Sunday, April 11, 2010

Symbols

Symbols can represent different things to different people. I suppose if you totally isolated them from the outside world, you could raise a group of Germans who regarded the swastika as a general symbol of ethnic pride that was totally disconnected from Hitler and the Nazis. Still, as soon as those Germans came into contact with the history of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, they'd disown the symbol. Unless they hated Jews or something.

That's basically my attitude towards the people who claim the Confederate flag as some sort of symbol of Southern pride. As soon as you come face to face with the atrocities that the flag was flown to preserve, you're going to be thoroughly horrified by it. Unless you hate black people or something.

People trying to show their Dixie pride should choose a new flag. Given that lots of Southerners like NASCAR, the one I've put on this post would be a better choice. Nothing about it says, "It doesn't bother me that Southerners bought, sold, and whipped black people."

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