We Need Reform Now: Flag Day, Flags, Statues, and Policies

The United States flag. Worthy of respect? A symbol of evil? Maybe some of both? June 14th is Flag Day in the United States. It's a day for honoring the United States flag. President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Flag Day in 1916.

Flags, statues, and other symbols have a variety of meanings for various persons.

This has been illustrated again in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, a few weeks before Flag Day. His murder led to renewed calls for much-needed police reform. Among other things, protesters chose to avoid standing for the national anthem at sports events and damaged statues.

Constructive reform is good. Wonderful! We need change. I hope reforms come soon and existing laws are enforced more effectively.

However, we need to do things the correct way. It’s wrong to vandalize statues instead of legislating to remove them. It’s wrong to destroy the property of others. It’s wrong to kill or injure innocent people.

Confederate Flags

Lots of persons are urging that Confederate flags be removed from public display. I agree.

Now is an especially good time to enact change while George Floyd’s murder remains in our minds. I think everyone (or almost everyone) who saw that video of George Floyd being kneed for 8 minutes give or take a minute, including a few minutes after he became unresponsive, even though he was handcuffed and stating he couldn’t breathe, agrees that we need to prevent such things from happening, and the officers responsible for his death needed to be prosecuted.

What does this have to do with Confederate flags? Confederate flags have negative connotations for many African-Americans and others. These flags are increasingly banned in many places, just as Nazi flags are banned in Germany.

For some, the Confederate flag may symbolize quality aspects of southern life, not slavery and discrimination. But the fact is that the Confederate flag designs came into being during a secession and war that was primarily fought over the issue of slavery. Furthermore, in recent years Confederate flags have been used as symbols by white supremacist groups and persons opposed to civil rights, equal rights.

As I see it, Confederate flags belong in history museums rather than on public display out of context. But as a proponent of freedom of speech, I support the right of private citizens to display a Confederate flag on their own private property--though I think it would be better if they didn’t.

Statues of Southern Leaders

Statues of prominent Southern leaders such as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis are controversial too. In 2020 a statue of Jefferson Davis (who was born in Kentucky) was removed from Kentucky’s state capitol building rotunda where it existed with a few other statues including those of Abraham Lincoln and Henry Clay.

I agree with the decision to remove the statue. However, I would prefer to have it placed in the Kentucky Historical Society museum rather than in the county where Jefferson Davis was born.

Indeed, I’d prefer to move the other statues in the rotunda to the history museum also. The state capitol building ought to be a place for all Kentuckians, not a place to honor a few specific individuals.

All human individuals have strengths and weaknesses. Henry Clay was called the “Great Compromiser” for his efforts to attain compromises between the north and south. But he was a slave owner. Robert E. Lee had numerous good qualities; in fact, he was apparently Abraham Lincoln’s first choice to lead the Union Army in the Civil War, but Virginia’s vote to secede (and maybe other factors) led to Lee declining the opportunity.

Abraham Lincoln is hailed by many as the greatest U.S. President in history, but his election and policies led to a war that killed a huge number of persons and to divisions that still exist today in this country. Indeed, many of the freed slaves who often had limited ability to read and write, and limited resources in other ways, went north to live in slums. In some cases their descendants remain in them now.

Numerous nations around the world ended slavery without a war, and I’m confident that the United States could have with better leadership too. Maybe not as quickly, but in a better way. Sadly, African-Americans even today suffer because of the improper way the Civil War took place and the aftermath of it.

Jefferson Davis was not an evil man. Abraham Lincoln was not a saint. Davis did much wrong. So did Lincoln. Civil War Monument and U.S. Flag The best approach to creating monuments is providing a balanced perspective, one that presents both sides. "Brothers Once More" is the theme of a civil war monument beside U.S. Route 23 near the top of the mountain above Jenkins, Kentucky that is pictured below. Well done! On one side the structure depicts both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. The other side depicts a military leader from the Union and one from the Confederacy. The monument focuses on unity, the nation being united again. The area near the monument features multiple United States and Confederate flags of different designs, but my U.S. flag photo is from a different location.

