Memo To The South - The Civil War is Over!

If I'm not mistaken, The Civil War has been over for 146 years, though in some places, some folks still don't quite get it... I guess they missed the memo. Like in Summerville ,South Carolina for instance-

A year ago, dozens marched to protest the Confederate flag a white woman flew from her porch in a historically black Southern neighborhood. After someone threw a rock at her porch, she put up a wooden lattice. That was just the start of the building.

Earlier this year, Annie Chambers Caddell's neighbors built two solid 8-foot high wooden fences on either side of her modest brick house to shield the Southern banner from view.

Late this summer, Caddell raised a flagpole higher than the fences to display the flag. Then a similar pole with an American flag was placed across the fence in the yard of neighbor Patterson James, who is black.

One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War began about 20 miles away in Charleston Harbor, fights continue over the meaning of the Confederate flag.

Some see it as a symbol of slavery and racism;(I have a friend, who sees red everytime he sees the confederate symbol on somebody's truck or car.) others like Caddell say it's part of their southern heritage."I'm here to stay. I didn't back down and because I didn't cower the neighbors say I'm the lady who loves her flag and loves her heritage," said the 51-year old Caddell who moved into the historically black Brownsville neighborhood in the summer of 2010.

Her ancestors fought for the Confederacy...She says...

Last October, about 70 of her African American neighbors marched in the street and sang civil rights songs to protest the flag, while about 30 others(White Sympathizers) stood in Annie Caddell's yard waving the Confederate flag. How sad that such little things like flags can seperate us along racial lines...In the climate in this country now...It won't take much. People are uncertain about their economic future and history shows that when people are uncertain and afraid...They tend to blame each other for everything.  Easier than admiting that they're afraid and not in control.

Annie Caddell says  "I'm not a racist "
Opponents of the confederate flag earlier gathered 200 names on a protest petition and took their case to a town council meeting where Caddell tearfully testified that she's not a racist.

Local officials have said she has the right to fly the flag, while her neighbors have the right to protest. And build fences too!

If she says she is not a racist..I'll give her the benefit of the doubt...Only she and God knows if that is so...and she does have the right to fly whatever flag she so desires in her yard....but...and there is always a but...A little common sense and sensitivity would do well here....She's in a predominately Black neighborhood and her neigbors, who are most certainly the descendants of slaves....feel sensitive about a flag that is a reminder of their southern heritage....a heritage that tends to be painful... A heritage that includes the State of South Carolina's treason against the rest of the United States as well as slavery and Jim Crow for it's African-American population.

I'll point out that slavery has been over also, for close to 165 years...but Jim Crow and lynching and the racist terror that came with that , while that rebel flag was being flown by the Klan and The White Citizen's councils is still a part of some people of a certain age's memories... That hasn't been that long.

I wouldn't move into a Jewish neighborhood and fly a swastika flag...It may sound like apples and oranges..but it's really the same thing... Is it that important for her to fly this flag and have an all out war with her neighbors???

You know, Peace and Peace of mind is priceless...