Quote:
Originally posted by kafromTN
I'm sure someone will point out "oh, but Mark, Lynyrd Skynyrd plays in front of a large confederate flag, they must be racist."
To that I say you have to have an understanding of the South, not just in historical view point but also the culture...
If you say that since racist groups have used the confederate naval jack we should totally abandon it, I ask haven't those same groups used the Bible, should we abandon use of that? Just b/c a group misuses a symbol doesn't change the meaning to what the group says it is.
-Mark
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You just nibbled; I'll bite.
I agree with what you said, and I hate when people think like that. My boyfriend came over one day wearing a Confederate flag belt buckle. My roomate told him he should be ashamed of it. She also told me I should be ashamed of singing "Dixie" when I went out one night and saw a country band playing. (Interestingly enough, she was born in Alabama and currently lives in Texas. Guess it was all those years in Connecticut and New Jersey and Pennsylvania.)
Yes, it is true that horrible things happened IN THE PAST under that flag. I am truly sorry it happened. We are still working toward rectifying the wrongs that were done. The major principle the Confederacy was fighting for (states' rights...to have legal slavery) is not something I agree with or condone in any way.
Yet, I feel that flag represented something more--it represented an entire culture. Obviously, one of the major pillars of that culture has fallen. But the truly important ones, like taking life easy and enjoying every minute of it (even the unbearably humid, hot summers), remain intact. Those are what that flag represents to me today.
That's why I get highly offended when someone uses the Confederate flag to symbolize white supremacy or any other such crock. I also get highly offended when someone tells me I ought to be ashamed of or burn something that represents the history of where I and my family are from, and thus who we are. Telling me I can't be proud of the last 140+ years of history because part of it was horrible for someone is stupid. It's like telling a modern-day German that they can't be proud of being German because Hitler killed millions of people. And telling me that I can't be proud of the culture I come from is like the argument that people moving to the US should speak only English. Yeah, it makes everyone else comfortable and makes their lives easier, but at the expense of losing some of their cultural identity.
So I will sing "Dixie" and Alabama's "Song of the South" 'till the day I die. I will remember that I'm not but a couple of generations out of the cotton patch myself. I will smile at the irony that my best friend, president of the Auburn chapter of College Democrats of America, removes his hat at the opening strains of "Dixie." I will probably never live in the small towns that I grew up in, but I know I will never leave the South. It's a hell of a good time living here, even if I'm seen as backwards or stupid by those from other parts of the country. This is who I am; this is what I love. So what if it's not perfect, what in life is?
I'll leave y'all with this:
...and my home's in Alabama,
no matter where I lay my head.
My home's in Alabama,
Southern born and Southern bred.
Hybrid Mode
