Discussion for article #238231
Why were stores in National Parks selling confederate flags in the first place? That’s like German stores in their national parks selling Nazi flags.
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My guess it that they were mostly the Civil War battlefield parks. It has been awhile, but I seem to remember the giftshop at the Gettysburg national park having some stuff with the Confederate flag. Things like posters/postcards of paintings of battles that featured soldiers carrying the different flags (which seem like they have enough context to be a bit more acceptable) ranging to those little confederate flags on dowels (which seem more dubious).
edit: Thinking about it is there a giftshop/store associated with the museum/park for the USS Arkansas in Pearl Harbor? How do they handle the Imperial Japanese flag? I’m sure there are some items that bear that flag, but I doubt any of them are lionizing/glorifying it. Maybe a similar approach could be taken with the types of Confederate flag items that are featured in Civil War battlefield park giftshops/stores?
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I think this sort of thing goes a bit far.
It is okay to sell Confederate flags at Civil War related locations. Battle sites are where the flags would logically be along as the appropriate museums. And, if the person buried died in the Civil War as a Confederate, which I don’t know ever comes up, it is probably okay to mark it as such. I do think it okay to ban the flag on federal graves just as a sign of “Southern heritage” in the defense of treason. But, I’m more open to this across the board ban than not selling flags of the enemy at a battle site.
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Yesterday Josh asked this questions about the flag: “When did the final moment come in your mind?”
This is my answer
I knew the flag was coming down when I saw the coverage of Sen. Pinckney lying in state at the rotunda of the capitol building. I don’t know if you noticed, but there was a great, floor-to-ceiling glass window on one wall. It was obviously put there to give a great and unobstructed view of the confederate flag from the capitol and I bet it was put there in retaliation for the flag being removed from the state house. While Sen. Pinckney was lying in state, they had erected a large curtain to block off that window. That’s when I knew that flag would come down and if it came down in SC, it would come down everywhere.
In my opinion, the real tipping point was Sen. Pinckney. This man had spent his life earning the respect and affection of everyone, black and white. I do believe that it was this man particularly that was the catalyst, but it was also because it happened in a house of worship, and in that particular house of worship, and that it was such an ugly, ugly hateful crime and the victims were such lovely innocent people. All those things were the tipping point, IMHO.
When the SC government hid that flag on that day, I think it was the first time in history that a southern state was officially embarrassed by that flag. Also, for the first time ever, the state acknowledged that that flag is offensive to some of their citizens.
That was a tpping point.
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Not 100% certain about this. If a family wants to label their great, great grandfather as a traitor, I suppose I wouldn’t be too upset. (I know, that’s not what they are really doing.) It’s not nearly the issue of flying the flag at a statehouse. It is a Federal cemetery though so…I don’t know.
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The South does have its charms. Watching noisy motorized vehicles drive rapidly in circles and occasionally smash together in blazing infernos of death, injury and destruction is definitely a cultural draw. The sweaty, overly inebriated crowd. Mustard stained wifebeaters. The happy, toothless grins; lips gripping a filterless Camel. Armpit hair proudly sprouting about. Ah, I can smell the heavily breaded pork tenderloins even now. And after the race Jim-Bob is going to balance a beer bottle on Verleen’s head and fill it with lit bottle rockets! Yeehaw!!!
If the Confederate flag is a symbol of “Southern heritage”, what is the symbol of “Northern heritage”? Since the US flag belongs to both, that can’t be it. The pine tree grows in the South as well, so nope. Canada owns the maple leaf and the beaver. So what is it?
There’s no damned moral outrage, some cultural epiphany behind any of this. It’s all about money. Tourist dollars, convention bookings, movement of companies from another state to theirs. If the dollar faucet wasn’t in peril that flag would fly proudly.
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Cue the shrieking outrage from the Olde Confederacy.
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Please correct headline spelling of cemeteries. No “a” in this word.
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Nike, the Greek goddess of Victory?
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Chomp chomp – Another bite out of a million course meal –
Finally!
The civil war has been over and not won by the south, 150+ years ago!
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This work won’t be finished until the confederate flag is as reviled here as the swastika is in Europe.
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place Confederate flags on Civil War veterans’ graves on Confederate Memorial Day
“Confederate Memorial Day” Lets think about that. A holiday previously honored by our federal government specifically for the traitors to their own union. This isn’t Memorial Day, when we honor all our war dead, or Veterans Day when we honor those currently in or who had served in our nations armed forces.
“a day to honor those who died fighting for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.”
Granted, a lot of immigrant Americans still hold over the holidays from their own countries of origin, like Boxing day, but those mostly fade after a couple generations. Why continue to lionize those who betrayed our country after 150 years? Remembering your ancestor fought in the Civil War is one thing (I had ancestors on both sides) but continuing to identify with the Confederacy makes me question the loyalty to the continuation of our Union.
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The House did something good? Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Well done.
Public displays of the swastika is illegal in much of Europe. Neo-Nazis have been forced to find a substitute, so what are they using? The Confederate flag.
Of course, no conclusions can be drawn from this. Move along.
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Your entire comment is insulting, prejudiced, and smarmy.
There are a lot of wonderful things, places, and people in the South.
You are ignorant concerning each and every one of them.
That’s sad, and makes you no better than those you oppose.
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1865 (less if you count the Reconstruction as de facto part of the Civil War)
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