Confederate flag is a symbol for state government abuse of power (LTTE) [View all]

[struggle4progress]

13 hours ago

The Confederate flag should not be forgotten, but not for the reasons of which many have a surface understanding. Yes, the Civil War was fought over whether or not the United States would continue to practice slavery. Deniers of this fact have been misinformed about why the war was fought, lack a foundational knowledge about the Constitutional Convention, and are unaware of the events leading to a war forestalled through multiple compromises regarding the slavery issue. This is well-documented.

The vast majority of whites living in the South did not enslave people, yet plantation owners controlled Southern state governments over the majority of their fellow illiterate white and black Southerners. The established slave-holding Southern citizenry used their power in government to indoctrinate the remaining Southern population with a pseudo threat that an over-reaching federal government, through the liberation of enslaved people, would divest the Southern people of their rights.

The Confederate flag that South Carolina raises above its citizens is a symbol for state government abuse of power. White Southerners, through the power held by state governments, were misled, beguiled and required to fight for protecting slavery, a cause that many impoverished Southerners, who could never dream of owning slaves, may not have had an interest.

Throughout the former Confederacy, numerous symbols stand to commemorate Confederate soldiers conscripted to the cause of states' rights that masked a fear over the loss of the slavery institution.The Confederate flag waves to honor a heritage where the elite minority used the powerless majority — white and black — for their own ends, without regard to life ...

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/mailbag/confederate-flag-is-a-symbol-for-state-government-abuse-of/article_b0bafeeb-8613-54f1-b71f-6a312a095c53.html