Hangin with Mr. Lanzoff

This article was run by the AP in most of the papers around the country. After reading it, I started to revisit my own views on the “confederate battle flag.” Let start with a little bit of flag history.

The first confederate flag:

This was used for the first two years of the war and was done away with because it looked to much like the unions flag during battle. Which I find halirious when you think about the fact that the Confederacy knew they’d be battling the union in the their early stages why not go for something that looked at least a little different. Also notice the number of stars, 7 stars for the 7 seven sates (South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana) that secede in the winter of 1861. Keep in mind, this flag was used until the summer of 1863 just before Gettysburg. Despite four more states Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined in the spring of 1861.

The next flag had its issues as well:

When the wind wasn’t blowing it looked like the rebels were surrendering, I guess function was not as important as form. The huge white space was supposed to represent "the unspotted virtue and honor of Southerners and their fight for independence from the tyranny and aggression of northern states." The UNSPOTTED VIRTUE of those fighting to keep an evil institution which the rest of the western world had abandoned almost a half century earlier. This time we have thirteen stars. And yes there were only 11 sates in the confederacy, making the presumptuous move of including Missouri and Kentucky. I know there some abolitionist in just across the Ohio from here that probably got ticked off by that.

To dispel the surrender confusion this red bar was added in March of 1865. This is the flag the Confederate Army fought under until Appomattox, one month later.

So what’s with this flag?

Ya know that one that many claim is about heritage and not hate. The one that flies in shadow of the South Carolina State House, sharing the grounds with a statue of the eminent segregationist Strom Thurman. Well this flag was that of the Confederate Navy The they 5 or 6 ship only really used to shuffle troops back and forth along the South Carolina and Georgia’s coastal Islands. So during the war this flag was really insignificant.

The real significant use of that flag was by these fellows. That’s why the flag is about hate. That’s why there is no real reason to display it or hold it with any sort of respect. It is a symbol of a group founded in the North (Indiana, a state not even included in presumptuous 13) for the sole purpose of spreading bigotry hatred and continuing a system of oppressions which left a mess we are still cleaning up today.

And then there is the Georgia.

Notice they added the battle flag during the civil rights movement, clearly backlash. And even their current flag has overtones from the first confederate flag.

Now it know that many who fly this flag or slap on their bumpers or my personal favorite, a little Google search turned up this one (the irony almost hurts), don’t really understand all of these issues especially white suburban kids on real knowledge of the Klan and segregation comes from empty history lesson and textbook pictures. But the fact remains that flag is a symbol for many in a ideology and campaign of dehumanization. And that weight that it carries will never be lifted.