When a Symbol Offends

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Vermont’s first constitution .. forbade slavery and embraced universal male suffrage ... Vermont sent more troops per capita to fight for the Union than any other state ... About one in three Vermont soldiers who fought in the pivotal Battle of the Wilderness was killed or wounded ...

... it is a deep irony, and a sad one, that .. a resident of White River Junction is .. displaying a Confederate battle flag .. to make some kind of a point.

“I believe everybody has a legal right to fly a flag” .. Kenny Rogers told .. staff writer Matt Hongoltz-Hetling ... “People are getting too excited about everything. I’m so tired with people telling everybody what to do. It’s just a piece of cloth.”

... Rogers ... has a perfect right to do what he is doing ... But he must recognize that the Constitution also protects the right of people .. to express their disapprobation ...

As to the assertion that the flag is “just a piece of cloth,” we suppose it is, in the same way that a Ku Klux Klan hood and the yellow star Jews were forced to wear in Nazi-occupied Europe were just pieces of cloth. The Confederate flag is a living symbol of resistance to both legitimate governmental and moral authority; of violent oppression; and the denial of civil rights to blacks. And its display is deeply disrespectful ...

http://www.vnews.com/opinion/21457806-95/civil-discourse