Stars and Bars

The “Sons of the Confederacy” still fly a large “Stars and Bars” flag
in central Florida, an ambiguous symbol in apparent celebration of an
attempt to destroy the nation whose generosity philosophy permits the display
of their symbol of rebellion.  Smirking “professional  southerners,”
third  rate  historians, speak of the “war of northern aggression” and
noble defense of the southern  “way of life,”  refusing to admit that
the southern plantation society and its cotton economy was bottomed on
slavery.

One hundred and forty four years after Appomattox and the unthinkable
bloodshed of that war in defense of a vile practice of subjugation,
the canard of the nobility of the conflict and the gentility of the
southern lifestyle still prevails in certain corners.

Summer brings re-enactors to old battlefields, a dumb show of marching and counter marching in celebration as if something wonderful had once occurred on
those grounds, ignoring the carnage that actually occurred. .

A conflict which nearly destroyed our nation has spawned a cottage industry for the Park Service and summertime tourist attractions; TV’s history channel, dissects with meticulous care, every recorded recollection and photograph made
available to it as if aiding in understanding this painful chapter in our history; every battle cataloged.

Perhaps it is time to turn this page of history, let go of the
distortions and preconceptions of what is now regarded as a glorious war and turn these battlefields back into farmland and retire the “stars and bars” together
with the attempts to gentrify and glorify an attempt to preserve a system which subjugated millions of people and killed hundreds of thousands of men.

Other battles less well remembered are more deserving of our current
attention as are the veterans of these engagements.  Normandy, the Bulge, Inchon, Khe Sanh and Fallujah are now more revelent than Bull Run or Antietam, and hold more educational promise. Let the re-enactors spend their summers wading ashore at Normandy at dawn, or perhaps camping and maneuvering in the Ardennes Forrest in the dead of winter with marginal clothing and supplies. A stint in a jungle similar to those in Vietnam with the excessive heat and humidity would also add a taste of realism to military play acting, and perhaps, just perhaps subtract some of the glamor and absurdity from this re-enacting nonsense.