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The Final Fall of the Confederacy

6/24/2015

Take down that God-forsaken flag!

After the horrifying events of last Wednesday night, June 17, in Charleston, SC and all the hate embodied in the Confederate flag and all the rallying symbolism of that flag for white supremacists and racists throughout the United States, it far past the time when all traces of the flag of the Confederacy should be taken down and should also be removed from states’ flags, as well.

Yes, there were brilliant generals and brave soldiers fighting for the Confederacy. I don’t care.

Maybe there was a time when that flag meant something—anything—that sounded like valor or honor. So what.

Did you know that the swastika was once a Tibetan good luck symbol? Not anymore. Symbols change and the symbol of the Confederate flag is rancid with racism and ignorance.

In the United States, we are forever talking about the flag and what it symbolizes. We talk about the freedoms represented in the American flag and the valor and heroism of those who died to defend what it symbolizes. Symbolism is alive and well in the Confederate flag also.

The Tennessee state flag

That Confederate flag is an unnerving but enduring symbol of all that is wrong with America now as much as then: the division, the animosity, the separatism and …wait for it…the racism that still pervades our society. And it is found in so very many of the state flags of the southern states.

South Carolina may not have the Confederate flag in their state flag but that because they fly the real thing! Other states, however, keep the flag alive within the stitching of their particular state flags.

Look at the Tennessee state flag with its red field and the circle of stars. Perhaps it is not as blatant as some states’ flags in the obvious connection with the flags of the Confederacy, but it is there.

Arkansas also has the red field with its triangular shape, a connection to various regimental flags of the Confederacy. But the single star above Arkansas’ name on the flag represents its membership in the Confederacy.

Alabama’s flag may not show the blue and red Stars ‘n Bars but the single red “St. George’s Cross” bears direct resemblance to some Confederate battle flags.

Florida’s is much the same as Alabama’s flag with the addition of the state seal in the cross section. Florida also used to fly the Confederate flag at the state capitol building and then-governor Jeb Bush had it removed.

Georgia’s flag may look innocuous enough but it is actually based on the first "national" flag of the Confederacy. And don’t forget the 13 stars of the hoped-for 13 states within the Confederacy. As it turned out, only 11 states joined with Kentucky and Missouri staying out.

Without a doubt, the most egregious example is in the state flag of Mississippi. Shocked, right? The Jack part of the flag (the upper left-hand corner) is the Confederate battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. The designer, a Mississippi state senator, wanted to “perpetuate in a legal and lasting way that dear battle flag under which so many of our people had so gloriously fought."

What a load.

It is long past the hour when the symbols of racism and treason should be removed from the public forum. Not only the battle flag of the Confederacy but remove the symbols from the state flags as well.

Symbols are important. Paul Ricouer said in "The Symbolism of Evil" that "the symbol invites thought." The thoughts invited by this symbol are all too clear: treason, hatred, racism. There is nothing noble there.

Take down that God-forsaken flag!

Set it on FIRE!

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Beyond hatred, beyond racism, a Grace endures at Mother Emanuel.

6/22/2015

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This past week saw one of the events I have anticipated from Pope Francis for several months now—the publication of his encyclical. But this is not the burning religious or social issue that has consumed me for the past several days. What has captured my horrified attention are the events of Charleston, SC.

Last Wednesday, June 17, 2015, a young man walked into Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church on Calhoun Street. He sat among the worshipers, seemed to pray with them and, after almost an hour, stood in their midst and murdered nine of them.

Mother Emanuel is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church in the South. It has been a hotbed of the civil rights movement. It has been the target of racist hatred, even in the mid-1800s. But it was always a sanctuary, a sacred place, a place to come together in unity of worship and uniformity of purpose.

It has been violated.

In my own life, the church was not a place of safety for me. The church was not a place to feel protected. But I want that for other people. I want believers to have a place where they can go for sanctuary and solace. Now an evil young man has tried to rob that from these dear people.

