Why the Confederate Battle Flag Will Never Truly Go Away

Why the Confederate Battle Flag Will Never Truly Go Away

It is entirely possible, and probably inevitable, that this symbol of the CSA will someday be removed from all official displays.

The article points out, quite accurately, that it will never disappear from view because of the First Amendment. Individuals have the right to display that flag, or any flag (even those with swastikas, for example), because the government is forbidden by the Constitution from preventing it: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech."

The First Amendment is the proof that American exceptionalism really exists. There is no other nation in the world in which the people are free to express their beliefs in public without restriction. That freedom has disadvantages, of course, as freedom always does, but there is one positive which outweighs the sum of every negative: our founding fathers knew that when the government is free to control what you may say in public, then the opinions you may express are entirely contingent on whom you vote for. There was a time in Germany when people argued that ANTI-Nazi speech was considered hate speech. Now, as you undoubtedly know, PRO-Nazi speech and symbolism is considered hate speech and is forbidden. That's progress FOR NOW, until the next far-right hate-monger gets some power and reverses it all, and that will probably happen, because the path of history is cyclical rather than linear.

As I see it, the First Amendment brings people's opinions out into the open and lets us view them. Let individuals display the accursed banner, because it makes a statement that lets the rest of us know whom to avoid.

But that only applies to individuals. No symbol of the power of a state, a city or the country should be flying a Confederate Battle Flag, and we all know why, no matter how some people try to cloak that banner behind a facade of genteel Southern heritage, or to claim that it honors fallen heroes. Sweep aside the bullshit, and it stands for a short-lived country that in turn stood for (let's be honest now) evil, and we should not honor evil, even though some gallant, beloved ancestors may have died bravely in its service.