|
Magnolia trees, screened-in front porches, syrupy sweet iced-tea, impromptu blue-grass jams, chasing fire-flys in twilight... those are symbols of the South to me and ones worth keeping. I can't see getting rid of the flag, but to me a battle flag is not something I want to wave or wear unless I'm still into the battle. I'm glad the North won and that we're the United States. And I had over 20 cousins of my surname fight in it. That's just the surname, I don't know the number of the branches. There's no shame, they were Scot-Irish dirt farmers not really much interested in it from what I hear and they didn't like slavery. And Madison, as well as others, considered that a split was probable, if not inevitable, at some point due to the differences between North and South. There were at least two serious movements afoot in New England to secede in the early 1800's, so it was hardly just a Southern thing. So the split came and then ended. Sort of. And, again, I'm glad it did. The battle flag is a part of Southern heritage and if you can take away the ugliness of slavery, there were serious issues that that South fought for. But I can't see waving a battle flag when peace and and a co-operative future are the objective. And I don't see how it is necessary to do so to honor those who fought and died. Or something like that. |
