Published: Monday - March 19, 2007
Words by Mike Cooper II
Art exhibit by John Sims, entitled "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag," Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, Tallahassee, Fla. (Photo: AP)
"Paging Dr. Controversial... Dr. Controversial, we need you in the ER right away. Please sir get off your contentious ass and do some work today."
Son of a bitch, this was supposed to be the doctor's day off. But there are important matters to tend to. The good ole US of A lay unconscious with two factions competing for its soul. This isn't a new battle; it's been going on for 150 years. But it's time to settle the score for good or our grandchildren will be arguing this at restaurant tables and office water coolers for ages to come. As I put on my scrubs and open up my special box of equipment, let us set the stage for what's sure to be an epic struggle tonight in St. Luther's Social Issues Hospital.
There's this "artist" by the name of John Sims, who's had an exhibit at the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee this past week that's caused quite a stir. As a man of controversy I commend him, but it's led back to a bigger argument, which means I have to fuckin' work today, so thanks buddy. Anyway included in this exhibit by Sims is a Confederate flag hung from a noose on a 13-foot gallows in a display titled "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag."
Some of the locals down there have been offended by it, including the local leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter, Robert Hurst. I'm guessing his parents named him after Robert E. Lee, which happens a lot.
"They're alienating a large portion of the population around here," Hurst said. "Maybe they just wanted to cause some controversy."
That's my bag baby and I'm here to save our great nation from the two sides, or viruses, trying to take complete control of the national viewpoint on the meaning of the confederate battle flag.
"There are some people who have great talent, and they rely on that talent to be successful. There are others who don't have great talent, and they have to rely on a gimmick," Hurst said. Wow, that sounds like me. Fuck you Hurst. What's your great talent? Bitching to the press because someone made you fell unhappy?
On one side you have groups like the NAACP and people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, on the other it's the SOCV and Trent Lott and hell let's just throw the KKK in there for fun. Come on, it's always a party when they're involved.
My initial surgical maneuver is to state that both sides are right, and they're both wrong. Neither side understands the legitimate concerns of their opponent, both get easily offended, and you can't see clearly with tears in your eyes.
As a child, my father took me to a local historical site that was one of the stops during a Union raid back in the Great War. The historian was doing his thing, boring the small crowd to death. Trying to stay awake, an older fellow beside me asked about a "Rebel Flag" the historian was holding. Also known as the "Naval Jack," "The Southern Cross," "Beauregard's flag," "the Virginia battle flag," and the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, this famed cloth is called by some a symbol of slavery, and by others a symbol of southern heritage and pride. To be honest, it's both and that's the problem. The question asked was "Why do people see this flag, which was a battle flag and not the official one for the rebels, as a symbol of slavery?"
The response was typical, but the historian also noted that it's funny that people get offended at the "confederate flag" because it stood for slavery when the "Stars and Stripes" stood for slavery from 1776 till that war. Think about it, that's nearly a century chop full of slavery under the flag that we still salute every single day, and that our children pledge allegiance to every morning. Our great historical leaders that we have memorials to in the nation's capital were slave owners. Jefferson had slaves. Washington had slaves. But nobody protest there being monuments to them do they? That's why the whole fucking thing seems a bit hypocritical to me.
Here's the thing though, my next slice into the skin, which might spill a lot of blood. The Civil War was not fought over slavery! At least not by most of the individual soldiers anyway. If I had to guess, this doctor would suppose that of the millions of troops that took sides and picked up a rifle during the conflict there were maybe, maybe, 500,000 actual soldiers fighting to either free the slaves or keep them in bondage.
That war was fought by the soldiers over slavery just as much as this war in Iraq right now is being fought for oil by the soldiers, which is to say that, "Yes this whole war on terror and war in Iraq is over oil and the war between the States was basically just about slavery," but the men out in the field either didn't know that or didn't think about that. Back in that war, you joined up to protect your homeland. Or honestly, you joined up just to get a paying job. Because remember, the Irish and hordes of other immigrants from all over Europe were sweeping across the U.S. in search of work. When they joined the union and put on the blue suit, it was for wages. If they freed the slaves, most of them would come north and take up the remaining jobs and those immigrants didn't want that. Most of the fighters for the confederacy weren't slave owners; they were poor farmers. Only the rich had slaves. And just like the rich do today, few of them fought, they simply convinced or brainwashed their neighbors into doing the dirty work. And that's very similar to how Halliburton and Cheney have convinced our "poor" young men and now women to go and fight for "freedom" and "democracy" when really it's all about the Benjamins.
Many of the descendants of the actual slave owners are just as rich and powerful today as they were in the 1800s and they could give a damn for this issue.
