Some Lessons Learned

To say the past two weeks in South Carolina have been interesting would be an understatement. I wish I could say that there's been a lot of positive lessons learned by myself during this time period, but that would be a lie. I've learned several lessons about the public in general and some folks I know personally in particular, and unfortunately none of them are good.

I've learned that the most rude, hypocritical, insulting, belligerent and bigoted people in the world are liberals. Of course, this is something I already knew but the events and discussions of the past two weeks have just driven this knowledge home. Without fail, every single conversation I've had with a liberal over the past two weeks has ended up with the liberal exhibiting one or more of the traits I listed. And in nearly every instance, this was brought about by my using facts, the truth, or posing questions which would cause the liberal to realize that their "logic" is very badly flawed; once that happened, the name-calling and rudeness began.

I've also learned that liberals don't care about your opinions, they don't care about your feelings, they don't want to hear about them, and they are so bigoted in their own opinions that they'll do anything they can to drown you out or shut you down - all the while preaching "tolerance" and "equality." They want things THEIR way, period, and will stop at nothing do get it.

I think the saddest lesson I learned this week is just how shallow the knowledge of the Confederate Battle Flag and what it truly stands for is among liberals; that, and the fact that people have the intelligence to learn the truth but refuse to do so because it will conflict with their own personal agenda. I'm not naive enough to expect everyone to agree with my opinions, but up until this week I thought that at least people would be fair and intelligent enough to at least attempt to learn the other side's views and the reason for them. Sadly, I am badly mistaken in this aspect. I've had it shown to me that those on the "other side" of the great Battle Flag debate don't give a rat's ass for any opinion other than their own, and don't care whose feelings THEY hurt while doing something they say will keep THEIR feelings from getting hurt.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most is the hurtful way I was treated by a couple of folks I thought were my friends. I'm a passionate debater when it comes to all things Confederate, but I also pride myself on being open-minded enough to listen to and evaluate the other person's opinions, and respectful enough not to talk down to or insult them. I've always said that when it comes to opinions there's no such thing as "right" or "wrong;" opinions are just "different." I've been told by more than one of my "friends" this week that my opinions - not the facts I presented but my opinions - are flat out wrong. While I've gotten over it by now, it still saddens me that it happened. I don't use the word "friend" lightly, and it hurts when someone turns out to not be as good a friend as you thought they were.

But sometimes, that's life. And life goes on.

So life will go on in South Carolina, despite the Battle Flag being taken down from its place of honor at the Confederate Soldier's Monument. The governor got what she wanted; the legislature got what they wanted; the NAACP got what they wanted, and the transplanted Yankees who now live here got what they wanted. The true Southerners who understand the real, truthful reason why that flag was there didn't get what they wanted, yet still the governor gets on TV and crows "It's a great day in South Carolina!" If you consider that the NAACP will now lift the economic boycott they set in place 14 years ago solely because of the Battle Flag at the State House grounds, then in that aspect it's a great day. (The jury is still out on whether the NAACP will now lift the boycott, but I got ten bucks says they'll find something else Confederate to bitch about and will keep it in place. After all, they lied to us once in 2000 so why not again in 2015?) The state will now be able to host a myriad of sporting events and bowl games that the collegiate sports collective wouldn't let take place here because of the flag, so in that aspect it's a great day. So now there will be more money flowing into the state, and that's what truly makes it a great day.

See, that's what it's really all about - MONEY. It's not about "healing" or "equality" or anything like that. It's all about money. The governor saw her chance to get rid of the flag to bring more money into the state, so she took it. The legislature saw the chance to bring more money into the state and into their own pockets, so they took it. Yeah, it's all about money.

But it goes a hell of a lot deeper than that, and I have a feeling that none of the "intelligent" people we elected to the legislature gave this a second thought. What the State of South Carolina has done in removing the Battle Flag is this: they have given the first significant victory to the forces in our nation that seek to re-write history by removing ALL reminders of the Confederacy from public view. This one act will now serve as the impetus that will give the nationwide anti-Confederate movement enough momentum to really get rolling - after all, if you can get that one lone flag in South Carolina taken down, there's nothing you can't accomplish, right?

I have a feeling that the destruction is going to be very, very bad by the time it's all over. I don't think the Feds will ever pass a law banning the display of the Confederate Flag at all like the Germans did after WWII, but it won't be far from it.

But there is an upside to all this that I don't think anyone on the opposing side has realized. What all this has done is to cement the love of the Battle Flag even deeper in the hearts of those true Southerners who display it for all the right reasons, and it has given us more reason than ever to display it. And we are, by the legions.

Need proof of this? Go on almost any web site that sells Confederate flags and you'll see the same thing: SOLD OUT. It's very hard to find a web site that has Confederate flags in stock because loyal Southerners bought them all out once the great flag flap started.

It's also motivated me to rejoin the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I let my membership lapse a few years back because I had lost faith in the organization, but the events of the past two weeks has shown me that the South needs all of her native sons to come to her defense. So I'm sending in a check and renewing my membership. This is one fight I intend to be a part of.

And I don't intend to lose.

Deo Vindice.

IHC