While riding in the car the other day I heard a news report about a bit of controversy down south. Seems there’s a group of people that are all kinds of pissed off that fewer buildings are willing to fly the Confederate flag these days… Oi.

Erm, OK, so like, there’s a group of people pissed off that about a 165 year old nation’s flag that disappeared from the globe over 150 years ago. Um. Am I missing something on this? I mean, the Confederate States of America (CSA) haven’t been around for a long while. The fact that people still get pissed off that the flag is still scattered around the south is something that confuses me on it’s own, but this is something else.

I’m guessing that the majority of the people that complain about the CSA flag are people that are fixated on slavery and the oppression that stems from that. That confuses me a bit, if only because anyone that was a slave or a slave owner is no longer alive – that whole topic should be filed under “don’t let it happen again” and put in the “done” drawer. But anyway…

First off, the Civil War was started by many different things, one of which was slavery. If people took the time to look past the movies and looked into a few history books, they’d find that the roots of the Civil War were evident during the founding of the nation in 1776. Things like economics, state rights, strength of federal powers, and a few other things helped to start the Civil War. The slavery issue was the final straw that kicked off the War – thrown onto the pile by Lincoln, of course – but it was much like blaming an obscure assignation as the only thing that started World War I.

So I’m already confused if people are pissed off that people are still flying the CSA flag – it’s got little to do with things today, one way or the other. It doesn’t promote slavery any more than it would promote a movement for more state rights, so what’s the problem? Feh. And now, you can imagine my confusion if there’s a group protesting that fewer people want to fly the CSA flag. I believe the quote was “disgusting” that more people are refusing to fly the flag.

The group in question? The “Veterans of the Confederate States”. That alone was enough to spark this Rant. How in the hell can you have a group of people that don’t exist and expect to be taken seriously? The Civil War ended too long ago for any of the survivors to still be living… how can you be a group of veterans for a war that ended over a century ago?! All of the veterans are dead by now! It’s not like Daughters of the Revolution – they are using a blood line to make that claim, and since it’s about offspring it can go on forever… this group is claiming to be the actual survivors of the war. Never mind that they’re upset that people won’t fly a flag for a nation that hasn’t existed for over a century ago.

Bah. What a waste of energy. Does this mean I should start a Veterans of the Crusades group and get pissed off at people flying that won’t fly the flag of Constantinople or something?

Hm – maybe I can get federal funding.