Op Ed: Letter (Ether?) to the Confederate flag

Dear Confederate Flag,

I hope this article finds you and yours in the best fabric money can buy. Although I don’t know you, I have seen you out and about from time to time and even heard tales about the impact you have had on the past. I must say, you were something serious back in your day.

But here is why I am writing you.

Above all things I want to express to you in this article, Confederate Flag, I wanted you to know that you do not mean anything to me nor do you have any impact on my life or my family’s life. You are what you are, just materials woven together to make a product that is red, white, and blue.

I know, I know. Many people, both young and old, are outraged because you are still flying in some places and because of what you stand or stood for. But truth be told, we all have pasts. We all have shortcomings. We all have been in positions where we wanted things in our past erased, but life doesn’t work that way. Not to mention, the majority of yesterday’s leaders, who actually lived through the times when your very existence signified the worst of life, didn’t march to take you down, they marched, fought, and died for desegregation, equal rights, and real humanity issues that really mattered.

Interesting huh?

Truth is, freedom, equality, education, and seeing past meaningless obstacles – like you – is a choice in these current times. Many of these things aren’t fought for any more, at least not in America. Most of the people who have a problem with you, in these current times, are only condemned by excuses and too many reasons why they “can’t” do something. Instead of focusing on you, my question is, why aren’t they focusing how to improve themselves and shape their own future, instead of worrying about yours.

No, I don’t have any ill feelings with those who appreciate your beauty. That is what makes us who we are as individuals, our opinion, our beliefs, and so on. Maybe a person who thinks you are beautiful will be a person that will uplift me one day. Maybe a person that wants you to disappear will be a person who will try to put me down one day. Who knows!

I do, with all of my heart, understand and sympathize with those who lived through the hate and ignorance, not dished out by you, but by those who wore you, who carried you, who flew you. The people who endured this are the people who have a reason to be bitter and hate your existence, which is more than reasonable, don’t you think?

Sadly, in these current times, the colors that you embody til this very day are the same colors that are negatively shaping the history of today’s generation, especially in the inner-city of each city in the United States. The blue, the red, the black tones, are all elements of history that down the road, we will wish didn’t happen or history that we too will one day want to erase.

Strangely, these colors and flags doesn’t matter somehow. No one, not one person, is marching or protesting to keep those who wear these flags, in these current times, from causing the same pain as those who wore and loved you so well. In this regard – Confederate Flag – I’m talking about the flags that represent the gangs of all ethnicity groups in our country that are inflicting more violence and destruction than you ever did, with no end in sight.

So whats the difference between you and your distance cousins?

The killing, the bloodshed, the tears, the broken families, are all the same and have the same impact.

Making you disappear will not erase your history, nor will it solve the problems we face each day.

“So what’s the point,” I ask myself.

Maybe it’s politics. Or maybe its a ploy to keep America in the black and white racist mode, all the while distracting the attention from the real racism and class divide: the rich, the middle, and the poor.

Racism is very real when it comes to color, I know that, Confederate Flag, from history and from what people have shown me from other ethnicity groups and my own race (Same race racism does exist). But again, real racism comes in the form of class divide, not from the woven materials of a flag like you. Don’t you agree?

Anyway, I wanted to speak my peace and say a lasting goodbye.

Goodbye Old Dixie.

With respect and open mind.

Cedric