A weekly wrap on the #ConfederateFlag

At the start of the week, I noted how "amazing" it was that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, junior Sen. (and black Republican) Tim Scott, and senior Sen. and presidential candidate Lindsay Graham, aka Huckleberry J. Butchmeup, all magically agreed that the Confederate flag at the South Carolina Capitol in Columbia needed to come down.

I still suspect Huckleberry called in chits as part of his presidential ambitions.

Actually, connotatively, it kind of is the CSA flag.
Officially, it became the canton of the actual CSA flag
that replaced the Stars and Bars in 1863, so, IMO,
this meme attempt isn't totally right either.
Connotatively again, it then became seen as "the flag"
of the Confederacy because of the racists behind the
rise of the Second Klan in the 1920s.
Plus, again connotatively, this meme attempt is itself
often used as an attempt to stifle larger questions
about "Southern culture," etc. with an "ignoramus" label.

I next noted how at least one Southern white "better" was saying for public consumption what others of his ilk were surely thinking in private. This claim, that purported South Carolina racist terrorist Dylann Roof's invocation of the Confederate flag should be dismissed because he's "white trash" might gain ground in days and weeks ahead.

I then tackled the Confederate (battle) flag as a symbol of racism, among many, that at one time included the U.S. flag and the Constitution. I then explained how both some Southern denialists and some well-meaning liberals are wrong in claiming the St. Andrews' Cross is ONLY the Confederate battle flag, noting that for the second half of the Civil War, it was part of THE CONFEDERATE FLAG, having already started this explainer, including distinguishing between the denotative and connotative meanings of the "Southern Cross" in that second link.

I then went on, with a prompt from author Tony Horwitz, to tackle the Confederate flag as precisely what that white "better" was trying to dodge — the keystone symbol of Southern and Confederate heritage and the "Lost Cause."

That leads to the first of two news stories from yesterday.

NASCAR is arguably one of the top symbols of the New South's version of Southern heritage, as well as the postbellum Old South. Well, its president, Brian France, wants to remove the flag from any NASCAR affiliation.

Second, activist Bree Newsome made news yesterday by going on Capitol grounds and pulling down that flag of contention.

I have no problems with monkey-wrenching activism, even when it breaks the law.

I do have a problem with her seeming hardcore religious motivation. As a secularist, I tweeted to both her and a Twitter feed for an alleged group of followers that the same god and scriptures she was citing also upheld, and, er, gave "positive protection" to slavery in the Old Testament and said it was OK in the New. (Jesus himself, just as he didn't say one word one way or the other about abortion or gay sex, didn't say one word one way or the other about slavery or racism.)