The Confederacy is dead. A battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, with its red field and diagonally crossing blue stripes filled with 13 stars, is very much alive.
It was never a flag representing the Confederate government, but has come to occupy a hallowed place in some people's minds. Some Southerners embrace it and call it a symbol of regional pride. It makes little sense, though, why the South of our modern-day United States of America would want to be chiefly identified by its four years of ill-fated rebellion over whether states had a right to withdraw to maintain a system of human bondage.
What’s the point?
Display of Confederate-related flags at the Eureka Springs Cemetery does not serve the community.
Our South today is and can so much more, although some residents like to shackle all of us to that past with some romanticized notion of a South that might "rise again."
Let us indeed rise, by looking to our future and lifting regional loyalties above that brutal and misguided past.
The Civil War was a necessary and unavoidable result of choices made in the founding of these United States of America. But we are not doomed in our beloved South to forever be defined by the racial injustices of our ancestors, that is, unless we allow ourselves to be.
Americans have every right to fly the Confederate battle flag from the backs of their pickups, or as a license plate adorning their font bumper, or as a decorative item on our front porches. But let's not. It is impossible for the Southern Cross in 2020 to stand for any one grand and positive sentiment that those flying it might declare as their raison d'etre. So many reasons exist to relinquish it to its place in history. Virtually nothing recommends its use as modern symbolism, for the message it sends cannot be redeemed by any amount of historical rewriting.
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In Eureka Springs, small battle flags have decorated graves of Confederate soldiers in the municipal cemetery for years. The Sons of Confederate Veterans place them there, declaring the small $3 markers a tribute to ancestors who answered their state's call to battle and, no doubt in many cases, fought valiantly with honor.
As usual, we're told the modern practice of placing the small flags is about pride in heritage, not white supremacy. "Solely to honor the service of the veterans" is how it's put. And some folks may be able to convince themselves of that, but they're deluding themselves if they believe such intent makes the display of the flags a simple thing.
Over the last couple of years, placement of those flags have cause a stir, raising questions about how the flags' constant presence must look to those visiting. It's a fair concern, particular in a tourist-oriented town. This isn't some historical marker that's been there for 150 years. It's a present-day display reflecting someone's present-day perspective. And though the city doesn't put those flags out, we'd wager most casual observers don't pick up on the nuances of who and what the flags represent.
The cemetery's board has worked out what some view as a compromise, essentially allowing the practice to continue unless some family member objects to a flag being placed on a specific grave. Given that these men died in the late 1800s, we doubt many family members are paying much attention to what goes on in Eureka Springs, Ark.
Perhaps the cemetery board doesn't want to deny a longstanding tradition. Maybe they buy they idea that flying the Confederate-related flags all the time does no harm. Perhaps they even think it doesn't do any damage to the community's image or reputation. That would be known as denial, perhaps inspired by a desire to embrace Southern pride, but denial of the realities of the situation nonetheless.
We don't blame the Sons of Confederate Veterans for wanting what they want, but the cemetery board has a responsibility of service to the greater community.
It's hard to imagine the ongoing display of the Confederate flags has anything to do with service to the community.
Commentary on 02/28/2020