Confederate Flag

[L Verge]

"...Really messy, isn't it?"

You are so accurate with that last statement, Rosemary! However, in my opinion, the mess will never be cleared up until everyone stops using that poor flag (that only represented one small part of the Confederate military during the CW) as their idea of freedom of expression. Taking it down and attempting to criminalize its origins is not solving the problems.

Symbols don't cause continuing hatred - personal actions and the desire to whine and complain without attempting to solve the problems keep the pot stirred up. And, with the ever-controlling power of the press (being spurred on by political and self-serving interests), it has become even messier trying to separate fact from fiction.

I probably live among and work on a daily basis with more diverse people than most of you come in contact with in a month. In our county, African Americans comprise over 80% of the population, and we are also the richest African American county in the nation. Surratt House draws much of its funding from the county tax rate, so our citizens are basically helping to finance a nationally known site whose history is directly tied to the slavery issue in the 1850s and 60s. I am also happy to report that a good portion of our visitation is from that community and that our education department reaches as many as 3000 county school children each year. We discuss the slave issue on tours. And, we have done it without conflict for forty years.

We also serve the D.C. area (just 12 miles from the Capitol), so we work with a wide variety of races and ethnicities. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult to work Asians, Middle Eastern folk, those from South America, and others into our curriculum, but they do come to learn the history of our Civil War and the story of the Surratts and their involvement in the Lincoln assassination and leave with plenty of compliments for us.

As long as "all kinds of voices" keep "talking and yelling and screaming...with thundering, howling winds of old violence," we will have an even more difficult time of accomplishing any good. It's time to ignore the press and the politicians who are thundering for money and votes (like the carpetbaggers of old who descended on the South like locusts) and get down to the
basics of educating people to good work ethics and working side by side to get things done.

Stop handing out food stamps and cell phones to the lazy and show them the progress that has been made - especially in the last fifty years - instead of whining about the past injustices. Stop dividing the nation via reverse discrimination where someone is hired on the basis of race instead of qualifications to do a good job. That is not solving any problems.

My comments here are not aimed at you, Rosemary. I am expressing my thoughts as I live and work in a multi-racial, politically-driven area of the country that is sharply divided along economic lines. I have friends from a variety of backgrounds who have the same value system that I have -- black, white, pink, and purple, they have learned that education and positive attitudes have helped them achieve their goals.