Seen here
I can understand this falling under the issue of a school dress code, or being similar to the banning of "gang attire," or "sagging," and I know that "free speech" is somewhat limited for kids in school, and probably should be.
The "Confederate flag," however, is a separate issue. Like many people from Northern states-of all colors, and many other people of color from all over the country, I've believed the Confederate flag to be something akin to the Nazi swastika. I think I was wrong, and I believe when I'm wrong I should apologize. I think calls for the banning of it are wrong as well, though I think those southern states that continue to fly it over municipal and state buildings are making a mistake.
I once had some friends over for dinner and we were talking about how important it is to be sensitive about past injustices. My friend Patricia was chastising me for eating and serving grapes, because of the long suffering and protracted battle they represented for Cesar Chavez and migrant workers-and how it didn’t matter that they were Chilean grapes, grapes were still an offensive symbol of oppression. My friend Freddie then told of how his Navajo ancestors were murdered by soldiers, and the survivors were forced to leaace their homeland and march across New Mexico to the Bosque Redondo. Many died on the way. I asked him if those who robbed and killed his ancestors had a flag. Imagine my surprise when he told me that they were flying the American Stars and Stripes when they committed those crimes. Then my friend Janie, who was raised on the Lakota reservation, told me about her great-great grandfather, who was killed by Amercian soldiers at the Wounded Knee Massacre. I was speechless when she told me Old Glory was waving in the wind as American soldiers murdered her people. As we sipped our coffee, my friend Margaret told of how her relatives were butchered by Colonel John Chivington and his American soldiers at Sand Creek, in Colorado, and how the soldiers had murdered defenselss old people, women and children in cold blood. The soldiers mutilated the corpses, took body parts to Denver and paraded in the streets with them, When John Chivington ( Methodist minister) was asked why they’d murdered the children he replied, “Nits grow to be lice.” I asked Margaret if they’d flown a flag, and she told me that the American Stars and Stripes had presided on the killing field at Sand Creek.
I reflected on how, years ago in a religious studies class, the teacher had told us how the original Christian symbol was a fish, and how offensive the cross would be to an early Roman or Byzantine Christian-it would be like wearing an electric chair or hanging scaffold as jewelry, or using a gas-chamber as an icon.
Perhaps I need to stop flying the flag in front of my home, and remove the “Support our Troops” bumper sticker from my car, as they are offensive symbols to my friends, just as the Confederate flag is supposed to be to me. It seems that in a Democracy, free speech should end when it offends someone else. Now, I don’t believe that’s true, and I’ll continue to fly my flag proudly, as it doesn’t mean years of oppression to me, any more than it did to my dinner guests. I’ll probably continue to internally question why someone is displaying a Confederate flag, and perhaps be wary of them, and maybe even offended, but I’ll defend their right to do so, and perhaps even respect those sons of the South who view it as part of their heritage and pride of place, and it’s to them that I apologize.
I can understand this falling under the issue of a school dress code, or being similar to the banning of "gang attire," or "sagging," and I know that "free speech" is somewhat limited for kids in school, and probably should be.
The "Confederate flag," however, is a separate issue. Like many people from Northern states-of all colors, and many other people of color from all over the country, I've believed the Confederate flag to be something akin to the Nazi swastika. I think I was wrong, and I believe when I'm wrong I should apologize. I think calls for the banning of it are wrong as well, though I think those southern states that continue to fly it over municipal and state buildings are making a mistake.
I once had some friends over for dinner and we were talking about how important it is to be sensitive about past injustices. My friend Patricia was chastising me for eating and serving grapes, because of the long suffering and protracted battle they represented for Cesar Chavez and migrant workers-and how it didn’t matter that they were Chilean grapes, grapes were still an offensive symbol of oppression. My friend Freddie then told of how his Navajo ancestors were murdered by soldiers, and the survivors were forced to leaace their homeland and march across New Mexico to the Bosque Redondo. Many died on the way. I asked him if those who robbed and killed his ancestors had a flag. Imagine my surprise when he told me that they were flying the American Stars and Stripes when they committed those crimes. Then my friend Janie, who was raised on the Lakota reservation, told me about her great-great grandfather, who was killed by Amercian soldiers at the Wounded Knee Massacre. I was speechless when she told me Old Glory was waving in the wind as American soldiers murdered her people. As we sipped our coffee, my friend Margaret told of how her relatives were butchered by Colonel John Chivington and his American soldiers at Sand Creek, in Colorado, and how the soldiers had murdered defenselss old people, women and children in cold blood. The soldiers mutilated the corpses, took body parts to Denver and paraded in the streets with them, When John Chivington ( Methodist minister) was asked why they’d murdered the children he replied, “Nits grow to be lice.” I asked Margaret if they’d flown a flag, and she told me that the American Stars and Stripes had presided on the killing field at Sand Creek.
I reflected on how, years ago in a religious studies class, the teacher had told us how the original Christian symbol was a fish, and how offensive the cross would be to an early Roman or Byzantine Christian-it would be like wearing an electric chair or hanging scaffold as jewelry, or using a gas-chamber as an icon.
Perhaps I need to stop flying the flag in front of my home, and remove the “Support our Troops” bumper sticker from my car, as they are offensive symbols to my friends, just as the Confederate flag is supposed to be to me. It seems that in a Democracy, free speech should end when it offends someone else. Now, I don’t believe that’s true, and I’ll continue to fly my flag proudly, as it doesn’t mean years of oppression to me, any more than it did to my dinner guests. I’ll probably continue to internally question why someone is displaying a Confederate flag, and perhaps be wary of them, and maybe even offended, but I’ll defend their right to do so, and perhaps even respect those sons of the South who view it as part of their heritage and pride of place, and it’s to them that I apologize.
