency, independence, etc.).  It's understandable to be proud
>      of such things.
>  --  However, those flags also stood for a system which relied on
>     labor-intensive agriculture almost exclusively for its existence:
>     Slavery.  The symbolism of the Confederate flag was tainted with stains
>      of arrogance and bigotry right from the birth of the Confederacy.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the display of Confederate symbols in 
the modern age, and what to say to those who are genuinely hurt and offended
by them. First, I am indignant at the co-optation of these symbols by the various
white-supremacist organizations and other hate groups. The way I feel about it was
very neatly expressed in bumper stickers I saw at my last re-enactment. They 
said "Heritage, not hate" - I expect that few of the people re-enacting the Confederate
side were racists...at least, those that I have met have not struck me as the type. 
I'd hate to lose that portion of our common heritage because we allowed hate groups
to advance the notion that the Civil War was strictly about racism.  

This last weekend, I thought of an analogy about the whole confederate/slavery/other
aspects issue.Think of the Confederacy and Old South as a body and slavery
as water. You can't take your body and say "this is all water", nor can you say
"there is no water in this particular part of my body." There is water in every
part of your body, but no part of your body is made exclusively of water. 
Similarly, the Confederacy was about much more than the preservation of slavery,
but you can't point to any single aspect and say "Here there is no taint of racism
and slavery." It is equally unfair to those people to say that they were only about
the preservation of racism and slavery. You can't separate it out of the Confederacy
just as you can't separate the water from your own body...it's pervasive, but there's
more to it than that.  
 
>Pollution makes even an otherwise clear, cool mountain spring undrinkable.

Can we find a way to filter out that pollution?

>I approve of Gov. Wilder's action.

I don't disapprove of his action. I think it's safe to say that he's not doing this
out of any desire to be a demagogue. I think his feelings on the subject are genuine and
I respect them. But he'll be working a long time if he wants to rid the South of 
Confederate symbols....better to work to rid the South (and North and West) of
racism and hate groups. I doubt the Virginia Air National Guard was a hotbed of
white supremacist politics.

JZ

p.s. 
   *Please* no Hitler/swastika comparisons. I think we can all extrapolate down that line 
    of thinking without actually having to tread that horrid road.  
 
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa