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Judge Not…
By Kate Burch
The ongoing frenzy to remove every symbol, every artistic
representation, of the Confederacy from public view provides yet
another example of what fallen creatures we humans are. Fallen
creatures and, too often, fools as well. Politicians and pundits
of the Left, especially—you know, the ones who tell us that we should
have a “nuanced view”—are pronouncing the Confederate flag a “symbol of
hate,” and even opining that merely seeing that symbol can incite
people to racial violence, so of course it must be eliminated from the
public square.
Those who wish to rename parks, streets, even colleges; to deface or
destroy monuments (I haven’t yet heard anyone propose sandblasting away
the bas-reliefs of Lee, Jackson, and Davis on Georgia’s Stone Mountain,
but that’s coming); and to ban books and films would rather erase
history than try to understand it. They tried that with
book burnings in the Middle Ages, and it really didn’t work.
The people in the American South in the 1800’s were not demons.
They were people, living in their particular context. Slavery was
part-and-parcel of their agricultural system at the time. It was
not only morally repugnant, but also economically extremely flawed and
doomed to failure, but it was what they had at the time, and, like most
people, Southerners did not want to have the rug pulled out from under
them and lose their self-determination and their livelihoods. We
should also remind ourselves of several uncomfortable facts. One
is that slavery had existed throughout the world for millennia. The
word, “slave” is from the word, “Slav,” reflecting the fact that most
slaves were not, and still are not, of African origin. Another is
that Africans very happily captured and sold other Africans to slave
traders for transport to other countries. Yet another is that the
United States and Great Britain were the only countries in the world at
the time to outlaw slavery, fulfilling the intent and the promise of
our Founders.
The darker aspects of this movement involve continued efforts to fan
the flames of racial animus for political gain by professional
race-baiters and manipulators who understand the weakness, laziness,
and sensation-seeking of the populace. Keeps them in a job. To the
excitable masses, getting on board with a program to eliminate the
Confederate flag can let them feel good about themselves with very
little effort. It would be so much better to stop, take a breath, and
consider the words of Matthew, “Why do you observe the splinter in your
brother’s eye and never notice the great log in your own?”
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