While in high school I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans as part of a school trip, and one of the highlights of the week was a small boat tour of a bona fide Louisiana bayou.
There are three things indelibly printed on my memory from that morning: multiple alligator appearances, the sight of teens our age diving unconcernedly from a swimming platform not far from aforementioned alligators, and the profusion of Confederate flags adorning nearly every cabin and waterfront property we floated past.
At first the sight of the southern flag was almost exciting, not unlike the moment when tourists catch a glimpse of something that is uniquely symbolic of the unfamiliar place they are visiting. Now I could say I had truly been to the South, I thought.
As we passed deeper into the swamp, however, the proliferation of Confederate flags became rather unsettling.
The surroundings probably had something to do with it. Many of the ramshackle cabins were built on small islands, others were affixed to tree trunks directly above the murky green water. Almost invariably, the columns holding up their sagging front porches bore the symbol of the rebellion.
It was as if, in these old shacks far removed from the bustling modern world beyond the swamp, the Civil War spirit lived on. The North might have won the war, but you would never have known it from the colors so proudly displayed there.
I remember a start of surprise when our boat rounded a bend and we found that one brave and probably unpopular cabin dweller had chosen to fly the Stars and Stripes instead. In the shadows of that swamp Old Glory looked pleasantly benign, out of place amongst countless examples of the vaguely more strident Confederate design.
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at the time, but I do remember a growing feeling of irritation about the flaunting of a treasonous and, in respect to slavery, outright evil symbol.
The recent killing of nine black church-goers in South Carolina – the first state to secede from the Union - by a white supremacist who was photographed with the flag has brought debate over its continued use to the forefront of national discussion.
There are many good reasons to remove the flag from Southern state capitol grounds – primarily, of course, because it represents a rebellious and oppressive movement of the past that still resides, evidently, in dark corners of the present.
Objectionable to intolerable
Still, the current rush to expunge all vestiges of the Confederacy - from flags and statues to school names and road designations – strikes me as a somewhat distasteful and opportunistic response to an undeniably tragic, senseless event. If everyone now clamoring for those changes feels so righteously convinced that they are needed, where were they two weeks ago? Why weren’t they fighting for that cause before the shooting occurred?
I understand that such movements often require a spark to ignite, but one doesn’t have to search far into the past to find other egregious examples of racial violence to use as motivation. The abrupt escalation of rhetoric at the national level – the way that the flag went from objectionable to intolerable overnight – is fascinating to observe.
I would certainly never encourage anyone to display a Confederate flag, and the names of Southern leaders that still are used for schools and highways must be a continual affront to many community members who view those individuals as oppressors. I understand why people are now speaking against those symbols, and I don’t disagree with them. It’s a valid point to argue that formerly rebellious states should not retain the symbol of their treason on their capitol grounds.
I am concerned, however, that in these knee-jerk, social media-driven times such causes that are deemed righteous by society at large quickly attain a pitch approaching hysteria that drowns out any sensible consideration of counterpoints.
One might suggest, for example, that large numbers of ordinary Confederate soldiers were simply fighting for their homes and their families, and out of loyalty to their state against a federal government they felt was seeking power it did not deserve. Not all were fighting to perpetuate slavery, and in a different context their motivations and their skill against greater odds might have been deemed admirable.
If someone is displaying the flag to honor Southern soldiers in that sense I might – without knowing their intention – still find it rather obnoxious and insensitive, but I also don’t think they deserve to be demonized.
Regardless of the social issue, when such drastic changes are suddenly seized upon and trumpeted as moral obligations we ought to have the wisdom to step back, fairly assess both sides of the issue, decide what is right for society as a whole and then act, not forgetting to extend a measure of understanding to those with a reasonable opposing viewpoint.
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