On the Confederate Flag

Short version: Removing Confederate symbols is okay with me. Talking shit about southerners is not.

There’s been a big move in recent years to remove Confederate flags and statues from public places. Some people are all gung ho to do that. Some people are all gung ho to stop it.

My feelings are mixed.

Background
I’m a southerner, born in Arkansas to a southern family. But I’m also a Marine Corps brat, so I grew up in a lot of non-southern places. My southern identity wasn’t a big issue in my life. Being Arkansan was, and so was being part of the broader Marine family, but the Confederate past was just history.

The only Civil War memorabilia I treasured was a history of the war in Arkansas and Louisiana that I bought and a history of the naval aspect of the war my father gave me. I had some other Confederate memorabilia, including a flag, but that was all purchased by a former wife who thought it was more important to me than it really was.

When I did some genealogical research, I found out that some of my paternal ancestors served in the Confederacy, while some of my maternal ancestors deserted from both sides. I found a southern ancestor who married a Union soldier and then married another one long after the war. I even found an ancestor who helped march a bunch of Arkansas pacifists to prison. I didn’t hold judgment on any of these people. They lived in a different time.

Fake Morality and the Core Issue
That brings me to the biggest problem I have with the anti-Confederacy movement today. When I hear someone thumping their chest about how evil the Confederates were, I’ve got nothing but contempt. Pretending that you can be morally superior by applying today’s morality to the past is cheap. It’s like digging up a grave to yell at the bones, and then patting yourself on the back for how well you told them off.

Beyond that contemptible component there are maybe some good reasons for removing emblems of the Confederacy from modern life. America has a problem with racism. If removing symbols of the racist past will help fix that, I’m willing to go along with the experiment, especially if those symbols are associated with modern governments. The only flag I’m loyal to is the American flag, so taking down the Confederate flag doesn’t bother me.

In fact, a few years ago I burned my wife-purchased Confederate flag. I was planning to make a video about it, about how I was willing to surrender a symbol that had only mild nostalgic value for me in exchange for progress toward a more civilized nation.

This is where the mixed feelings kick in.

The Fuck You Section
Before I finished the video, I watched an episode of the Young Turks. Cenk Uygur went off on a rant about how southerners were traitors and losers. He gloated over how we got our asses kicked, like he had something to do with it. He was the essence of that contemptible, fake morality I mentioned earlier.

My reaction was that I’m ready for a rematch. I really wanted to meet Uygur in combat, preferably on a traditional Civil War battlefield, and put a bullet through his greasy, arrogant brain. I’m a firm believer that if you want to use fighting words, you’d better be ready to fight. All that feeling of being willing to go along for the sake of peace evaporated in the face of punk Uygur's false sense of moral superiority. Took a long time to even begin calming down about him and everyone who talks like him

So that’s where I stand. Removing Confederate symbols is okay with me if it will help reduce America’s racial tensions, if it will move us toward a more peaceful society.

But if you think you can attain the moral high ground by talking shit about my ancestors, it's not peace you're seeking, and you’d better be ready to back up your words with blood.