Is he mentally ill? What he did is not a sane act…unless he has chosen to accept that absurd racist dogma as the truth. It is not enough to call him “troubled,” or “misguided” or even “insane.” Those phrases do not come near the problem at hand.

He is a thief in a society of thieves. In a house dedicated to the one who came to give life, a thief entered who came to “kill and steal and destroy.” Surely, he killed the nine worshipers and ministers. He attempted to steal their hope and their security. He wants to destroy the legacy of a people who are part and parcel of American History.

Understand. American History is Black History. Twenty Africans were sold into slavery at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia in 1619—only 12 years after the founding of Jamestown.

Africans were here before the Pilgrims were. Whereas the Pilgrims came willingly aboard the Mayflower, the African slaves were brought by force aboard a Dutch warship.

The entire African and African-American experience in North America has been one of terror. Dr. Cornell West pointed out that 9/11 was nothing new to the African-American. They had been brought to the New World in terror. They had lived under slavery in terror, then under Jim Crow in terror. Four little girls were burned to death in a church in Birmingham in 1963. Nothing but terror.

And every day of their lives, our African-American friends in South Carolina (and other places in the South) are forced to look at that flag of ignorance and hatred. When they go to the courthouse, to school or any place else, they must be reminded that they are under the lidless eye of racism.

Don’t tell me that the Confederate flag is a simple of heritage. It is a symbol of segregation and the only heritage it represents is a heritage of hatred. I was born and raised in the South. Those who flew that hateful rag were always of the same ilk.

There were no “glory days” of southern culture. They preached from the Bible from a slanted and sick interpretation used to force slaves into submission to their “masters.” There is nothing from that culture that we should bring forward into the present.

The President is correct—“That flag belongs in a museum.”

And now a white supremacist walks into a church and murders nine people in a Bible study. Some people might call him a Christian Extremist, even.

You may notice that I do not call the murderer by name. Some people do not deserve to be remembered and he is one of them. He is not a soldier of a lost cause. He is a terrorist and a perpetrator of hatred.

But before I allow myself to get swallowed up the unadulterated despite I feel for him and his racism—and I may be past that already—let me speak of the Grace of a people who have been too often and too heinously wounded.

Nine people wo gathered together to worship as they chose: the Rev. Clementa Pinckney; Tywanza Sanders; Cynthia Hurd; the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton; Ethel Lance; Susie Jackson; the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr.; and Myra Thompson.

I have asked the question before and I will probably be asking the same question for many years to come; How do they not just burn everything down? Certainly there were race riots in Detroit and Watts and other places. But how is it that our African-American brothers and sisters time and again reject the path of despair and hatred and choose the way of patience and understanding? How is it?

How is it that they bury child after child and man after man and still return to the sanctuary of decency and nobility? How is it?

Is it because they can lean on their faith and belief and find strength? Is it because they know what community really means? When in times of heartache and grief, loss and destruction, they know that they are there for each other?

The families have shown incredible grace and love. They have smiled and hugged and loved all who gather near them.

“Emanuel” itself means “God with us.” The nine worshipers gathered in Mother Emanuel AME Church to learn more and live fuller and love deeper. A hateful young racist walked to kill, steal and destroy and he did kill but… he did not steal their hope and he did not destroy their legacy. In the end, he only enhanced it.

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Beyond hatred, beyond racism, there is a Grace that endures at Mother Emanuel.

6/22/2015

0 Comments

This past week saw one of the events I have anticipated from Pope Francis for several months now—the publication of his encyclical. But this is not the burning religious or social issue that has consumed me for the past several days. What has captured my horrified attention are the events of Charleston, SC.

Last Wednesday, June 17, 2015, a young man walked into Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church on Calhoun Street. He sat among the worshippers, seemed to pray with them and, after almost an hour, stood in their midst and murdered nine of them.

