A Florida artist has announced his palsn to symbolically burn and bury copies of the Confederate flag(aka "The Stars and Bars" as opposed to the regular US flag- the Stars and Stripes) on Memorial Day in various Southern cities( when soldiers of the Confederacy are traditionally commemorated)
Now unlike the Koran( anybody remember "Rev"Terry Jones and his Koran burning stunt back in 2010?), the flag of the Confederate States of America during the US Civil War(or"The War Between The States as it is still known in the South) has NO religious significance and anyway criticisms of this move are pretty specious- esp given this flag's widespread usage by white supremacist and racist groups such as the KKK and White Citizens Councils.
During WWII and then the Cold War, Americans proudly "desecrated"(or burned) first the flag of Nazi Germany and then the Soviet Union and I myself have seen the Union Jack burned by Irish nationalists or Republicans during the "NI Troubles".
Some Southerners argue that the use of the "Stars And Bars" by the Klan and kindred groups is irrelevant and that the soldiers of the Confederacy fought Yankees(who of course were white) but given that the root cause of the secession of the Confederacy from the Union and the ensuing civil war was arguably caused by the South's determination to hold onto its "right" to own human chattels- ie slavery, this is at best a specious half truth. The "cause" of the Confederacy no matter how brave its soldiers may have been was no more"noble" than that of the Third Reich or the USSR!
Anybody think as I do?
Terry
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