Hillary Clinton just repeated a Democratic primary campaign tradition - the ritual condemnation of the Confederate flag that flies over the South Carolina statehouse. And she was right to do so. Flying the Confederate flag is not a time honored tradition, but was instituted as a segregationist statement of defiance against the federal government for the civil rights policies of the 50's and 60's. As such, the Confederate flag is an insult to those who put their lives on the line to complete what was the United State's greatest unfinished task. Those who fly the flag are implying that they only acquiesced to civil rights because they had to, not because they finally realized that segregation was wrong.
I wish a high profile politician would apply the same standards to the inclusion of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Again it is not an old tradition (like "In God we trust" on coins), but was added in the 1950s to contrast American religiosity with the state-mandated atheism of the Communists. The proponents of the phrase didn't understand that it was our freedom of religion (including the freedom to not believe) that made our system superior. Likewise, the Communist system was evil because it enforced a religious point of view, not because that point of view was atheism. Inclusion of the phrase "under God" is offensive to me not because I believe that all references to religion should be removed from the public square or that I am inferring unintended meanings, but because the deliberate intent of the phrase is to associate being a true American with religious belief.
On the other hand, if I had to run for office I would probably just let it go too.
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2 comments:
I agree with you - it shouldn't somehow be required to have any type of religious belief in order to be a true American. I get irritated with things like that too, and I never realized that the Under God part was added in the 50s.
Never having lived in the South, I think the proponents of flying confederate flags have somehow mistaken them as a symbol of Southern pride and/or nostalgia instead of finding them as offensive as others do. They are a product of a bygone era that we should be glad to see go.
Off my soapbox now - you and your wife Grace both have a way of firing me up!
Well said. Strongly agree, with respect to both Confederate symbols and the Pledge.
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