Wow. The pace of progress since the tragedy in South Carolina has certainly taken me by surprise.
If it’s taken me this much by surprise, it makes me wonder what kind of ideological whiplash those who would defend the proud display of the confederate flag must be experiencing.
Perhaps it’s just the enduring remnants from my child-like naivety, but I feel somewhat at a loss… at the sheer lack of social pulse-taking by the (thankfully few) voices who seem to actually be doubling-down on their ideology; that the confederate flag is representative of their heritage, and not a symbol of hate—or segregation, intimidation and resistance to racial equality—that it has stood for since it first became the official flag of the Confederate Army.
Heritage is a source of pride for millions of people and cultures around the world, and I wouldn’t want to deny any of those millions of people their pride. But to those in this country, who claim this flag is a symbol that is part of the fabric of their heritage, the critical question that begs to be asked is, “What exactly is your heritage?”
If I am wrong, and the millions of other members of the Human race are wrong—if it is about heritage and not about hate, then next question that begs to be asked is—why does it seem to be only—or at least most often brought out most prominently—during those benchmarks of our nation’s times of social pressure and civil unrest? Why is the tone of the voices of those who are waving it, so loud—and, without exception, accompanied by such vitriolic rhetoric?
Even the country of Germany’s consciousness evolved, and after their own process of collective national recalibration, had to reconcile how screwed up their legacy after Hitler was. Today, Germany appears to be doing anything BUT doubling-down. Rightly so, it seems they would be completely happy to have that chapter of their history quietly fade into oblivion. Millions of Germans are on record that they wince knowing this blemish will never fade. They’re horrified over this chapter in their history; that they let something like that ever happen. But…. the transgressions of Nazi Germany only date back to the 1930’s and 1940’s. The freakin’ Civil War was back in the 1800’s!! Really?
An old friend and mentor of mine once told me, “Anger is like a cold… it has to go all the way through your system before it leaves.” I can identify with that. There is no cure for the common cold, nor my anger at times. A cold is a viral infection, not bacterial. Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics. It really does seem like these double-downers, as they vigilantly cling to their beliefs, are akin to those strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Whether the battleground is a Petri dish—or the Battle of Appomattox, they won’t go down without a fight. I guess our hope as Americans is an optimally fortified immune system. Failing that… there is always the vaccines of education, enlightenment, and knowledge.
© 2015 mikegalke.com
