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Friday, July 10, 2015

Led by the nose

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/420967/print

It's striking how many people let themselves be led by the nose. Politicians, academia, and the "news" media jerk their chain, attached to that nose ring. 

Now, I don't think the Confederate flag is a hill to die on. I have no use for Confederate kitsch. We need to defend the right of private citizens to exercise their First Amendment liberties. And it makes sense to allow the Confederate flag to fly at certain historical sites–although that's a back-burner issue.

But where will it end? Gen. Westmoreland was the top officer in the Vietnam War. That's a very controversial war. Should his coffin be removed from Arlington National Cemetery? The Iraq War was very controversial. And that was fought by a volunteer army. Should the coffins of Iraq War veterans be removed from Arlington National Cemetery? 

Among other things, the whole fuss over the Confederate flag is pretty insulting to blacks. These are people whose forebears survived the Middle Passage, survived slavery, survived the Civil War, survived the KKK, survived segregation, survived Bull Connor. Will they melt in a pool of warm jello at the sight of a Confederate flag? Were Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Tom Skinner, John M. Perkins (still alive), &c. hothouse flowers? 

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