Americans are familiar with what is called the “rebel flag” or the “Confederate flag,” but which was actually the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. This was the army commanded by General Robert E. Lee. Decals, bumper stickers, and garment patches showing this flag are common in the South, as well as on motorcycles and in the military. The Confederacy used several other flags as well.

Now this flag is being removed from state government property in the South. For many Americans, and not only Southerners, the rebel flag speaks of an unbending individualism impervious to Big Brother. It speaks of devotion to a lost cause. It speaks of the integrity of Robert E. Lee. But does the racist baggage overcome the positive massage? For me and for many others, including many Southerners, it does.

Nevertheless, I have enough insight to understand that some people will continue to see the rebel flag in a positive light. Should the flag be displayed on government property? No. But should it continue to be displayed on memorials to Confederate dead? Of course. Should the flag incite such hatred that Confederate tombs will be desecrated and dead bodies dug up? Absolutely not.

Nathan Bedford Forest was an outstanding cavalry commander in the Civil War. But later he was a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Would I honor his grave? No. But would I approve digging it up to suit an agenda? Also no. The way to end hatred is to stop hating, not to hate in the opposite direction. The way to teach respect for all human beings is to respect them, not to desecrate their graves.

On the day after Lee’s surrender, a crowd surrounded the White House as a band serenaded the president. Lincoln appeared at the window and asked the band to play “Dixie,” which it did, followed by “Yankee Doodle.” Perhaps there is a lesson here.

In his second inaugural address, Lincoln said this:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Lincoln wanted to bind up the nation’s wounds. Others want to pick off the scabs and make the wounds bleed again. I believe Lincoln had the better idea, on both moral and practical grounds.

If the rebel flag, which represents a historical slice of America, is now so offensive that all representations of it must be removed from stores, then what flags are permissible? Even Americans who are unfamiliar with flags will recognize the Mexican flag. How could they not? They see it on TV frequently.

For example, they saw the furor on Cinco de Mayo in a California town, when Latino students insisted on their right to march around with Mexican flags, but then objected strongly when four boys came to school with American-flag shirts. The boys were sent home. Their parents sued, on the grounds that if foreign flags were allowed, American flags should be allowed as well.

But courts, up to the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled against the boys. That is: (1) If troublemakers threaten violence against peaceful students, the peaceful students – not the troublemakers – must be disciplined. (2) If there is a conflict between the American flag and the Mexican flag, the Mexican flag must be preferred.

Mexican flag sí, American flag no. ¿Claro?

Some time ago, Iran was matched against the USA in the World Cup tournament. My wife and I were driving up Westwood Blvd. toward UCLA, through an area filled with Iranian restaurants and shops. Suddenly the street was filled with cars honking their horns. People were shouting and waving Iranian flags out the windows. Later I learned that at least most of them were the old Iranian flags used under the former shah, shown above, and not the flags used by the current anti-American regime of the ayatollahs.

Many of these Iranians were refugees who fled from persecution by the Islamist regime, and who found sanctuary in America. But when Iran beat America in soccer, they loudly cheered for their former homeland. Soccer is still not popular here, so few Americans noticed, and none objected.

Still, I was saddened that these people still thought of themselves as Iranians, not as new Americans. But whose fault was that – theirs, for ingratitude, or ours, for not Americanizing them and their children? Of course, why should we Americanize the children of immigrants, when we are no longer Americanize our own children?

Recently media personality Ami Horowitz went to the University of California’s Berkeley campus. First he spent a half hour waving an ISIS flag, loudly proclaiming the virtues of that brutal terrorist gang. He encountered not one negative reaction, but got an occasional “right on!” and thumbs up.

Then he began waving an Israeli flag. He immediately evoked negative reactions, including “Tyranny isn’t cute,” “Israel is a thief,” and assorted expletives. There were few positive remarks, illustrating the anti-Israel prejudice permeating many campuses. Horowitz observed:

Students at Berkeley clearly have a lot of intellect; it is one of the most prestigious and selective universities in the country. But do they have wisdom? I went to the bucolic campus armed with a flag that represents the greatest evil known today, ISIS. If these are our best and brightest, then we should all be afraid, very afraid.

What we tolerate and what we do not tolerate reveals a great deal about our moral compass. Nothing brings this into sharper focus than which flags we tolerate and which we don’t. Our highest court favors the Mexican flag over our own flag, and favors bullies over the bullied. Our people haul down the rebel flag, but see nothing wrong with the ISIS flag. Such people do not deserve to live in a free country, and before long they won’t.

Is this an exaggeration? Look at these two photos, then consider your answer:

Mexican national anthem in Mexico
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U.S. national anthem in U.S.

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