By Paul Gable
The removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of the SC statehouse last week seems to have unleashed a typical American overreaction.
That event seems to have been the catalyst for an overreaction by various groups to remove what they consider politically incorrect symbols throughout the country.
Louis Farrakhan has called for the removal of the US flag because slavery existed under it for a far longer period than it did under the Confederate flag. It seems Farrakhan forgets it was troops fighting under that flag that won the Civil War. The aftermath of that victory led to the 13th amendment and the abolition of slavery.
Which fact is more important? Neither, they are both facts of US history.
There are suggestions of removing the Washington monument and Jefferson memorial in Washington, D.C. because both presidents were slaveholders not to mention the statues and busts of the likes of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Nathan Bedford Forrest to name a few.
We criticize ISIS, the Taliban and al Qaeda for destroying religious and other artifacts of history in the areas they control because those symbols offend them.
Talk about infidels, are we to act the same?
On the other end of the reactionary spectrum, there is a statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the House of Commons in London. To me, this is roughly the equivalent of placing a statue of Jefferson Davis outside the U.S. Capitol, but the British try to learn from their history, not avoid, rewrite or forget it.
What is going to help the children of South Carolina more – improving the educational system, especially in the poor, rural districts, or taking down the Confederate flag?
Should the SC General Assembly have debated a more equal system of funding public schools to rid the state of the Corridor of Shame as vigorously as it debated taking down the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds?
Of course it should have, but it didn’t.
Is blowing up the Washington monument going to help the US economy? Of course not.
C’mon people, let’s worry about things that are important such as improving our economy and our schools, reducing the national debt and getting our federal and state governments back to functioning institutions.
Speak Up…