This summer we’ve already seen remarkable events that have at their core symbolic flags that represent different things to different people.
Those flags are symbolic of long struggles that even this summer’s events will not quickly bring to an end.
After the murders of nine black people at an historic church in Charleston South Carolina, pictures surfaced of the gunman with the Confederate flag.
Popular opinion now demands removal of the Confederate flag from public display. Everything bearing that flag as a symbol is being pulled from major American retailers. Just blocks from the where the first shots of the Civil War rang out, over a century and a half later these final shots may have ended the debate over the Confederate flag for all time.
Days later the Supreme Court upheld the rights of same-sex couples to get married in this country. On that day the rainbow flag, symbolic of the movement for equal rights for the Lesbian and Gay community, was everywhere. Rainbow lights were even projected on the White House.
The unique thing about our country as we celebrate another birthday is that despite our differences our system endures. It endures because we are free to speak our minds, in a way raising our verbal flags. But too often we label those who disagree with us as radicals, seeing things through our own self-righteousness we fail to recognize our own inflexibility.
Our nation’s founders saw this. They created a Bill of Rights when they wrote our Constitution, a system designed to protect the rights of the individual. The Bill of Rights insured individual rights were stronger than momentary impulses of temporary majority opinions. Even in the highest court in the land when a decision is rendered we allow expression of a majority opinion but also a dissenting opinion.
In the United States the protections for our individual rights go both ways. While I may be in the majority opinion and be offended by your free speech on one issue, there will also be a time when my thoughts are in the minority.
There is also a tendency in the immediate aftermath of events to react before careful thought — reacting with expediency to an event or even worse, capitalizing on it politically. The drumbeat to remove the Confederate flag now encompasses removal of all things related to include Confederate statues and public memorials.
It is important that we do not erase all that made this country — both good and bad. It is important we carefully evaluate any decisions we make as a society as it relates to our history. We should not always judge the decisions or actions of men and women centuries ago through the prism of our society’s values today. It is simply an unfair judgment.
Not all Confederate soldiers fought because they were inherently racist supporters of slavery. A war had started and many fought to protect their homes and families or because they were forced to fight. Even Abraham Lincoln’s views on race would seem to be extremely insensitive in 2015, but remember that in 1860 they were seen to be in the other extreme. Even at the war’s outset he avoided saying that this was a war about slavery because he did not have the popular support in the North for it.
Now a century and a half later, as one flag comes down and another rises, keep in mind that symbolic change may happen quickly but that deeper adjustment and acceptance takes time. If anything, the speedier the rate of change the more resentment it causes in the hearts of those most resistant to it.
Here we are over 150 years later and some of the scars of that war still remain. As the great author and Mississippian William Faulkner wrote “The past is never dead, it’s not even past.”
Taking down Confederate flags and statues will not end racism. Raising the rainbow flag will not create complete acceptance of same-sex marriage. In reality both flags remain symbols revered by some but reviled by others. We must allow that dissent and freedom of speech make us stronger, but that never excuses violent acts.
Ultimately, the different flags of opinion we may fly must yield to the flag that unites us all. That is why lighting the White House in rainbow colors offended some people. The White House belongs to all people and all opinions, just like the American flag we all wave, and no one issue should be raised above it. After all there are educated people who do not agree with the decision, including four members of the Supreme Court.
Our nation’s growth begins with tolerance before becoming acceptance and that takes time, but the modern world’s technology conditions us to be impatient.
Meaningful change takes time. As one flag comes down and another is raised the symbolism will still have people who are not ready to adjust as quickly as all of us would like. This holiday weekend it is important to understand patience.
This nation has been at it for 239 years and we are still imperfect. To expect perfection to drop on us because we remove one flag or wave another is to delude ourselves; more work is needed.
Given that understanding of our own imperfections, we too can accept the imperfections of our own country. We are still evolving even after so many years as one nation of the people, by the people and for the people.
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