Stars and barred

Last week was one of those homeostatic great times after tragedy. I really do believe that because the devastation of the Charleston, South Carolina mass shooting in which 9 people were slaughtered by a white supremacist 24 year old man, was followed by the SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality. Sometimes I think that our young people will rise above the crappiness of their elders -- that the irrational hatred of another group of people will just disappear. And then it doesn't.

After the shooting there was a call to remove the confederate flag from the capitol of South Carolina. Across the country, people were astonished that the flag still flew. Because they lost. Because the only banner that should fly is that of the United States of America. Because the USA won.

That much most Americans could remember from our 10th grade American History class. But this past week, the history of the Stars and Bars was splashed everywhere on social media and the fact that it was flying over the capitol of an American state is galling.

But I never knew.

Back in the early 90's, Hootie & the Blowfish played the Waikiki Shell. One of my friends invited me to go to the concert with her and some friends. Who didn't like a little Hootie? We didn't have seats as much as we had a picnic blanket and hung out on the lawn with our cooler and some pupus. The concert was going along swimmingly when lead singer Darius Rucker stopped the concert between songs.

The exchange went something like this:

"Miss, I see you are waving the confederate flag. Why are you doing that?"
"Because you're from South Carolina. I am too!"
"Yes, we are. But we don't stand for the kind of hate that flag represents. Please don't wave that here."

A cheer went up when she took her flag down. (You must forgive my dusty memories, but it went something like that. That at least was the gist of the interaction.)

In my ignorance, that little memory was tucked away until last week when it rose up and demanded to be polished. It reminded me how easily we forget the terrible things that have happened in our past. The Stars & Bars are a sigil not of Southern Pride, but of oppression and hate depending on which side of the flagpole you're on.

I'm with Hootie & the Blowfish on this one.