Limit public use of Confederate flag

By Paul F. Bradley

As the country has commemorated the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Confederate battle flag has been paraded at events across the country. In the commemorative context - at battle reenactments, museums, and cemeteries - it seemed appropriate. Beyond that, is there a more divisive and controversial symbol in America?

I live in suburban America. The neighborhoods and surrounding landscape are filled with picturesque woods, river vistas, and neatly trimmed houses with retail shopping at major road crossings. Old Glory (the real U.S flag) waves from nearly every other porch.

On a recent run, though, I stopped in my tracks. On one street I counted four Rebel battle flags (two bumper stickers, one hanging in the back window of a pickup truck, and one that snapped menacingly in the late winter winds). This is just outside Philadelphia.

Visually, the Rebel battle flag is captivating. With its red field, blue stripes, and white stars, it was a 19th-century marketing gem. Red symbolizes power and aggression and psychologically strikes fear, and no doubt that was the hope as this banner was carried into battle by Robert E. Lee's troops.

To some, this flag is a symbol of Southern heritage. It represents the pride and courage of the Southern soldiers who challenged perceived federal tyranny during the War Between the States.

But others are hoisting the flag as the symbol for their à-la-carte application of federal law. As a counterargument, one only needs to review the rationales that accompanied the states' ordinances of secession and the Confederate Constitution: Slavery trumped states' rights as the cause for the war.

For countless others, the flag is a symbol of oppression that was resurrected in the decades after it was furled at Appomattox Courthouse. Hate groups, segregationists, and opponents of the civil rights movement, including certain Southern states, appropriated the flag and used it to intimidate.

Some of these states, including Georgia, eventually yielded to public pressure and removed the battle flag from their state banners. Mississippi has not. South Carolina no longer flies the flag from atop its Statehouse but still has it on the grounds.

People have a First Amendment right to fly the flag, but common sense and compassion for the pain it causes should dictate otherwise. As Indiana Jones once said about another article of antiquity, "It belongs in a museum."

Display the flag in museums with uniforms, weaponry, and other period artifacts. Unfurl it at reenactments. But eliminate it from official use.

I hope that by the bicentennial of the Civil War, the Rebel battle flag will be a long-tucked-away vestige of our history, an artifact used as a teaching tool.