Burn This Flag

Here's a flag that should be burned according to Kevin McKague (Davison City Council member):

A note to those outside of Davison: In the courtyard between the Davison City Hall and the library is a courtyard, there are flag poles flying the flags of all 50 states, with the flags of the U.S., and the City of Davison. The city's official slogan is "The city of flags".

Something on the Municipal Center grounds has been bothering me for several years, every time I visit City Hall or during my many visits to our great library each week.

I am proud that Davison is the "City of Flags", and my children and I enjoy looking at all of the state flags in our courtyard, but I think that one flag in particular needs to be taken down.

I am referring to the flag of the state of Mississippi, which incorporates as its emblem the Confederate "Stars and Bars" in its upper-left hand corner.

I appreciate that the city has a lot of important business to which it needs to attend, but before you dismiss this concern as superficial, consider these facts:
The Confederate emblem was carried by an insurgent army, responsible for a war which caused more American deaths than any other war fought by the United States. More Americans died at the Battle of Gettysburg alone than on September 11, 2001.

The same confederate emblem is prominently carried at KKK rallies, and used by Neo-Nazis, the Aryan Nation, and other racist organizations.

Whether or not some chose to see it as an innocent symbol for polite Southern culture and history, I believe that those people are simply choosing to ignore history. It is no more an innocuous regional symbol than the WWII German swastika flag is an innocent symbol of German heritage. It is the symbol of centuries of slavery, lynchings, persecution and Jim Crow laws.

If the people of Mississippi choose to use such a historically offensive symbol on it's flag, that is certainly their prerogative. As an elected official in Davison, I believe that we should take the flag down, box it up, and send it to Governor Barbour of Mississippi, telling him that the City of Flags will have an empty flag pole in his state's honor.

Kevin McKague
Davison City Council
City of Davison, Michigan

How was this letter received by his fellow council members? Two council members quickly rejected McKague's suggestion:

Councilman James Hansen said the city shouldn't concern itself with another state's decision about what goes on its flag.

Councilman Donald Csutoras had a similar reaction.

"Kevin, you need to get a life," Csutoras said in reply to McKague's e-mail. "Call it what you think it is ... but it is their state flag and they are part of the United States of America. ..."

Davison should concern themselves with the flag precisely because Mississippi is part of the "United" States, and Csutoras is wrong to minimize the significance of the flag. As Kevin says:

...its not what I call it, its what history calls it. Too many people think of the Confederate flag as something no more immoral than a corporate logo. My discussion with the writer of this article today reminded me of the high schoolers in Grand Blanc, Michigan who were disciplined for flying the flag from their car in the school parking lot. Too many people, like those students, think of the "Stars and Bars" as nothing more than a sign of healthy rebellion. Like a rock star hanging it on-stage or a rapper wearing a particular shoe company logo. Its not the same thing. The Confederate flag was flown by traitors to our nation who fought a war responsible for more American deaths than any other war. It is flown at cross burnings and by American Nazis. Yeah, its their flag, but that doesn't mean it belongs in our community.

Well said, Kevin.

History once viewed the swastika differently too. It was a holy symbol in Hinduism and was often viewed as a symbol of good luck before the Nazi Party adopted it, and here in the U.S. the Navajo Indians made it a popular symbol for the Southwestern United States. In fact, up until 1940, Arizona state highway markers featured a right-facing swastika superimposed on an arrowhead. I have a feeling Hansen and Csutoras would feel differently about this issue if Arizona's state flag incorporated a swastika.