LETTERS: CONFEDERATE FLAG: OFFENSIVE SYMBOL

To the editor:

An editorial by Michael Jensen, editor of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Mo., regarding the Confederate flag appeared in Gary Rust's May 24 column. Mr. Jensen is upset that the Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina statehouse.

Mr. Jensen and his fraternity also flew the Confederate flag and lived by the motto "God and Ladies." He added, "Slavery and discrimination were not among" his fraternity traditions. Unfortunately, slavery and discrimination were among the Confederacy's traditions.

Fact: The Confederate constitution of 1860 condoned slavery. In the Confederacy, it was illegal to make any law regarding slavery.

Jensen says that in his heart "the Confederate flag symbolizes the traditions of the Old South: chivalry, respect for women, pride." I agree many Southerners have those qualities. I was born in Texas and raised in the South and should know. But many Southerners also practiced slavery and had absolutely no respect for millions of black women.

Fact: When the Civil War started, 3.5 million slaves were toiling and suffering inhuman injustice under the Confederate flag.

Mr. Jensen's fraternity showed a lack of sensitivity and an ignorance of history by selecting the Confederate flag as its official flag.

Fact: In our lifetime, the Confederate flag has been consistently paraded and displayed on our city streets during the battles over civil rights and school desegregation.

Let's consider another flag that to some people represents national pride, tenacity and unmatched efficiency: the Nazi swastika. But if you lived in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, you knew it also stood for something else: genocide, ethnic cleansing, slavery and unspeakable crimes against humanity. Suppose Mr. Jensen's fraternity values pride, tenacity and efficiency. Would it be appropriate to choose the swastika as the official fraternity symbol? I don't think so.

Fact: The Confederate flag is often associated with hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. Jensen defiantly cries, "I will always be offended when some group tries to tell me how to feel or believe. ... No one has the right to impose his attitudes on me because of his perception of this symbol of the South." Huh? What does he think he is doing with his editorials?

From a historical point of view, remember that South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. A year later, in 1861, South Carolina started the Civil War with its spectacular 34-hour bombardment of Fort Sumter. When the smoke cleared, and with their first victory in hand, the first thing the Confederates did was take down the American flag and put up their own flag. A photographer was there, and he recorded the historic occasion. In 1848, when the Mexican War ended, we took down all the Mexican flags in the western territories. When the Revolutionary War ended, we took down the British flags.

Fact: The Civil War ended 135 years ago, but many states continue to fly the Confederate flag to this very day.

I empathize with those who are emotional about this issue. Feelings still run strong. But emotions need to be replaced with sensitivity, compassion and logic. It is insensitive to display the flag of a nation that enslaved its citizens just three generations ago.

STEVE ROBERTSON

Cape Girardeau