Symbolic Expressions: Should Confederate Flag Be Banned?
Raskin’s proposal that President Bush’s constitutional amendment be itself amended to forbid displaying “any flag that symbolizes insurrection and armed rebellion” is completely consistent with the logic of those calling for the flag desecration amendment.
The Confederate flag is a symbol of insurrection, treason, slavery, black oppression, Ku Klux Klan terrorism, white supremacy, and the whole collection of idiotic ideas that hide under the dingy label “states rights.”
If Bush continues to pander to the prejudices and passions of the simplistic minded with his foolish amendment, I urge all black leaders and civil rights defenders to demand punishment of all those who encourage insurrection, glorify treason, and perpetuate racial hatred by displaying the Confederate flag.
A better choice is to return to our tradition of tolerance for others’ rights to be fools, jerks, and bigots. As Jefferson said in his first inaugural about other misguided souls, “Let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”
JAMES PETERS
San Diego
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