I’ve been doing some of my “best” blogging in the comments section over at Kevin Kim’s blog. We’re having a discussion on the issues surrounding the Confederate battle flag that have been so much in the news and on the internet of late. We both agree that given how that flag has been appropriated by haters and racists it is not appropriate for it to be given any sanctioning by being displayed on government property.
But I draw the line at disrespecting the memory of the soldiers who fought and died for their state, irrespective of the wrongness of the cause for which they were called to fight.
This old poem pretty much captures my feelings in that regard:
The Blue And The Gray
Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907)
By the flow of the inland river, Whence the fleets of iron have fled, Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver, Asleep are the ranks of the dead: Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day; Under the one, the Blue, Under the other, the Gray These in the robings of glory, From the silence of sorrowful hours So with an equal splendor, So, when the summer calleth, Sadly, but not with upbraiding, No more shall the war cry sever, |