MIDKIFF: Confederate flag recalls slavery -- and a long, hot year of racial tension
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- Written by Ken Midkiff
A good start -- but only a start
By Ken Midkiff
COLUMBIA, Mo 9/10/15 (Op Ed) -- I am a son of the South.
When I see the Stars and Bars as a bumper sticker, or even worse, flying as a real flag and displayed proudly, I see ignorance. Ignorance about the feelings of others; ignorance of the history behind Southern states' attempted secession; ignorance of the flag's recent history: it was flown in protest only during and after the Civil Rights period.
Ignorance of what the flag actually means.
The Confederate flag represents support for slavery. Call it what you will, but "state's rights" and the economic issues Southern sympathizers hung their hats on before, during, and after the Civil War were nothing more than code for the ownership of human beings.
It is lamentable it took more shooting – and the deaths of nine innocent people -- to get South Carolina politicians to remove the Stars and Bars, but in the end, only 20 hidebound state legislators voted against taking it down. 93 voted in favor. Their actions and the leadership of SC Governor Nikki Haley give me hope -- and a bright spot in a long, hot, simmering year of racial tensions that started with Ferguson and evolved into a heated discussion of whose lives matter.
Confining the Confederacy to history does not mean the end of racism and ignorance. But it is an appropriate, and long overdue, start.