by Al Benson Jr.
Living in Louisiana as I do, on occasion I do get to see Confederate Battle Flags, sometimes on someone's flag pole, but more often on the front of someone's pickup truck or car, in the form of a license tag. This grievously offends many who come here from the North, and even some Southern folks who ought to know better, but who have succumbed to the propaganda spouted by what ludicrously passes for the "news" media. I also come from the North originally (though I got here as quickly as I could). The Confederate Battle Flag does not offend me. I had one hanging on my office wall for years, even when I dwelt in the nether regions of New England, everybody's Unitarian paradise. Here in Louisiana I have a big Third National Flag on my office wall. I'd have one in front of the house but there's no flag pole on this property, and the property is not mine.
From time to time you see polls on the Internet asking something like "Do you think the Confederate Battle Flag should be taken down?" in some particular place. Almost always the poll shows support for leaving the Battle Flag up running about 80-20 in favor of leaving it alone. While I realize these are not scientific polls, they are a reflection of how most people feel about this issue. If the Battle Flag is flying in a particular place they want it left alone, regardless of the frantic desire of some fuzzy-headed liberal who moved here six weeks ago from New Jersey and is all shook up over it. This ain't New Jersey!
I recently saw a poll entitled: "African-Americans, Is It Time To Surrender The Battle On The Battle Flag?" Again, the results when I saw the poll were running about 87-12 for leaving the flag alone.
You'd think the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center would begin to get the message, but no, they don't seem to. Removal of the Confederate Flag continues to be a major part of their agenda, both because it is a Christian symbol and a Confederate symbol, so they will plod on with their irrational hatred of the flag no matter what.
Fly a Battle Flag in your front yard and that might just be enough to get the SPLC to designate you as a "hate group." It doesn't take much more than that with those people. And, as for the NAACP, if they were really dedicated to helping black folks to advance and better themselves you'd think they could find a better way to do it than fussing over the Battle Flag like they do. Who does that help? Why it helps the NAACP to get more support (and money) from gullible blacks who think the organization is really trying to help them instead of what it's really doing, which is to feather its own financial nest. Hopefully, some day, a lot of them will wake up to what a farce it all is.
Awhile back now, I saw comments on a news site by a James Bendy. I don't know Mr. Bendy, but his comments were so on target I felt they were worth passing along. Mr. Bendy commented: "Oh yes, indeed, it is long past time for the NAACP to give up their ridiculous 'struggle' against a mere flag. Before the NAACP leadership decided to issue their 'call to arms' against the CBF back around 1990 as a stunt to increase their dwindling membership and donations, no one minded either way about the flag. Now it is more popular than ever, and many people have learned the truth about it...The Confederate Battle Flag is undeniably the most recognized symbol of the South, not only in the South, but in the United States and across the globe. No other region in the United States has a symbol, much less a symbol so universally recognized...When the wall fell in Berlin at the end of the Cold War, the Confederate Battle Flag was there! Why? Because across the world, the crimson flag is a symbol of opposition to an oppressive government!" I know from personal experience that his comments about the Battle Flag regarding Eastern Europe are correct. My wife and I have talked to Eastern Europeans who called the Battle Flag "the freedom flag."
In Eastern Europe they knew what the Confederate Battle Flag stood for while dumb, mis-educated Americans were, and are still talking about being "offended" by it. You have to conclude that there has been something lacking in our "education" (on purpose).
Several years ago I talked to a Christian missionary from South Africa who, when he was in this country, bought six Confederate Battle Flags to take back with him to the Sudan in Africa where he was doing missionary work. Someone sent me a photo of him awhile back, with five or six black Africans, one of whom was holding a Battle Flag in the picture. The black man in the picture holding the flag didn't seem "offended" in the least. Might just be a lesson there for some of the race-baiters in this country--not that they'll listen.
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