http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44667234/ns/us_news-life/
South Carolina woman defends her right to fly the Confederate flag.
Hmmmm. From a historical point of view, I can see her desire to fly this flag. I can also see the anger it causes her black neighbors...being that it is mostly a black populated area.
However it does make me wonder, in and around 2030 or 2040, will the Nazi flag be considered part of Germany's heritage and be flow by some people who respect what that govenment did for the German people (before the war I mean)? I'm fairly certain the German governments laws will still be against such a thing, and any and all EU members nations will protest...and any Jews will be livid. But I wonder if context over time changes meaning of things? Because I imagine that Nazi Germany was considered a good thing to the German people at the time...before the war. Even during the war in some cases. Nationalism was high. Moral was high when you are winning every month and defeated everyone in sight. There would be a pride there.
The Confederacy has its own issues when it comes to point of view, as well as how symbols change over time. The whole state's rights verse slavery arguements never die. It is probably the one war were history has been written by the losers. There is boundless respect for the Confederate military in history books. Their naming convention is still used along with the Union naming conventions. Perhaps if Reconstruction hadn't been so awfully handled, the short four years of time wouldn't be a major defining moment for the South to the point were it is their cultural heritage. Add to this the return to using the Confederacies symbols in reaction to the Civil Rights movement and you have new meanings for old symbols. Even the KKK were considered the heroes in the early part of the 20th century (
Birth of a Nation, made in 1914). Now they are considered racist thugs that are cowardly hiding behind sheets and symbols. It really makes it hard to call just what flying the Confederate flag means these days. The original was a Battle flag. It was designed so that it would be different from the Union flag (which the Confederate national flag looked a lot like at a distance on a battlefield) so that the troops could tell which army they should be fighting. Now it means something else, depending on who you ask.