At last week’s committee meeting, which blew up over Young’s resignation and Young appearing (via Zoom) to say he didn’t resign, a second controversy erupted over a car and truck parade through the township to support President Donald Trump. The main controversy over the parade was that one vehicle also displayed a Confederate battle flag.
We don’t believe everyone who took part in the parade, including Committeeman Curtis Corson, should be blamed for the one participant who displayed a flag that has become a symbol of racism and hate. However, what was disturbing at the meeting were hate-filled, spiteful and clueless comments that flew during the meeting.
When one woman who identified herself as Black said she worried when she saw the Confederate flag pass by her home, she was interrupted with an obscenity.
When a woman who said she was of Korean heritage felt unsafe because of racist comments and slurs in the township, another resident said, “Then move away.”
One parade participant defended the flag, saying, “If you don’t like the flag, look away.”
Those comments reveal a nasty undercurrent in the town that we, like the mayor, hope is not widespread.
For those who need some context about the Confederate battle flag, when Union and Confederate re-enactors gather at Historic Cold Spring Village in Lower Township to re-enact Civl War scenes, the flag can be seen in an historical context.
When it is flown outside that context, it is a political statement rightly viewed as racist and hateful.
When the Georgia legislature put that battle flag on its state flag, it did it in 1956 – not 1865 – to oppose desegregation in schools. It was used to show support for Jim Crow laws that enforced discrimination against Blacks, to show contempt for the Civil Rights Movement, and to engender fear in the Black community.
Those who use the excuse that flag is about history and state rights willfully ignore that the state right it represented: the institution of slavery, this nation’s original and lasting moral stain.
As a matter of free speech, that flag can’t be banned or people prevented from flying it, but suggesting people “look away” if they’re offended is contemptible.
Those who refuse to acknowledge or confront racism perpetuate it.
