The Confederate Flag on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
By John Tomlin | Related entries in Democrats, History, South Carolina, United States, VideoYesterday, there was a Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally outside of the State House in Columbia, SC. All three of the Democratic Presidential Candidates were there and each gave a speech. Accross the street from the rally, a group of confederate flag supporters were demonstrating their cause throughout the whole event. I spoke to two of them to try and understand their position.
Back at Union College (no pun intended) I read a book about how the south still has not let go of the Civil War. I had never experienced that first-hand until yesterday.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
What most Northerners (including myself until recently) fail to understand is that there were and are a lot of Southerners who never saw the War Between the States as being about slavery. It was about states’ rights, respect for constitutionally limited government, and recognition that the constitution was ratified voluntarily by the states and states should be free to reject it voluntarily. To many in the South, the Confederate flag represents those ideals, not racism.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 am
The war was actually about those things, as well as economics (all wars are) but as someone who has lived in the south most of his life, I can tell you that almost none of the people with the stars and bars on their porch or pickup know that. They are just ignorant biggots and think it’s cool.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:44 am
What isn’t mentioned in the video is the fact that the flag is at a privately funded monument to South Carolina’s Confederate soldiers. The flag was taken down from the statehouse in 2001. At that time, all the interested parties expressed that they were content with that. Now there is controversy again. If it’s not proper to fly the Confederate soldier’s flag over a Confederate soldier’s monument, where is it appropriate to fly it?