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Confederate flag haters should mind their own business
To the editor:
This letter is in response to a letter by Betty Tonsing (“Confederate flag is a wretched symbol,” Page A4, June 30). As I struggled to read through her scrambled history lesson from over 160 years ago, I soon realized it wasn’t about real history at all but about her narrow-minded view of what precipitated the Civil War. The majority of people in the South at that time were over 90% dirt-poor Irish/Scottish/English immigrants just barely eking out a living. Sure, you can single out the 10% who were rich cotton kings who brought poor, captured African slaves by the thousands to do the backbreaking labor. But in any country, you are going to find that upper tier of rich people who keep doing whatever dirty deeds they must do to continue increasing their filthy-rich fortunes.
If you do deep research on your ancestors, you might even begrudgingly find they had a slave or two even if just for domestic purposes. What happened almost 200 years ago is not relevant today. Like they say, “Nobody alive today had any control or part in Southern slavery.”
When it came to the Civil War, it was your area against an aggressive area that wanted to ensure you remained part of their country by any means, and sure, despicable slavery was a great reason to start a war. Imagine you were living in the South trying to preserve your area. People — especially back then — were fiercely loyal and patriotic. They were going to defend their areas just as Vietnam or Iraq did in more recent times. Whether right or wrong, most citizens will defend their cause and areas, and maybe 160 years ago they were easily coerced into battle as a “Christian cause.”
If you do a little more thorough research about the flag, you’ll be surprised what the Confederate flag symbolized. The red represents the blood of Christ. The White border represents the protection of God. The Blue “X” represents the Christian cross of Saint Andrew, the first disciple of Christ Jesus and patron Saint of Scotland. The 13 stars represent the 13 Southern states of secession. Thus, the message of the Confederate battle flag is “through the blood of Christ, with protection of God. We the 13 states are united in our Christian fight for liberty.”
Now maybe the top government brain trust of the Confederacy had evil intentions of continuing slavery, but to the common poor Southerner who only owned a small tract of land, it was worth defending to the death. Just like the Lincoln brain trust convinced its troops that they were doing God’s work in invading, killing and destroying the South. Was it really worth the lives of 600,000 soldiers?
Fast forward to 2020, and we are still hearing the same issues — mostly championed by liberal media and antifa and spoiled millennials just so they can get their 15 minutes of fame.
So, if the worst thing you have to deal with is that a near neighbor chooses to fly a Confederate flag; or a young guy is having fun, you should be grateful. There’s a great old country song by Hank Williams Sr. titled “If you mind your own business, then you won’t be minding mine!” Maybe you should heed those words.
If you want to live in a country that is strictly single-minded — one flag, secret police, one dictator, etc. — then I think Russia is accepting immigrants with that mindset!
By the way, all the folks in this area who I know who fly the “Rebel” flag are descendants of the Southern states, and it reminds them of their Southern family and birthplaces. What’s so wrong with that?
D.V. Dunn
Greenfield
