Saturday, June 27, 2015

Point/Counterpoint: The Stars and Bars



Ding, ding, Round 2! Quite some time ago Sergio and James debated people carrying rifles into public places, like Starbucks. Well, the time has come for these two to duke it out again; man to man, beard to beard, and wit to wit. Who will win? Nobody knows, all we know is it will be fun watching the girls walk around the ring carrying the round cards as these two heavyweights continue their philosophical fight...to the BAR! Let the battle begin!


"Burn the Stars and Bars, or Use Them as Diapers"
Over the course of time, things change, whether it’s in appearance or meaning, and this is no truer than with the Confederate flag, aka, the “stars and bars.”

I guess back in the day, and by “back in the day,” I mean over 150 years ago, the rebel flag was a symbol for those fighting to leave the Union. Well, I don’t see any of those traitors alive and kicking anymore so why keep the flag flying at the capitol building in South Carolina?

Pride? What pride is there to be had? Pride of something your great-great-great-great grand pappy did? Show me a picture of him reading you a bedtime story. I’m sorry, but in this country we celebrate winners, not losers. 

President Jefferson may have once wrote that he would let any state that wishes to, leave the Union, but thank God it was Lincoln who was in office when the time came when some states tried. Like the UK is stronger as a whole and not with a separate Scotland, we too, are stronger as a whole, but I digress.

I would like to ask those who support the flag being flown if they also support reparations for people who had slaves as ancestors. If you are reading this and support the flag, do you? When I hear people say “Keep the flag! My relatives fought with honor under it,” I cannot help but think of ancestors of slaves who yell, “Pay me money! My ancestor worked their ass off for it!” To me, these two arguments are one and the same – ridiculous. Both are so long dead, it is funny.

Did you know the swastika is an ancient religious symbol and remains one for several religions? Probably not, and that’s because back in the 1930s an asshole made it his party’s logo, and since then it’s only been known as a symbol of hate. Along the same line falls the Confederate flag – it longer stands for anything to do with what William Wallace would call, “FREEEEDOOMMM!”

Stubbornness is the only excuse for the rebel flag to still be flying – well, that and another reason, I’ll give you a hint, and it starts with “r” and ends with “aceism.” 

Will it be a tough fight to get the flag taken down in South Carolina? You bet, as it will take a 2/3 majority in both chambers of the state’s legislature and some are already putting their foot, or in this case, their cowboy boots down and swearing to fight it.  

That’s sad to me. How can they be so blind to the fact that the flag is now the symbol for all the rednecks who would rather go to a lynching than to a library? 

If you want to fly a rebel flag and bathe once a month, go right ahead, I’ll just stay down wind of you. However, my tax dollars should not be going to maintaining flags based on ignorance and racism, on public property.

Besides, if you fans of the Confederacy really wanted to be accurate and fly the last flag used for your cause, it should be all white. 


"Bless His Heart"
In the South, we know what this means. Depending on the circumstances, there actually could be a number of meanings. For example, if you tried your best to win a local marathon, but just couldn’t finish, I would say, “Bless your heart,” meaning: you gave it a good go against adversity. Yet, if you’re stupid or downright wrong (possibly ignorant on some issues), I would say, “Bless your heart,” meaning: you’re stupid or downright wrong (possibly ignorant on some issues). So, it saddens me to say this to a dear, dear friend, and I say it with all due respect, but, “James, bless your heart.” 

I guess back in the day, and by “back in the day,” I mean over 150 years ago, the rebel flag was a symbol for those fighting to leave the Union. Well, I don’t see any of those traitors alive and kicking anymore so why keep the flag flying at the capitol building in South Carolina?
Traitors? The constitution defines treason as giving aid and comfort to the enemy. The South would have loved to leave in peace, just as I am sure the colonists would have loved to have separated from Great Britain without a war. The South’s secession is no different from the colonists’ secession from Great Britain. Does he suggest we have Great Britain take us back? “Hey, mum, we was wrong; totally wrong. We belong to you. Here you go. It’s yours again. Just like it always should have been.”

Was Thomas Jefferson wrong when he wrote, in the Declaration of Independence by the way: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

If that’s wrong, what the hell else in that dad gum document is wrong? Is our whole country based on a lie?