Mother Emanuel is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church in the South. It has been a hotbed of the civil rights movement. It has been the target of racist hatred, even in the mid-1800s. But it was always a sanctuary, a sacred place, a place to come together in unity of worship and uniformity of purpose.

It has been violated.

In my own life, the church was not a place of safety for me. The church was not a place to feel protected. But I want that for other people. I want believers to have a place where they can go for sanctuary and solace. Now an evil young man has tried to rob that from these dear people.

Is he mentally ill? What he did is not a sane act…unless he has chosen to accept that absurd racist dogma as the truth. It is not enough to call him “troubled,” or “misguided” or even “insane.” Those phrases do not come near the problem at hand.

He is a thief in a society of thieves. In a house dedicated to the one who came to give life, a thief entered who came to “kill and steal and destroy.” Surely, he killed the nine worshippers and ministers. He attempted to steal their hope and their security. He wants to destroy the legacy of a people who are part and parcel of American History.

Understand. American History is Black History. Twenty Africans were sold into slavery at the Jamestown Colony in Virginia in 1619—only 12 years after the founding of Jamestown.

Africans were here before the Pilgrims were. Whereas the Pilgrims came willingly aboard the Mayflower, the African slaves were brought by force aboard a Dutch warship.

The entire African and African-American experience in North America has been one of terror. Dr. Cornell West pointed out that 9/11 was nothing new to the African-American. They had been brought to the New World in terror. They had lived under slavery in terror, then under Jim Crow in terror. Four little girls were burned to death in a church in Birmingham in 1963. Nothing but terror.

And every day of their lives, our African-American friends in South Carolina (and other places in the South) are forced to look at that flag of ignorance and hatred. When they go to the courthouse, to school or any place else, they must be reminded that they are under the lidless eye of racism.

Don’t tell me that the Confederate flag is a simple of heritage. It is a symbol of segregation and the only heritage it represents is a heritage of hatred. I was born and raised in the South. Those who flew that hateful rag were always of the same ilk.

There were no “glory days” of southern culture. They preached from the Bible from a slanted and sick interpretation used to force slaves into submission to their “masters.” There is nothing from that culture that we should bring forward into the present.

The President is correct—“That flag belongs in a museum.”

And now a white supremacist walks into a church and murders nine people in a Bible study. Some people might call him a Christian Extremist, even.

You may notice that I do not call the murderer by name. Some people do not deserve to be remembered and he is one of them. He is not a soldier of a lost cause. He is a terrorist and a perpetrator of hatred.

But before I allow myself to get swallowed up the unadulterated despite I feel for him and his racism—and I may be past that already—let me speak of the Grace of a people who have been too often and too heinously wounded.

Nine people wo gathered together to worship as they chose: the Rev. Clementa Pinckney; Tywanza Sanders; Cynthia Hurd; the Rev. DePayne Middleton Doctor; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton; Ethel Lance; Susie Jackson; the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr.; and Myra Thompson.

I have asked the question before and I will probably be asking the same question for many years to come; How do they not just burn everything down? Certainly there were race riots in Detroit and Watts and other places. But how is it that our African-American brothers and sisters time and again reject the path of despair and hatred and choose the way of patience and understanding? How is it?

How is it that they bury child after child and man after man and still return to the sanctuary of decency and nobility? How is it?

Is it because they can lean on their faith and belief and find strength? Is it because they know what community really means? When in times of heartache and grief, loss and destruction, they know that they are there for each other?

The families have shown incredible grace and love. They have smiled and hugged and lovedall who gather near them.

“Emanuel” itself means “God with us.” The nine worshippers gathered in Mother Emanuel AME Church to learn more and live fuller and love deeper. A hateful young racist walked to kill, steal and destroy and he did kill but… he did not steal their hope and he did not destroy their legacy. In the end, he only enhanced it.

0 Comments

The Final Fall of the Confederacy

Beyond hatred, beyond racism, a Grace endures at Mother Emanuel.

Beyond hatred, beyond racism, there is a Grace that endures at Mother Emanuel.

Travis

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