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The Confederate Battle Flag is perhaps the finest textbook example ever made.
It was an Army flag to identify units on the battlefield.
It's been a symbol of resistance to the evils done during Reconstruction.
It's been a symbol of racists from Reconstruction until at least 1992...
It's been nearly always used by Democrats when used for racism, come to think of it...
It's been a generic symbol of Southern Heritage and Pride (which always glosses over that slavery thing).
Still, symbols are mutable.
Anyone can walk off with your symbol and make it represent hate.
My copy of "Departmental Ditties and Barracks Room Ballads" has a swastika proudly emblazoned on its cover. Since it's a 1913 printing the likelihood of it representing National Socialism is very very VERY small.
Should I burn my copy because an Eastern symbol of eternity, luck and prosperity was suborned? Should we shun Hindus and Buddhists who still use it as part of their rituals and ceremonies?
Your symbol could be next. Any symbol can be next.
And don't think because you're flying a liberal symbol you're immune, because unlike a lot of people condemning the Confederate Flag, I've experienced real hate from people flying the "all inclusive" LGBT rainbow. Yet I still support their rights, because what rights they have are the same rights I have (if only we could get more people on both sides of this debate to become aware of that).
And just to go Godwin... Someone else had a rainbow...
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badges |
I was reading Margeret Buber's memoirs of having experienced the hospitality of first Stalin's, then Hitler's concentration camps (she said that the Germans' camps were much less intolerable) and came away with a great respect for the Bibelforscher. Unlike everybody else, they could have walked out of that KZ any time, merely by saying that they no longer were or wanted to be "Bible Students," and all would have been forgiven. Instead, they stayed right where they were. Now, I'm no fan of their cult of a church, or of the way they treat strayed members, but that took some real courage.
ReplyDeleteWhat's suffering in a concentration camp for a finite period of time compared to the eternal rewards of Heaven?
DeleteI'm picturing Sam Kinison (RIP) in a KZ...the SS are going crazy. He's yelling "You think this is bad? I was MARRIED for FIVE FREAKIN' YEARS! Compared to that, this is a REST HOME! AAAAH!"
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