Tag: Confederate flag

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The Flags Flying in Rural Areas

I just returned from a 3 day backpacking trip in north central Arkansas.  My brother and I were in the Ozark National Forest a little ways south of Jasper which is on the Buffalo National River.  It is a very rural area, a very scenic area, consisting mainly of national forests and cattle operations, sparsely populated would be an accurate description.

I have written before of how I felt my beloved American flag has been hijacked by the conservatives, especially the extreme right.  That has resulted in my having mixed emotions Continue reading “The Flags Flying in Rural Areas”

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The Appropriation Of Cultures

Flipping through Twitter this morning someone commented if everyone would paint the Confederate battle flag on mailboxes, Gospodin Trump and his henchmen would leave them alone.  This brought back to mind one my favorite short stories of all time,  The Appropriation Of Cultures by Percival Everett. I first heard it listening to a podcast of Selected Shorts. 

The base premise of the story is a black professor buys a pickup with a Confederate flag on it from a redneck.  For me it was one those stories that embeds itself strongly in whatever part of your brain or psyche that happens in.  I am including a YouTube link to the short story parsed from an episode of Select Shorts.  IMHO, it more than worth the 20 minutes of your time invested in it.  Somehow it seems so perfect for right now.

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The South Will Rise Again?

Last time I went backpacking in rural Missouri, the American flag was everywhere.  Unfortunately I have come to view the flying of our national flag more an expression of nationalism than of patriotism.  And that scares me.

Last weekend I went backpacking in very rural Arkansas.  I say rural.  In order to get to the trail-head, I went down several small, paved, county roads, and finally turned on a dirt county road which I followed for miles before turning onto a forest service road.  I was officially in the boonies.

I had not noticed driving there Continue reading “The South Will Rise Again?”

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Take George Washington Off the One Dollar Bill

I believe it is time to remove George Washington from the quarter coin and the one dollar bill. While we are about it, I think we need to tear down the Washington george-washington-one-dollar-billmonument. The monument, besides glorifying this man, is unabashedly phallic.

I suppose it would not be out of bounds for you to ask me why I have come to this conclusion. Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are considered the founders of the Democratic Party. Jefferson-Jackson Day is a Democratic Party fundraising tradition across our country. The Missouri Democratic Party has decided to change the name of it biggest fund raiser from the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner to the Harry S. Truman Dinner.

Let’s parse this for moment.

The objection expressed during the local NPR news story was that Jefferson and Jackson both were slave owners.   Nearly 30 percent of our presidents have been slave owners, a total of 12 of the 44 individuals. Of the first 18 presidents, 13 owned slaves. This is not an attempt to excuse, but we are all a result of the time and place our lives pass through. Norms also change with time and place. Continue reading “Take George Washington Off the One Dollar Bill”

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Flags, Deflection, Guns, Rationalization

In order to confederate battle flagget through life we all have certain psychological defense mechanisms that we use more or less depending on the person and the situation. A very common one is rationalization which is defined as:

‘Rationalization is the cognitive distortion of “the facts” to make an event or an impulse less threatening. We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses. But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easy that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies.’ 1

When psychologists talk of defense mechanisms, they are typically speaking of the individual. However, humans practice defense mechanisms as a group. While there are many areas that we practice rationalization, a frequent one in the United States is gun violence. Whether the killing is en masse or an individual, we continually hear comments Continue reading “Flags, Deflection, Guns, Rationalization”