Also, I don’t see anyone alive and kicking from the American War for Independence, so I have no clue why we are flying the flag of the United States of America.

I’m sorry, but in this country we celebrate winners, not losers.
The old might makes right theory. We won, so we are correct. You see, I follow this thing called the non-aggression principle (NAP): nobody has a right to harm you, take tour property, or commit fraud against you. Now, the NAP applies to countries as well; we libertarians are finicky like that, not wanting governments to do things us regular people would go to prison for. Now, you can support this, which entails natural and just law, or the I-kicked-your-ass-so-I’m-correct theory. But if you support the latter, wouldn’t you support, oh, I don’t know, slavery since the slave owner won? Or rape? The rapist won, right?

I would like to ask those who support the flag being flown if they also support reparations for people who had slaves as ancestors. If you are reading this and support the flag, do you? When I hear people say “Keep the flag! My relatives fought with honor under it,” I cannot help but think of ancestors of slaves who yell, “Pay me money! My ancestor worked their ass off for it!” To me, these two arguments are one and the same – ridiculous. Both are so long dead, it is funny.
I am guilty as charged because I do support reparations. Remember the NAP? I’m going to put kidnapping under taking property since you own your self. Oh, it was legal back then to kidnap Africans and make them work for you against their will? I think we can agree that law was not exactly thought out well. Now, here’s where economist Walter Block sums my point up best:

Justified reparations are nothing more and nothing less than the forced return of stolen property-even after a significant amount of time has passed. For example, if my grandfather stole a ring from your grandfather, and then bequeathed it to me through the intermediation of my father, then I am, presently, the illegitimate owner of that piece of jewelry. To take the position that reparations are always and forever unjustified is to give an imprimatur to theft, provided a sufficient time period has elapsed. In the just society, your father would have inherited the ring from his own parent, and then given it to you. It is thus not a violation of property rights. Precisely the same analysis applies to slavery. Those people who owned slaves in the pre-civil war U.S. were guilty of the crime of kidnaping…

Like Mr. Block, I believe it is not the government who should pay up, but the family. So, since reparations are not ridiculous, neither is flying the rebel battle flag.

Stubbornness is the only excuse for the rebel flag to still be flying – well, that and another reason, I’ll give you a hint, and it starts with “r” and ends with “aceism.”
My lovely friend is insinuating that the South was, and is, racist. I guess it doesn’t exist in the North. No, wait, some people would disagree and wrote articles about the North’s current racism: (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/24/racism-us-north-south-confederate-flag and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/opinion/sunday/when-will-the-north-face-its-racism.html?_r=0). Now how can racism, without a flag that supposedly means racism, exist in the North?

And they were pretty racist back in the day, too. Take the Brown family of Rhode Island: he was one of the biggest slave traders in the country at the time. He used the ports in Newport and Providence to import human beings and then sell them down south. Brown University, which bears his name, was created with slave labor. Also, don’t forget these amazing words by good ol’ Abe Lincoln: “Senator Douglas remarked… this government was made for the white people and not for negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, I think so too.” And: “I say that we must not interfere with the institution of slavery . . . because the constitution forbids it, and the general welfare does not require us to do so.” You can find more Lincoln quotes on how he really felt in the book The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln by the man himself. Get yours today! (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143447710X?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=143447710X&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell)

The flag in question also flies in southern Italy. Why? You can do an internet search, but it’s because they, too, had their “lost cause.” What we call northern Italy wanted unification (you see, prior to 1861, there was no Italy; just the top of a boot that was independent, and a bottom of a boot that was independent) with what we now call southern Italy. Southern Italians felt that that a unified land would not have their best interests, so they fought, and lost. They feel it parallels the South in the U.S. It’s also why southern Italians fought for the Confederate States of America; it wasn’t because they believed in slavery.

Racism comes from within. Maybe people learn it. The symbol they use, or what they took and misappropriated, does not change this. Eliminating an inanimate object will never rid us of racism. And how far do we go to eliminate what are symbols of hate? Are we going to remove the Lincoln Monument? My friend’s tax dollars are paying for that. Do we demolish Brown University? I don’t have the answers, but I do know that there has been lazy thinking happening around this flag (the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia; it is not the flag of the Confederacy).