Confederate flags and Black Lives Matter movement both divisive

Most Americans this week hopefully paused and pondered the significance and meaning of Memorial Day.

Artist and activist John Sims has a different tradition. The Florida-based civil rights and reparation advocate uses the truly American holiday to push for the removal and destruction of all Confederate flags through his Burn and Bury project. (We'll get to that later.)

Sims' anti-Stars and Bars campaign seeks both the removal and denouncement of the Confederate flag as well as the total destruction of this long-ago symbol.

Sims' reasoning is twofold: He says the flag is built on a lie, because to him it does not represent Southern heritage but is truly a banner of slavery; and because the flag has become divisive.

By that logic and reasoning, I would like to call for the removal of the Black Lives Matter displays for the very same reasons.

The BLM movement is built on a lie -- Hands Up, Don't Shoot -- a false narrative repeated often but ultimately proven no more than a fabrication; and the Black Lives Matter agenda is clearly divisive.

Sims has worked to organize other like-minded "artists, poets and activists" in a Memorial Day-long public burning and burial of Confederate flags.

The first event organized by Sims fizzled because most of his followers were reluctant to spend money on a flag they would soon burn. This year Sims has developed an easy Internet kit with a printable Confederate flag suitable for burning and Burn-and-Bury instructions. (I told you I would get to that later.)

Though Sims may not recognize it, many Americans still pay passing tribute to the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern culture and heritage.

But unlike Sims and far too many others, most Americans don't view every aspect of life through a racist prism.

And unlike Sims, most Americans don't call for the removal and destruction on all things with which they may disagree.

This singular issue -- tolerance -- marks the difference in the political landscape today.

The intolerant left wants the removal of their perceived grievances and for history to wipe the slate clean.

Although many sober Americans recognize the folly of the Black Lives Matter movement, there is no cry from the right to abolish this campaign from the pubic square.

Tolerance is a one-way street to the left. Dare to disagree and suffer the label of racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, etc.

But the left and their able lemmings in the national media are quick to label. And as long as we allow this ploy to work, it will continue.

Michael Jensen is the editor of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.