The War is Over - the Union Prevailed - “Take Down That Flag”

“Take Down this wall” was the now famous imperative that Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev with in 1987.  Two years later that wall was taken down by the people of East Germany; that nation was re-united and the Cold War ended.  All within 45 years of the end of World War II.

The  American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865.  And it seems like it has continued to be fought in the halls of government and in the minds of Americans and in the media that entertains us for the past 150 years.  We debate the cause of that war when it is clear in the very declarations of secession that the underlying motivation was to preserve the system of slavery and bondage that underpinned the southern economy.  We admire and even revere the good men who fought against the Union such as Robert E. Lee and we even overlook those who displayed sadistic and racist aspects such as Nathan Bedford Forest.

The northern states, unexpectedly magnanimous in victory, restored the southern states and allowed the restoration of pre Civil War conditions (except for de jure slavery). The southern states, defiant in defeat, re-enslaved the African Americans with Jim Crow laws and segregation and thumbed their collective nose at the United States of America.

By way of full disclosure I should say that three of my great great great grandfathers fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Whether their units, from Alabama and Georgia, ever fought under the battle flag of Lee’s army - the Stars and Bars - I do not know. I do know that my great great great grandfathers did not own slaves and like many white southern farmers fought for what they believed was their land and their homes and their families.  That they were misled and used by economic interests and plantation owners who depended on human bondage as their source of income is an historical fact.

Another of my great great great grandfathers, a native of Tennessee, fought for the federal union.  He fought to preserve the Union but the nature of the struggle was such that it became, on the union side, a battle, even a crusade, to end slavery.

One hundred years after the start of that Civil War a movement began to reclaim for the African Americans of this country the rights that were assured them in the Constitution by the amendments passed after the North (Union) was victorious.  Those who opposed that movement and held on to the ignorant belief in white supremacy raised the Confederate battle flag as their symbol.  And like minded Americans began to use that flag, and place it on badges and license plates and car decals to send a message of solidarity based on hate.

Decent Americans overlooked this and in the spirit of the First Amendment and Lincoln’s pleas for reconciliation thought well let them play with their symbols of a lost cause.  Now the battle flag of the Confederacy is incorporated in three state flags; it is found in the halls of the national Congress; it flies at public buildings and is treated with respect. Only in America would the battle flag of a rebellion, i.e. treason, be accorded such deference.

Now finally 150 years after the surrender of the last Confederate troops there is a rising outrage at the use of this symbol of hate. Retailers are now refusing to sell these items; and some manufacturers refusing to produce them.  White Political leaders of southern states are calling for an end to the use of these symbols. 

All this because a sick young man motivated by a misguided belief in the supremacy of one race and an admiration for what he believed was the cause of the Confederacy, shot and killed nine peaceful citizens as they prayed in their church. He did so under the banner of that rebel battle flag and he chose his victims because they were black,

It is too soon to know whether South Carolina will listen to the son of Strom Thurmond and take down the battle flag from the capitol grounds.  We will have to wait and see if Mississippi follows its US Senators and removes the stars and bars from the state flag or whether Georgia will then follow suit...

The massacre at the AME church in Charleston SC could fade into history and become just another episode in the racial conflicts that have engulfed this nation since colonial days.  Or perhaps, just perhaps, the shots fired inside the AME church in Charleston (the city where the first shots of the Civil War were fired) could become the last shots of the American Civil War. Let us pray God that this be so.

When Abraham Lincoln was asked which side in the War, North or South, God was on he replied that the real question was who was on God’s side.  This nation has an opportunity to be on God’s side - Take Down This Flag - Remove These Symbols. 

25 June 2015