State's Rights

Along with the Gadsden Flag (Don't Tread on Me), Old Glory and the Betsy Ross Stars and Strips, I also fly the Confederate Battle Flag as part of my home flag ensemble. There are those who say that by flying the Confederate Battle Flag I espouse and endorse hate, racism and oppression. Unfortunately that flag has been hijacked by some organizations that do foster those beliefs as part of their credo. I personally do not adhere to those ideals or values. I fly that flag in commemoration of what it originally stood for, individual freedom and State's Rights.

Unfortunately contemporary views of history have misconstrued the cause of the Civil War as slavery. Although the issue of slavery contributed to this conflict the over arching issue was states rights.

Did the federal government have the right to tell individual states what they could and could not do? Only about 3% of the population of the South owned slaves and of those the majority where what was considered the landed aristocracy. Why would none slave owning, poor Southerns fight for slaves they didn't own and for a small group of people who in general despised them for their poverty?

The answer is not that they wanted slaves or that they loved the Southern Aristocracy but that they loved their freedom and their rights as an individual state to be free from the meddling of the federal government to decide what they could and could not do.

Do I believe in slavery? No. It is/was a horrible institution and a blot on our history as a nation that was founded on freedom and individual liberty. Was the Confederacy justified in taking up arms to defend their state's rights? Absolutely!

Given the times and issues we face today, I fly the Confederate Battle Flag to remind myself and other of the sacrifices a group of Americans made to defend their individual and state's rights.

I encourage everyone to do the same.

The Will of the People

Last week a federal judge in California overturned Proposition 8, California's ban on same sex marriage instituted by the will of the people, as unconstitutional. Once more the will of the people has been over turned by the will of one. If this isn't legislating from the bench I don't know what is. What recourse do the people have when the legislative branch doesn't follow the will of its constituents, the executive branch feels they answer to no one, and the judicial branch can make laws with no one's input at all? All is left to do is to "throw the bums out" while it is still something that we can do. Once they take that away from us it is all over but the crying.