The cleansing has only begun

Advocates for banning the Confederate flag argue that contrary, positive opinions of that banner (regional historic heritage, familial loyalty and respect) do not matter and should not be considered. Because truly horrible things happened under the Confederate flag, no positive interpretation or personal reality can outweigh that undeniable awfulness.

In that argument, then, is the notion that only flag banners' opinions should be consequential. And that all citizens must live according to them.

Honest consideration, of course, would result in understanding and acknowledging that many everyday American phenomena can be traced to eras in which racist philosophies held official sway. To not also challenge these, and every bit as publicly and vigorously, would be illogical.

(Yes, each does also have non-racist recommendations. But as has now been established, those don't count.)

Lest they be branded hypocrites, then, citizen pressure groups, news media, politicians, and corporate sales entities must without delay take up arms in the noble fight to eradicate these too from modern America:

- Paintings, songs, literary compositions, and film works depicting confederate era figures and/or battles;

- Songs (including the National Anthem), literature, and art works created during and/or reflecting the condemnation-worthy slavery and Jim Crow eras;

- Statues, paintings, plays, TV and film works, and all literary or educational texts referencing the founding fathers, some of whom were slave holders and all of whom approved a constitution whose principles were drawn exclusively from European sources.

- The decoration of government buildings, including court-system ones, of all words or images referencing those Founding Fathers;

- The depiction of Founding Fathers on currency;

- The racist and sexist phrase "Founding Fathers," itself.

- The US Constitution. It was by design not representative of all peoples and world philosophies, based as it partially was on the Magna Carta and other English legal thinking;

- Any and all state and municipal laws derived from that fundamentally discriminatory constitution;

- Any and all legal precedents rooted in early American eras when discrimination was sanctioned.

- The American flag, which was hoisted over a discriminatory nation and which to some in this increasingly divided country and elsewhere symbolizes only oppression.

This is, of course, only a partial list of targets. Such is the nature of progressivism that one struggle's successful conclusion means only that
new ones must be declared.

A proposal for one subsequent goal is the elimination of the concept of distinct nations. "Imagine there's no countries," as Lennon sang.

This is the task to which the historically revisionist culture cleansers have devoted themselves. Let them, then, embrace these logical ends.


Almost as if acting on this, progressive totalitarians in the media hurried to announce new ambitions. The 6/24 Washington Post op-ed page offered several mini-essays advocating less freedom for citizens. CUNY professor Jessie Daniels called for 'restricting online hate speech.' Lilly Workneh of the Huffington Post urged "It's Not Just the Flag: Here Are the Other Confederate Tributes That Need To Go." Workneh cited some half-dozen Change.org petitions pressing scattered local officials to "remove or rename an area fixture that in some way memorializes the confederacy." Similar notions will doubtless soon follow.