by American Citizen

Created on: April 02, 2009

No symbol should be banned. The Confederate Flag can't hurt anyone any more than a swatiska or official American Flag can cause physical harm. They may induce a painful memory, but a memory cannot cause physical harm unless we let it. This is a difficult strength to acquire, but it is noble and it is possible. Symbols are reminders. To ban a symbol is to ban a person's memory, which can only be done through miseducation, obfuscation, drugs, surgery, mind control or some other heinous use of force. It is immoral and unethical.

I myself am a Yankee. A free, happy person who was once glad the North won. I was such a Yankee that I never even wanted to know the history of Gen. Robert E. Lee or Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. I wanted them to be erased from history for defending slave-owning states. Now I can't say whether this particular film is an act of revisionist history, but I watched "Gods and Generals". There's no way to watch it and not at least be curious about the South's position during the Civil War.

What did become clearer was that, while there may be only two sides fighting a war, there are many, many ideologies in the soldiers' and people's minds. And of course, there are political agendas involved. Some claim that States' Rights became an afterthought. But the Civil War was not initially about slavery. Even Lincoln's own writings attest to that. It seems to me that what the Civil War brought to the light of day was the instability of hypocracy. It was rampant on both sides.

It may have been noble to fight for the South States' freedoms from federal tyranny, but how could they justify enslaving human beings?

It may have been noble to fight for the North States' to hold the Union together, but how could the federalists justify invisibly enslaving the entire nation through mandatory taxes and regulations when the States each have their own jurisdictions?

The Confederate Flag stands for bigotry and enslavement in some minds, but not in all. It is a reminder of the Articles of Confederation that originally united the 13 States of America after the Revolutionary War. The Articles stated plainly, "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." We'd be hard-pressed to find a judge or lawyer who will assert that the Articles are still in force. But, the US Constitution does not anywhere mention the Articles

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