Pledging Allegiance to Hate
It's been 143 years since the end of the civil war, but that isn't stopping "The Sons of Confederate Veterans" from planning to fly the the "world largest" Confederate Flag in Tampa, Florida. What a statement on where we are in the country on the issue of race: Just as we are perhaps about to elect the first African-American president, a group is trying to get another $30,000 to make their dream of flying a 30-by-50 foot "stars and bars" on top of a 139-foot pole a reality:
Plans for the flag, which is part of a memorial for Confederate veterans, started about four years ago, said John W. Adams, a Deltona resident who co-chairs the Confederate Veterans' Flags Across Florida project. FlagsAcross Florida started about eight years ago, after the Confederate flag was removed from the Capitol in Tallahassee. So far the group has two major flags erected: one in Suwannee County along Interstate 75 and one in Havana along U.S.27. Adams insists the flag isn't about racism or slavery. "It's about honoring our ancestors and about celebrating our heritage," he said. "It's a historical thing to us."
That's like saying the swastika is just a "historical thing" about honoring German ancestors, and not a symbol of the Holocaust. And I'm sure there are neo-nazis who say just that.
|