So when hearing the concerns of the SOCV and those types, one must consider that most of their ancestors weren't actual slaveholders, they were poor workers earning an honest living when the call to arms came. Go rent the movie "Glory" and you'll see plenty of union troops talking shit to Denzel and Morgan. That's why I have so much deep respect for those who were abolitionist at the time, because as horrifically bad as it was, slavery was seen as a norm and accepted. And before the American Revolution, we had slaves under the British flag, but that flag doesn't offend.
Back in my hometown, there was this guy, who I believe also was the leader of the local branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who was a family friend. One night, our family went over to his family's house for dinner. His house turned out to be a museum, or better put shrine, to the civil war. There were artifacts everywhere, actual real preserved flags on all the walls, even manikins with some general's real uniforms draped on them. The coffee table in the den was on glass that covered a compartment full of bullets and bayonets, buttons and bugles. I wondered how his wife and daughter, who weren't bad on the eyes, could stand coming home to that place every afternoon. It was like taking up room and board in the Smithsonian.
This has made me see the point of Hurst and others like him, dishonoring the Confederate flag is a disrespectful thing to do. I do believe Hurst should shut the hell up because, come on, if we really want to get into who's been more disrespected over the years, African Americans or Sons of Confederate Veterans? So, I think the display was clever and proved a good point.
One thing I will note about those SOCV guys is that they're not the ones with mini "rebel flag" decals on their cars or shirts that say, "The South Will Rise Again" or "Hail Dixie." They're typically a bunch of history buff nerds who are as racist as the Reverend Jackson.
The real problem is the ignorant rednecks who do offend by using the flag and wearing those shirts, the ones who are racist whether they'll admit it or not.
Is it a sign for hate? Or does it represent our past and the people that fought for it?
You see our family friend didn't fly the "Southern Cross" from his porch. He just had 30 or so odd ones hung up in his house. And he did have quite a lot of union artifacts and flags around his personal museum too. The man just was obsessed with the war. What can you say?
And that's why I understand now, why the American "Stars and Stripes" or the British flag, or the Washington Monument, why they don't offend African Americans like seeing the "Southern Cross" on a car or in a window. When it's paraded around like that, it is intended to be hurtful and honestly motherfucking racist also. When George Allen, the former senator, flew a confederate battle flag on his car during his college years, it was meant to be racist. That's why when the whole Maccaa thing went down last fall, I told everyone "Don't believe him, he says he didn't mean it in a bad way; he's been racist his whole life." As I was writing this, I stepped outside the building to have a smoke, a man parked out front in a car that had stickers that said "I'm from North Carolina, but I don't like John Edwards," "Bush/Cheney 04," and not surprisingly the damn rebel flag decal.
To prove my point and finish this medical procedure and column I asked him, "Why do you still showcase that god forsaken flag?"
"To honor my heritage and my culture, and to show respect for my ancestors," he responded."
"Ok," I said. "Then tell me, what regiments were your ancestors in? What battles did they fight in?"
"I don't know," he retorted now beginning to get pissed off. "I don't research that stuff."
"Well, how are you honoring your ancestors or your culture, if you don't even know what they did?" I asked. "How do you know your ancestors weren't damn cowards who chose not to fight for either side and instead stayed home and ate sausage gravy all day? Wouldn't it be disrespectful to those who did fight in the war for you to have a decal of the battle flag, if your folks didn't even fight?"
"Yeah but who knows that much family history, I still know what honorable men our boys were," he said.
"Ok, besides Lee and Stonewall name one fucking southern general from that war, which you seem so proud of," I asked sensing he was on the ropes. And he said nothing, he just stood there. I flicked out my cigarette down on the ground in front of him, turned around and realized how complex this issue is.
To those who do want to honor the sacrifices made by their family, even if it was for a cause that proved to be immoral, that flag has meaning to them. For those who want to forget slavery, and the reason they're here in America now was man enslaving his fellow human being and bringing their ancestors here in chains on a boat, seeing the rebel flag anywhere out in public is a sad reminder of the unspeakable acts that man can be capable of.
So if the SOCV and other organizations want to admire or commemorate history, that's fine. But they should do it in the confines of their own home, and not flaunt it in the face of others. And we shouldn't fly the damn thing over government buildings or on public property, not unless the only people living in that whole area are ignorant punks like the good fellow I just talked to. I think we're past segregation now, so that can't happen.
That doesn't mean we should gather up all the flags and burn them, because after, all they're just cloth. If we want to end racism, we need to do it not by taking flags off poles, but by winning over the hearts and minds of those who can't see past the dreadful way they were brought up. And that means calling them out like I just did to the guy outside, one by one, until they're all gone. Then we can all walk together, hand in hand, into those museums and admire the flags for what they are: history not symbols.
The views expressed inside this editorial aren't necessarily the views of BallerStatus.com or staff.
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