THE REBEL FLAG

[HairOfTheDog]

I see more rebel flags today than I ever have. When people are told something is not appropriate they tend to do it out of spite. Such is the result of freedom. If you want something done tell people they can't do it.

That's exactly why I covet the first amendment so strongly.

Nobody in government told private citizens or businesses that they couldn't display or sell the Confederate Flag. Citizens and businesses can assign their own meanings and symbolism to the flag and do what they want with it. Same as it ever was.

Some who feel "their" view of the flag was attacked are displaying it more than ever, like the rebels they fancy themselves to be. Good for them.

I never saw a single person in government claim that the Confederate flag was to blame for the attack on the black church. That would have been ignorant. Instead, I saw politicians with knowledge of their state's history respond after a tragic hate crime against blacks push to the forefront the decades of complaints/debates about the Confederate flag still being flown/sanctioned on capitol grounds.

So, the time was right for a change and there was an opportunity to pluck that thorn from their sides, and down came a couple of Confederate flags at a couple of state capitols. After which, the knee-jerkin' extremists on both sides did what they do (exaggerate and exploit with fervor, milking it for all that they could while the iron was hot).

Some business owners exercised their free market choice to stop displaying/selling the flag; others exercised their free market choice to continue displaying and selling it. And some private citizens chose to buy Confederate flags and line the pockets of the fewer sellers in protest of a change they resent/resist. It's still a free country and that's still not a problem.

Anyway, now that the knee-jerkin' extremists on both sides of the issue have settled down a bit, it's clear in my view that the system worked as designed in this case. Nobody's "rights" were infringed. History wasn't "erased", though it was acknowledged. Some citizens support the change; some don't. Same as always.