Yankee Transplant Attacks Local Store Over Confederate Flag

[XLFD]

The Ludington Torch has already touched on the national debate over the confederate flag and its appropriateness in a post-racial society in Dave's article "TV Land pulls 'Dukes of Hazzard' reruns from its schedule".  But there is a more regional theme that should be discussed over a controversy that stems from our little burgh, and some public outcry over the image of the 'confederate flag' decorating the store front of our local AGS Store in downtown Ludington.

After a young white man engaged in a deplorable massacre at a South Carolina church apparently with the intent to trigger a race war (or just because his internal brain-wiring was severely messed up), liberal-spurred media have equated his owning of a confederate flag as the underlying reason he performed cold-blooded murder. 

Our regular contributor Willy noted that the iconic flag referred to as the confederate flag is in reality a battle flag of one confederate army and not a symbol created out of any malice towards the black race.  It's a flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, which is why it is most appropriate for a fictional car with that flag on its top named the "Robert E. Lee" who commanded that army back in the 1860's with some competence.

Our controversy starts with some of our local liberally-inclined people jumping on the national hysteria bandwagon regarding zero-tolerance for the 'confederate flag'.  AGS, as it has, and as has many other local outlets, offered its customers the ability to purchase their own confederate flag, the AGS proudly displays theirs in their front window. 

Believe it or not, some people who wish to show their own independence or southern pride may purchase one of these flags.  Many that do probably have never lived below the Mason-Dixon line, nor have they ever contemplated owning a slave, or even gunning down any type of church.  But some are of the belief that to own one of these flags is to be a flaming racist, which in itself, is a bit of a racist viewpoint to begin with.  However, these people threatened to aggressively protest against AGS over this last week for leaving that flag in their storefront window, when their talking points from politics and the media say it's forbidden.

This brings us to a letter to the editor on July 6, 2015 by Rebecca Dunn citing a bit of a manifesto in getting that flag out of the display window at AGS:

A little bit of a background before we look at this letter to the editor which was put in the spot usually reserved for guest editorials or the COLDNews editorial staff.  Rebecca Dunn moved to Ludington in 2010 with her husband Will Dunn, an original Ludington product, after they had some high profile job titles out in New York City.   They decided, just like Oliver and Lisa Douglas in the classic comedy Green Acres, to say goodbye to big city life for the family-friendly confines of rural Mason County. 

She offers a limited knowledge of the subject.  Rebecca states about this very flag

"The confederate flag was created to represent the Southern states secession from the Union."  False, as we have seen it was created after the war began and represented one of the CSA's armies.

"The goal in the flag's conception was to... convey the Confederate ideology of "supremacy of the white man over the inferior or the colored races""  False, she gets the phrase from William Tappan Thompson the designer of a different confederate flag, he continued:  "a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause, and offered the mostly white "Stainless Banner".

"in the 1950s, (the flag) became a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan".  False, even though the KKK was strong in the south, the American Stars and Stripes and their own KKK design were the popular flags of record at KKK revivals.

After the failed history lesson, Mrs. Dunn gets into failed histrionics lessons, trying to appeal to our inner sense of fairness after giving us her revisionist background.  Examples:

"To ignore the fact that the Confederate flag is a symbol of racial hatred and oppression to so many people in this country is divisive."

"When you hang a flag in your storefront that has represented white supremacy for over 150 years, you are sending a message..."

"During the flag's creation and evolution its meaning became well established and impervious to reinterpretation..."

"To glorify the confederate flag shows a lack of compassion and progress..." and finishes with:

"Let's make the unwillingness to tolerate symbols of hate one of those great strides.  Take down the flag." 

Trying to force someone to take down a flag that means something positive and progressive to them is more than just symbolic of hate.  It's intolerant and divisive.  Let's hope Rebecca can learn real history in the future and learn to be tolerant of her fellow Americans even if they do not have the same viewpoint as her.

[stump]

I had a visitor stop at the house a few day's ago. He wanted to show me the flag he bought down at the AGS store, It was the confederate battle flag flying from a mast on his pickup. This is nothing new to me as I have seem plenty of those, just never seen one with a black driver. Yep, he's black.

[Dave]

I wish we had a like button here, I'd like your post Stump a thousand times if I could

[AQUAMAN]

Dittos to that too Dave!!!!!!!!!!

[XLFD]

(the article in full is here). 

Just when you thought that confederate flag issue received it's fifteen minutes of fame in the local area a month and a half ago, leave it to an op-ed piece at Mlive and the Mason County Press's showcasing of it to bring it out for another round. 

MCP's Rob Alway probably regrets not getting into the original discussion on this started by the COLDNews and us here.  Here he champions an editorial that... well you can judge it for itself.  It's easy to see why many consider the MCP and COLDNews as mostly interchangeable in their reasoning and ethos. 

[Willy]

It never fails that liberals claim to agree with free speech then they start with the "but" comments. What most people don't seem to realize, Mrs. Wolffis included is, that the flag above is not the Confederate Flag. It is the battle flag of the northern VIrginia Confederate Army. I'm seeing more of these flags being flown since the liberals have told folks not to fly them. I don't care for the flag myself, however the "right" to display it should not be infringed. What I would like to see is these liberals challenging those folks that fly the flag of an invasion force that is trying to take over America. That would be the Mexican flag. A flag is a symbol of a specific nation and I see Mexico's being displayed quite a lot lately. This is a real slap to the face of Americans. The Confederacy no longer exists so the people flying battle flags of southern armies are only displaying a historical object but Mexico is still a sovereign country that is actively undermining our labor force and it's citizens are siphoning of our medical, educational and monetary resources.

[AQUAMAN]

Hell yeah Willy. What about that Mexican flag I've also seen flying across the fruited plains here in our USA? I think I saw that same p-u truck here in Lud. last week or two also. It had two large stadium flags, one USA and the other Confederate Army battle flag. I laughed when I saw them too, not knowing what local reactions would be. Knowing Ludington, I figured the LPD might pull him over just to ask wth and hassle them. Good find X, thanks for sharing. 

[AQUAMAN]

Saw an older black p-u truck today entering the Walgreens drive-thru. He had a prominent stadium sized flag on that vehicle too. Is this becoming a trend? Good to see some are expressing their freedom of speech rights, before that's cancelled altogether too.