Sure, the Confederate flag is a political statement. It was the battle flag of slavers and it is a rallying banner for racists. Sure, the Lost Cause narrative has tried to redeem it, tried to whitewash the blood of murdered and lynched Black folks out of the Stars and Bars. Confederate soldiers massacred wounded and surrendered Black Union soldiers, and not once, but repeatedly under orders.
Conflating the Confederate flag with the Black Lives Matter movement is disingenuous and dangerous. One encompasses equality for all, the other would have Black folks along with others who don’t fit an acceptable narrative forever be disenfranchised and systematically abused or put to death when it is convenient.
Yes, that is a logical and historical conclusion to being a second-class citizen. If you are inconvenient to the holders of power you will have your recourse to justice taken away and maybe it isn’t a bullet, maybe it is a slow death of poverty, or of sickness, or of a work camp, or as a political prisoner… but a death it is. Yet, we have paramilitary units deployed to American cities without identification, refusing to identify themselves, acting without oversight, without due process, without respect for fundamental rights of Americans to peaceably assemble and protest.
The current administration is further weaponizing the DHS, an agency already rife with corruption, racism, authoritarian tendencies, civil liberties violations, and with at least one attack on a journalist under its belt and one that actively militarizes peace officers. If we want peace officers we should prepare them as peace officers. If we want war on the streets I guess we can continue on as we’ve prepared our peace officers for war against our fellow Americans.
Are we willing to chance that the DHS and federal paramilitary units continue further along a well-worn path walked by fascist and authoritarian regimes, past American governments have chastised, excoriated, and gone to war with? I am not. Neither should you.
Mike Ulen, Grand Marais
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