Wounds do not Heal When Images of Injustice Remain

   Along with many in our nation, I consider anew whether we should have all these statues, flags, and symbols from the Civil War. Do we tear them all down? Will it reach a point where having the Confederate battle flag on your T-shirt is considered a hate crime?
   Is the Confederate flag nothing more than a symbol of regional pride? Is it simply a nice-looking symbol that people display because it is nice looking?
   I also consider this: Are some who fly the flag secretly racist? (Some, I say, not all.)
   The nation is embroiled in controversy over this (and other racial topics). Sometimes, the best answers are those that unite, not divide, and, I see a nation divided by this debate. Would we be better to let these images, flags and statues remain as acceptable, in the name of not further dividing our nation, for surely our nation is being divided by the debate? Do we put the debate down and unite under the belief that no harm is intended?
   But, even as this thought sweeps through my head, another thought comes. Perhaps ridding ourselves of these symbols is a step we must take if we are ever to end racism, something we must go through to get to a point we need to be at. I can see how, if we continue to see the Confederate battle flag as an acceptable image, it will always be a burr to some black people, always be viewed as an image that puts them down and justifies the day when they were slaves. The flags and the images and the statues will always be there to stir up feelings on both sides, if we let them remain as acceptable.
  Wounds do not heal when images of injustice remain. Not if they remain acceptable, anyway. We are more than 150 years beyond the Civil War and yet racism remain. We have not fully healed from the scars. Allowing these flags, and statues to remain around is is not alone the cause of our lingering racism, but it contributes to it.
   I do not say we should make wearing a T-shirt with the Confederate flag on it a crime. Not at all. But, I do say we should teach each other that it is not acceptable to wear that T-shirt. We can never fully unite as a nation if these images are forever splashed in front of the eyes of the blacks, making them wonder if the display of them is a way of putting them down. These images will forever be as a burr. Further, while the images are, truly, no more than displays of regional pride or beautiful symbols to some, to others they are a way of honoring racism while not confessing to it. There are those who will not admit to racism, but who wear the Confederate flag at least in part because they do have some feelings of ill will toward blacks. If we ever want to be fully united -- blacks and whites together -- we need to reach the point where it is no longer acceptable to express inner feelings of discrimination while masking them as nothing more than regional pride. I repeat, the good portion of Confederate flag wavers might be completely pure in their intentions, not being racists, at all.
   But, some are.
   Further, if you have even only a small amount of racist feelings in you and you allow yourself to practice it, you feed those feelings. You are fooling yourself, if you say there is no harm in this, if you say what you do is innocuous. If you say you mean no harm, so no harm is done, you are not facing the reality that your action does, indeed, harm another person. Allowing inner feelings of racism in yourself to fester and to be fed is a mistake. We are what we practice. If you leave just a little hedge for ill feelings toward others -- in this case, the blacks -- that hedge becomes a part of you. Those feelings will not go away as long as you allow the hedge. You have fed them and they remain. You cannot just justify what you do by saying they should get over it and not be so sensitive.
   If we are ever to get over racism -- ever to cure ourselves of it -- we must reach a point where we do not want to hurt each other. In this case, that means we must realize the Confederate flag is not appropriate. It is not that we should outlaw it. But, we should make it unacceptable.
   Just as the N-word is wrong, so is the Confederate flag. I should qualify that: Yes, flying the Confederate flag is not yet considered so offensive, so wrong. But, both acts hurt the blacks. Both are viewed by them as a way of putting them down. In that sense, I repeat, even as the N-word is wrong, so is the Confederate flag.
   There was a day when uttering the the N-word was more acceptable. That day has passed. Even so, the day may come when when we realize waving the Confederate flag is wrong.

(Blog last edited 8/20/17)