With greater issues looming (libel suits for writing to the paper, dictatorial mayors, etc.) this is my last letter on the flag issue; but Mr. Gilbert's entreaties deserve a reply.

Mr. Gilbert somehow finds insult in history, which is perhaps a reason why he treats the facts so lightly. On the one hand he never addressed the disenfranchisement of people of color in almost every Southern state; their relegation to second-class citizens in public retail, eating areas, and transportation; their less than equal treatment under the law, and separate education, all with the blessing and power of state government.

Instead, he pointed to numerous race riots in other sections of the country, and even had MLK Jr. on his side. So by a clever twist, Mr. Gilbert achieved apparent moral parity, at which point we're just talking about a difference of opinion. And it all applies if one believes the government-enforced evil of the former is no worse than the personal bias of the latter.

His treatment of this and other relevant issues is typical of those wishing to make a point when overwhelmed by evidence to the contrary. Maintain your dogma, and look for obtuse facts to divert the debate, or as the Wizard of Oz said: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

Which brings us full circle to the flag. If the civil war was all about freedom, then there is no burning moral issue for anyone, even us guilt-ridden Yankees. If it was fought to preserve and protect slavery, well, that brings up some questions on its symbols.

The evidence that it was fought for the latter is so complete, I have trouble understanding how anyone could believe contrary. On the other hand, a famous libel suit is taking place in London even now concerning another well-documented historical horror, so who knows the limits to man's self-delusion? Just for the sake of argument, I've compiled a list of names and events which gather in momentum and degree as sectionalism grew in the United States. If you look them up, notice the common thread.

1817, American Colonization Society; 1817, ”The Philanthropist; 1817, Underground Railway; 1819, Missouri Enabling Bill amended by Tallmadge; 1820, Maine-Missouri bill or the Missouri Compromise; 1822, Denmark Vesey conspiracy; 1829, Walker's Appeal; 1831, Nat Turner rebellion; 1831, William Lloyd Garrison, “Liberator”; 1833, American Anti-Slavery Society; “We of the South will not, cannot surrender our institutions” — J.C. Calhoun; 1837, Elijah Lovejoy; 1840, James G Birney; 1844, Admission of Texas; 1846. Mr. Polk's war; 1846, Wilmot Proviso; Doughface, Free Soilers; 1849, Calhoun Address of the Southern Delegates In Congress; 1850, Clay and Webster, Great Compromise; 1850, Fugitive Slave Law; 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin; 1853, Kansas Nebraska Act; Border ruffians, ballot stuffing, Beechers' bibles, Sons of the South vigilance committee; 1854, Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”; 1856, Caning of Charles Sumner; 1857, Dred Scott; 1857, John Brown at Harper's Ferry; 1860, Abraham Lincoln elected President; Dec 20, South Carolina secedes.

The evidence is there, but Mr. Gilbert and his ilk will neither examine, nor accept it. I accept that most Southerners did not go to war to preserve slavery. They went for all the same reasons men always go to war, which seldom is the same as the government that declared it. The Confederacy even went to the trouble of including slave owners' rights in their constitution in case anyone forgot what it was all about.

Most of us are pretty sanguine about slavery. It was wrong, but it has been gone for 135 years now so what's the big deal? Walk in a slave's shoes in your mind; picture your having no control over your life or your children's lives. You are at the mercy and whim of another every second you live up to and including forfeiture of your life with little hope of ever being free. It was a terrible crime and the state should have no part in glorifying its remembrance.

Timothy J. Parker
Commander A. Lincoln Camp 1
Sons of the Truth in History
Timsueparker@cs.com

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