COLUMN: The Happiness Boys

From Marc Teillon's "The Public Pillory," Fall '94 The UDC had donated millions of dollars in Civil War memorials and memorabilia. Congressional approval of their insignia's patent was an expression of gratitude for the group's time and money. Every 14 years, its patent design, which includes the Confederate flag, had been unanimously passed by Congress since 1898. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun decided to change the trend. In her famous speech shown throughout the land, the senator from Illinois denounced the Confederate flag as a symbol of racism. Not only would it be racist to display the flag, but to vote for a patent that included the banner. Seventy-four members saw the Light and promptly enlisted in Braun's Brigade. The patent was shot down and three-fourths of the Senate went home feeling good about their decision not to be endorsers of bigotry and prejudice. The symbolism of the flag is an issue once again. The November elections are upon us and there is a new individual who desires to serve his state in Washington. Unfortunately, Oliver North has not been enlightened to the evils of his ancestral symbol. The Lieutenant Colonel said that the Southern Flag is "part of the great heritage of this state of Virginia" and that it was fine by him if any Virginian wanted to proudly display his tradition. Immediately after his proclamation, North was censured for his divisive and racist remarks. Chuck Robb, his opponent who trails him in the polls, called the statement "an appeal to intolerance." Linda Byrd-Harden of the local NAACP said "his statements are not only offensive to African-Americans, they are offensive to any American who understands what the Confederate flag stands for." Under their definitions, the flag stands for racism and slavery. Moseley-Braun, Chuck Robb, the NAACP, and the rest of the Liberal Establishment "do not want to be reminded of slavery." But if the Confederate Flag reminds them of that nasty institution, then Old Glory should be ripped down from the flagpoles for being equally offensive. When the Civil War started, the slave population in the Union was over 440,000 (in the five states where slavery was still legal). The Emancipation Proclamation freed the bondsmen in the rebel states, but not in the five who remained loyal to the Union. Under the federal constitution, those in bondage in the North were not freed from their owners until the 13th amendment was passed in 1865. As far as the army whose color guards bore the Stars and Stripes, its great general and future President of the United States was served throughout the war by his own slaves. Incidentally, Grant's arch-enemy -- Gen. Robert E. Lee -- owned no slaves. Also, a Nashville Union platoon bought and sold slaves up until the surrender at Appomattox. While the institution of slavery is the greatest atrocity in the past 300 hundred years, the South is not the only one guilty of the heinous crime. "Yankees", Englishmen, Frenchmen, Portuguese, and the African tribes who captured, bought, and sold African men, women and children into life-long servitude are just as culpable. According to Jack Kershaw, a Tennessee scholar, "slavery and slave trading were sanctioned by and blessed in New England." Only after "the slaves were all bought and paid for did slavery become 'wrong.'" If the Confederate flag represents the social travesty of slavery, then all the Northern state flags, the Stars and Stripes, and the participating European and African state flags are symbols of slavery as well. Should all these flags be banned from our country? Should everything that may remind us of the permanent blot on our past be removed from society? If yes, then our society is worse than the prophetic civilization in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. In this apocalyptic vision, the firemen burn books because the ideas contained in them offend and disturb the people. Unlike the Orwellian-vision of State-enforced totalitarianism, the call for action came directly from the people. They just wanted to feel good and not be reminded of any unpleasant ideas. The Happiness Boys -- as the populace had dubbed the firemen -- had the power to grant their wishes. Currently, our Happiness Boys in Congress and the liberal establishment are eliminating not only offensive words, but symbols construed as representing horrible memories. To say the Confederate Flag is only a symbol of racism is demagogic and immature. The. Southern cross also represents the tradition of the southern agrarian society and the belief in States' rights. There are countless other things it symbolizes. In other words, it means different things to different people. If our society starts petitioning our government to rid our country of anything unpleasant, no matter how offensive or cruel it may seem, we will watch our freedoms go up in flames. And when all is said and done, we will not be able to use Shakespeare's familiar excuse that "the fault ... is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." The blame will fall on us -- we chose to light the match. Marc Teillon is a junior Finance major from Liverpool, New York. The Public Pillory appears alternate Thursdays.