Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Where has the Confederate Flag gone?

Since moving from Detroit to Fayetteville in 1993 I have seen a lot of change in this town and in the whole state. The one thing I have not seen change much is the display of the Confederate flag.

Whether it was at Fayette County High seeing all the hicks in Dixie Outfitter gear, or maybe while in traffic with the stereotypical 1987 Ford Ranger worth about my shoe, riding on $3,000 worth of big wheels, with Confederate flags all over the bumper and rear window.

Or maybe it is when I am driving up Ga. Highway 92 North to get to the interstate and see at least five Confederate flags per mile hanging from rundown homes who have nothing left but to live in a memory of when they were on top of things socially.

I guess my point is becoming more and more clear. Why are you flag people fighting so much to get a flag back that hasn't gone anywhere? I mean, is it not already enough to throw that piece of flag in my face everyday? No, it's not for you flag people. You want a state, a state of whom 30 percent of its citizens' ancestors were slaves, to endorse your flag too.

The difference between me (as you have probably figured an African-American) and you flag people is that I am willing to see things from your side. I understand that you associate the flag with your ancestors who fought and died for their way of life. But can't you flag people see that their way of life was my ancestors' slavery?

And I know that you are going to bombard this paper with letters saying that "ninety percent of the Confederate soldiers were not slave owners!" Forgive me if I do not give a damn.

Your ancestors died trying to preserve an institution that allowed murder, rape, and exploitation of labor. I am a sociology major at Georgia State. I am well aware of the class systems of different cultures. Seeing how most of the Confederate soldiers were very lower class and exploited by the Southern aristocracy, the only thing they had going for them was that, "Hey, at least I am not a slave!"

The only reason I am writing this is because I am tired of opening this paper up to see what is going on around this beautiful county, and I keep seeing you flag people not trying to see things from any other view than your own. Why do you flag people hear what you want to hear and believe what you want to believe?

That flag was passed in defiance of desegregation laws one year after Brown v. Board of education. Even the regretful legislators who passed it (back when African-Americans who could not vote had no say) admit to that fact. You flag people need to realize that as well.

No one is saying your flag is illegal to fly, wear on your clothes, or put on the back of your ugly, rusty, and muddy trucks. I mean, gosh, your flag is still on the state flag now!

Maybe I could understand your argument a little better if the Confederate symbol was completely gone. Just because the state flag is not dominated by the symbol, you get mad at the state whose views are not dominated by your own. You flag people are so against compromise!

All I am saying is that you flag people need to look at other people's point of view from time to time. And [as for] Scott Gilbert Jr., [who] tried to say that human rights progressed under the Confederate flag, you might as well give credit to the pole the flag was flying on too because that flag had nothing to do with civil or human rights.

So anyway, flag people, stop complaining. Although your divisive flag will not be the legal symbol of this state anymore, take a quick look around and you will notice that an outsider would think it is because that flag hasn't gone anywhere.

Phillip Hamilton

North Fayette