An honor guard from the South Carolina Highway patrol lowers the Confederate battle flag as it is removed from the Capitol grounds July 10, in Columbia, S.C. (John Bazemore, The Associated Press)
Those who support flying the Confederate battle flag on state buildings and property claim that removing it insults “Southern heritage” and “the memories of those who died.”
Historians calculate that 100,000 more Union troops died during the Civil War than Confederate troops. Ignoring the obvious insult to the descendants of slaves, how is publicly flying a symbol of an armed insurrection not an insult to the memories of those troops who sacrificed their lives to preserve federalism, maintain the unity of the nation, and liberate an enslaved race?
And if honoring the “heritage” of a failed and defeated belief system warrants official government sanction and display, why isn’t the Loyalists’ Union Jack of 1776 flown over the state capitols of the 13 original colonies?
“Southern heritage” is a spurious argument for the continued visual insult and official sanctioning of a vanquished and disgraced belief system finding sanctuary in racist hearts and minds. One hundred and fifty years after the Confederacy was defeated, the time has come to remove the symbols of that shameful epoch.
John Wilkens, Boulder
This letter was published in the July 11 edition.
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