The United States Flag

United States flag photographed Oct. 23, 2016 near the Lexington, Kentucky courthouses

For many, including me, the United States flag is a positive symbol that reflects much of what is good about this nation. 

But, just as the Nazi flag and the Confederate flag symbolize evil to many, so does the United States flag.

Read history. Learn about the numerous times the United States military intervened for selfish reasons in Central and South American nations (and elsewhere), sometimes helping overthrow the nations’ legitimate governments.

Our nation stole land from the Native American Indians. Our nation enslaved African-Americans and Native Americans. Our nation intervened in Hawaii to protect sugar interests. Our nation took land from Mexico. Etc.,  Etc., Etc.

As long as the United States is in existence (which I hope is for a long time), the United States flag needs to remain as a symbol of the country. Persons have no right to vandalize flags at public buildings.

However, persons have a right to freedom of speech, a right to refuse to salute the flag. Jehovah’s Witnesses who put God, Jehovah, above the flag, have a right to do it and to refuse to stand for the national anthem. Native American Indians who choose not to support the flag have a right to do so. Maybe persons who disagree with such Native American Indians could leave the United States, since our ancestors who immigrated here took the land unlawfully from the Indians.     

Broaden Our Horizons

Going to school in southeastern Kentucky in the 1960s and 1970s, at times I attended segregated schools that were all white. In one town we lived in, I didn’t even know a large number of African-Americans lived in the town until one day I saw a gathering of many of them on a hill on the other side of the railroad tracks. I learned they were there and knew they deserved an education.

Growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s, I thought all Russians were evil Communists. I later learned that Russian people are human beings who love their families and want to avoid the horrors of war as we do.

Studying history superficially, I thought all Germans were evil in World War II as they obeyed Hitler. I learned later that huge numbers of “Christians” in Germany supported Hitler.

Growing up in southeastern Kentucky, I thought the United States supported freedom and democracy for everyone. I learned more later about the evil way we opposed freedom and democracy for women, Native Americans, African-Americans, residents of Central and South American countries, etc.

I learned how the United States government instituted and backed military coups to overthrow governments elected by the people in various countries in Central America and elsewhere.

I learned that there are secretive organizations that require prospective members to go through initiation rites, including hazing. These require prospective initiates to do wrong, thus enabling the organizations to get power over them. This is wrong too.

Hillbillies and African-Americans

The hillbillies (I like the term Appalachian-Americans too but am proud to be called a hillbilly.)  who immigrated to Appalachia and built log cabins, farmed, got water from springs, and built outhouses for toilets lived a tough life in many ways.

But even they didn’t suffer like the African-Americans who were slaves, prevented from attending schools, beaten, forcibly segregated, etc.

And many in my generation of hillbillies, including me, were blessed with reasonably good schools, stores, homes, etc., thanks to the coal companies and the prosperity they brought. Yes, coal companies did evil to some, but they did good for many too, including me.

I think it’s unfair to compare the hardships encountered by us hillbillies with those endured by African-Americans.  

Changes

Police and military brutality needs to cease. No-knock warrants need to cease. Yes, maybe in some cases evidence will be destroyed after officers knock. But my guess is that in such cases there was typically relatively little evidence to start with. The risks outweigh the potential rewards.

One of the things that separate the United States from many other nations is our relative freedom of speech and freedom of the press. We can read about and see pictured online many of the evils our government has done if we do research instead of just following propaganda from one particular group.

However, tearing down public statues is not the answer. Instead, I support relegating many inappropriate statues to museums with accompanying placards that explain their context.

Furthermore, we need to separate individuals from individual sins. As a Christian, I believe we all have sinned and fall short of God’s perfect will for us. But we can love one another and help one another. We can seek positive change. And we can do it peacefully.

NOTE:

This article submitted to Google Blogger on June 14, 2020 is a longer version of one published earlier the same day on Craft News Report, a website operated by his friend Paul Craft. This Blogger article was last revised on June 2, 2021.