When we arrived at the couple's house (which was more of a mansion), it was obvious they were very well to do. Their yard was clearly the handiwork of a professional landscaper; two luxury cars were parked behind a yacht in the driveway, and everything about the place oozed affluence. Well, everything except the Confederate Battle Flag fluttering at the end of a long pole off the front of their house.
"What would a wealthy, educated couple like this be doing with a Rebel Flag in their front yard?" I asked myself. "Isn't that more suitable for some racist redneck's trailer?"
That night at dinner, I asked the couple why they flew the Rebel Flag over their home. The professor quickly replied as if he had answered this question a million times:
"My ancestors shed their blood under that flag and several were even awarded the Medal of Honor. That flag represents my heritage, my distinct Southern culture, and a hallowed fragment of American history. I have as much reason to fly the Confederate Battle Flag over my door as I do Old Glory herself."
We discussed the subject for hours, and ever since then, I have held an entirely different view of the Confederate Flag. Not only am I no longer offended by it, but I also encourage people to raise their Rebel Flags without shame or fear of the militant multicultural factions of American society attacking them.
Kentucky played one of the most essential roles of any state during the Civil War. An estimated 130,000 Kentuckians fought in the war and President Lincoln famously declared, "I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game." Like it or not, Kentucky's history is indelibly marked with the scars of the Civil War; and those soldiers fighting in the Confederacy were simply fighting for the freedoms of the U.S. Constitution. Honoring their bravery by waving a Confederate Battle Flag in your yard is a celebration of your family's heritage and should not be twisted by modern interpretations. Slavery was an American issue, not merely a Southern issue.
In fact, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, "The prejudice of the race appears stronger in the States that have abolished slavery than in the States where slavery still exists. White carpenters, white bricklayers, and white painters will not work side by side with blacks in the North but do it every day in the Southern States..."
As Southern Americans, and particularly as Kentuckians, we should not allow the Confederate Battle Flag to be reduced to a racist symbol just so that, as one columnist put it, "professional guilt-mongers can point and say, 'see...see, racism is alive and well so let's throw more money at the phony idea of social equality.'"
Social equality should not mean that blacks can take pride in any part of history they choose (even if their self-proclaimed leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X were murderers), whereas whites can only honor those parts of history which minorities and the Left deem politically correct.
However, racism towards the South continues to exist and does not appear to be going away anytime soon. It is no wonder that the Left is so prejudiced towards the South: it's conservative, Christian, traditionalist, and resistant to cultural revolution. In other words, Southern attitudes stand in the way of Leftists' agendas. Thus, as usual, the Left finds it necessary to censor the South or berate it into submission by throwing guilt at its people.
As I was leaving the couple's house that night in New Orleans the professor warned me, "If the Left succeeds in removing the Confederate Battle Flag from the public sphere they will no doubt declare war against another emblem of American history: Old Glory herself."
I believe he is right. After all, shouldn't the Left consider the Stars and Stripes the ultimate symbols or slavery, racism, and sedition?
We must not allow the Left to make any more progress than they already have in this battle. They have succeeded in pulling the Rebel Flag from our State Houses, banning it from our schools, and removing its image from several State flags. We cannot allow the Left to outlaw this part of our American history and Southern heritage.
Pat Buchanan said it best when he wrote, " [If people] believe that the only folks who cherish this symbol are 'white trash' and 'yahoos,' that tells us more about them than it does about the South, of which they know nothing."
