Splicetoday

Politics & Media
Jun 23, 2008, 08:16AM

Flyin' the Stars and Bars, Still

Seems like every few years, someone wants to fly the confederate flag in a prominent spot, and the endless debate about the flag's meaning gets rekindled. Here's a UT student shows his displeasure with the flag's upcoming appearance in Hillsborough County, FL. Granddad would be proud, surely.

The Confederate battle flag adorns the porches, license plates and shoulders of millions of Americans, filling them with regional pride and historical fulfillment. Its starry blue X on a field of red is one of the most recognizable symbols in American history and represents decades of Southern culture.

It also represents everything that was and is wrong with the American South. Because millions of Americans find it hurtful and discriminatory, the Confederate flag should not stand for Southern pride, and it should not stand for Confederate veterans but what it actually represents: the violence, disunity and fear that the Confederate cause promoted. But in Florida, the Sons of Confederate Veterans plan on celebrating this dangerous image by raising a 139-foot flagpole over Hillsborough County, near one of the busiest interstate intersections in the state.

The Confederate battle flag is a symbol of hate. It represents the fighting that strived to destroy our nation and the violence that kept millions of Americans oppressed and afraid. As college students in Texas, we shouldn't be ignorant of this. In 2001, the Kappa Alpha fraternity at the University of North Texas waved the Confederate battle flag and shouted racial slurs at incoming black freshmen. Why did they wave that flag in particular?

Discussion
  • Aside from the stereotype of people "missing multiple teeth," it's hard to argue with Dan Glada on this one. The Confederate flag is an artifact, a part of American history, but it's offensive (at least to me) to fly it. You don't see (very often) the original American flag with the 13 colonies. There are obviously Southerners with ancestors who fought against the Union and didn't own slaves and weren't racist. They were defending their homes and towns and cities. But it's just inviting danger to fly the Confederate flag today, even if the motives are harmless.

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