In the news, it’s being reported that South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley (who previously saw no reason that the Confederate Flag flying over the South Carolina State House was a problem) has now seen fit to call for the flag to be taken down.
For the moment, let’s assume this move comes out of a genuine sense of understanding of what the flag means to so many rather than simply a naked political calculation.
Nevertheless, it’s just a flag. The people who were killed in South Carolina were not killed by a terrorist armed with a flag. He didn’t suffocate them or strangle them with a giant cloth, and he didn’t even use the tip of a flagpole to spear them. No, as we all know, he shot these people to death with a gun.
You remember the gun, don’t you? It was used to kill:
- innocent schoolchildren in Newton, Connecticut.
- innocent people at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin
- innocent people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado
- innocent people at a grocery in Tuscon, Arizona
- innocent people at an army base in Fort Hood, Texas
- and thousands of innocent people each year.
That gun. That’s the one I’m talking about. That’s the one that kills people. Flags may inspire people to action. People may rally to or behind a flag. But, there isn’t a flag in human history that’s had magical powers sufficient to kill someone (unless someone with a weapon was carrying the flag at the same time and used the weapon while holding the flag).
Now, I’m not here to debate the 2d Amendment or to talk about hunters’ rights. But, I am here to say that America has too many guns, too many people with those guns, and far too little laws protecting the rest of us.
So, now, it’s time. It’s finally time. It’s time to get serious about guns. It’s long past the time to have a “national conversation.” A conversation is just talk. We don’t need talk. We need action, and by “action” I don’t mean taking down a flag and stopping there. Taking the flag down is a good idea, but it’s an idea that stands on its own merits, an idea that should have been acted upon long ago.
But, guns, doing something about them, so that there’s not another Charleston or Newtown or Aurora or Columbine or your average day in America where someone loses their life due to senseless gun violence, that’s what I’m talking about.
If you want to do something, write your member of Congress or check out the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence (http://www.bradycampaign.org/bradycenter).
2 Comments on “A Flag Isn’t Enough”
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I am with you 100% on gun control. After Sandy Hook a group of us put a lot of pressure on our congressman to vote for gun control legislation to no avail. I live in gun country here in rural MN. I will continue to work for gun control as long as the NRA buys votes in the legislature to put them in the hands of citizens.
I feel however, that the terrorist attack on a Historic Black Church in South Carolina fueled by racist hatred that is endemic in our country and pandemic in the South stands on it’s own and deserves to be specifically addressed for what it is – one more deadly act by white supremacists and their adherents to control African Americans through violence and intimidation. Before the gun, there was the lash and the noose. Same people used them for the same reason they do today.
Yes the Confederate flag is “just” a symbol. A symbol of both treason and slavery. We should not be celebrating either. Especially the government by flying its gang colors. Will taking it down, end racism? Of course not. But doing so is a tacit admission of our shameful history of racist violence. That’s one small piece of change but a starting point. I would ban it everywhere but them again I’m not more a First Amendment absolutist than a big fan of the misuse of the Second Amendment.
I look forward to your thoughts on the issues I raised here. I’ve always respected your opinions and have truly enjoyed our FB friendship and conversations. Feel free to email me if you don’t choose to have a public conversation.
Evelina: I couldn’t agree more. My post was really written based on the assumption (or presupposition) about all the points you make about race and racism. In other words, racism was the fuel that energized the shooter in Charleston. And, the gun was his weapon of choice, a weapon that is dangerous by definition and by design, and one that that is far, far too easy to get and is far, far too often made available to those who do not need it and and should not have it.
But, yes, you are correct, there is a twin problem here — a poisonous ideology and a fatal instrumentality. Both need to be addressed now and constantly with vigor and with mindfulness about how the failure to do so will leave our society vulnerable. The good news is that the needle on the meter measuring society’s response seems to be ticking positive. People seem energized. It may not last, but there is movement.
Now, we must continue the effort.
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