Flag has different meaning for different people
The Confederate flag, a piece of material that has different meaning for different people. To me is simply represents “The South.” Not oppression, not slavery, not white supremacy but simply “The South.” Where days are hazy and lazy, where mint juleps, bourbon and sweet tea are the preferred drinks. Where Sundays are spent with family, eating fried chicken and potato salad then later watermelons — seeing who could spit the seeds the farthest.
Family problems were taken care of at home. Family watched over troubled family members, protecting them as well as others from ridicule and percussion.
Violence was part of the society, but it was dealt with quickly and quietly not spanning decades and delaying the enviable. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, had a place in society, was proud of that place and worked hard to keep that place. So … what happened?
Can someone tell me when that first person said the flag didn’t represent him or her and why they think it doesn’t? You live in the South, you drink that same sweet tea, eat the same watermelon and hopefully spend Sunday with your family. When did the flag not represent you? Were you born in the South? Raised in the South? Educated in the South? We have memorials, holidays, parks, streets etc. that represent all that are a part of the South and that flag represents the South.
You did not come over on any boat; you were not held in bondage and you have been given the same education as any other person living in the South and that flag didn’t do anything to stop you from being what you are now.
Why are the negative things in the past so important that it has to destroy the positive things in the here and now. That flag doesn’t carry any more of an aggressive or repressed meaning than the flag of Texas, Alaska, Washington State and many others.
History tells us that the war was fought due to economic issues; the South fell but then it rose again and that flag flew the whole time. It has flown during the downs and the ups and now you want to tell me it means something that it doesn’t. It hasn’t changed: To me it simply represents “The South.”
Debbie Whitfield
Brooksville
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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