Today on HuffPost/AOL they ran a story about a young girl suspended from school for wearing a sweatshirt with the Confederate flag. At the end of the story, they had a ridiculously biased poll, as follows - see if you can find what is wrong with it:
"Is this a case of ignorance or a mother defending her daughter's racism under the guise of the first amendment?
1) Just a case of ignorance. But she needs brush up on her history
2) It's totally racist and the mother should know better."
If you noticed that choosing EITHER response results in making the mother out to be wrong, congrats. Basically, HuffPost, in their own ignorance and arrogance have already assumed that everyone believes the mother was wrong in allowing her daughter to wear the sweats. They seem to think that the only question to be resolved is whether or not the mother was either ignorant or racist.
Here's a clue for ya, HuffPost - maybe she is neither. Perhaps YOUR insistence that she is wrong makes YOU ignorant and/or racist.
While some uneducated, or otherwise thin-skinned people may believe that the Confederate flag is somehow "evil", most educated and more tolerant folks understand it is nothing more than a symbol of a part of our history. And history, if we do not wish to repeat it, must be remembered.
Frankly, I think it is incredibly ignorant to think that ANY symbol should be banned as being "evil". For example, there are many who believe the swastika should never again be represented because it is associated with Hitler. But most of those people are not aware that Hitler "stole" the symbol - before he (mis)used it, the swastika was a symbol of good fortune in several cultures for over a thousand years - even the Hopi Indians used that symbol as good luck. I used to have a pre-war American token that had the swastika, and in each "cup" was yet another good luck symbol - a 4 leaf clover, a horseshoe, a wishbone and one other I do not recall. The theory behind it was that no matter which way it turned, the good fortune would never pour out.
So, if the swastika is evil because Hitler used it, by the same token it is good because the Hopi's and others used it.
The point is - it's ONLY A SYMBOL. The ONLY meaning any symbol has is the meaning each of us gives to it. And if you allow ANY symbol to have that kind of power over you, you may as well roll over and croak, because you have no control over your own life.
What if, in the future, some evil despot such as Hitler were to adopt the cross as his symbol. Should we then ban it from ever being represented again, simply because some idiot misused it? Lest we forget - there are already those who truly believe the Cross is a symbol of evil and ignorance, and should be banned. Bill Maher comes to mind. What do you suppose would happen if someday the majority of folks begin to think like Maher? You guessed it - the cross would be banned.
Ironic how many people who think it stupid to believe in an unseen God do not think it stupid to believe a symbol has power.
But I digress. The real tragedy here is that there are people like those at the Huffington Post who actually believe their own crap, and think that it is somehow "racist" to wear a flag - any flag.
Just for the record, HuffPost - slavery was not the only issue behind the attempted secession of the south. It was much more complicated than that and had been brewing for decades. But then, I don't expect you to know that - or even care. After all, you have an agenda to push.
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