Feelings on displaying the Confederate flag on your POV or person while on a military installation?

Aaron, let's dispense with the current subject matter which tends to push people to one end of the spectrum or the other. The symbol is not the issue, the issue is in a country that prides itself on free speech and other broad freedoms. Are we at a point where we can't offend one another? I find the popular "COEXIST" bumper sticker offensive. Should we ban that too? Where does it end? Now we have major universities banning "micro aggression." For the record, I grew up in the north where we learned that the civil war was all about slavery. While in the military my kids attended schools in the south where they learned it was all about state rights and northern aggression. The battle flag of the Confederates simply represents the losing force of the civil war. While I understand how some feel it relates to slavery, I personally feel it's a stretch. Most importantly, while it is an unfortunate part of our nation's history, it is in fact our history. Imagine how we would view Germany completely burying its history and role in the holocaust. Bottom line is this, I may not like it or agree with it, but I don't defend the constitution so someone can dictate what is appropriate to say or display. That's not how it's supposed to work. I just think this is a slippery slope creating a precedence for really ridiculous restrictions in the future.

@CPT Aaron Kletzing, A pickup truck displaying a huge Rebel Flag, a good ol'boy wearing a Rebel Flag shirt while the bumper of the featured pickup truck has an OBAMA sticker? I think that ol'boy may be confused!

1. I have no problem with the Rebel Flag being displayed by anyone on base or off base. Those who have actually studied history are resistant to the propaganda surronding this flag. As it stands no other political flag is banned on base, including rainbow LGBT pride flags which can be also be seen as offensive, so I see no reason to ban any sort of flag on base. If we want to censor flags that offend us then we need a uniform ban on all such flags - not just one.

2. The flag to me symbolizes history and a great struggle in this nation. A lesson we should learn from and seek to never repeat. It represents the heritage of families in the South who fought for their rights. I know many people have chosen to remain ignorant of the topic and paint a picture of aggression, slavery, and hate when concerning this flag - I don't respect these people at all. It takes very little effort to research a topic and I am concerned with how many in this nation jumped on the bandwagon without first doing so. We cannot erase our (good or bad) history.

3. As a leader I would tell a person coming to me with a complaint to follow their natural chain of command. Did you first calmly and respectfully take your case to the one displaying the flag and try to resolve the problem at the personal level? If that doesn't work then what are the circumstances of the flag - is someone trying to provoke a response? If it's just display than I would tell the person complaining that they are in the military and that they need to research the topic and get past it. If we banned everything that offended us...we'd have nothing left.

I'm not a big fan of the flag, but it's mostly a "meh."

What I worry about with the current animus against the flag is that troops with a strong Southern heritage and do fly it proudly, will now be targeted as possibly being "extremists." We serve with these guys; we know they're our brothers and sisters and are not folks who hate indiscriminately.

While I'm all for removing the flag from government and whatnot, the more we get into banning sales of the flag or burying the historical value, the less enthusiastic I get. The arguments against are problematically reductionist, and are prompting inane arguments about the casus belli. Yes, the South seceded over slavery, it's in the majority of their secession declarations, for crying out loud. But no, the Union did not wage war to free the slaves. People did fight because they believed in states rights; it doesn't make it true that they fought or didn't fight for slavery, what was important was what they *perceived* they were fighting for their states rights, especially if slavery was as remote to them as it was for most of the people who fought. So often the argument gets arbitrarily drawn into a false, bifurcated choice, to the point where it's just not useful. All of that is immaterial. I'm just glad slavery ended, the Union was preserved, and that we have a rich tradition, until now, of objectively presenting all the facts about how and why it all happened. I worry, I really worry, that we're embarking on a path of sensitivity-driven revisionism, by all sides! Many that want the flag put out erroneous information, and many that want the flag banned want to pretend that things were just plain evil and there was no nuance beyond secession declarations.

Will the disappearing battle flag save people from being shot? I doubt it. Will it end racism? No. All these gestures, to me, are absolutely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. We need coherent, sensible moral constructs, religious or secular, and we need to abide by them. Hating and targeting a fellow American on the merits of race, color, or creed should just be a given. Everything else we're doing is just commentary.

I feel the same way about the "Confederate" flag (yes, yes, I know, I know, it's actually the battle flag of Virginia or Tennessee or whatnot... but it has *become* "The Confederate Flag* in common discourse and if I said the words "Confederate Flag" to a roomful of people, northerners and southerners, they'd all know exactly what I'm talking about) regardless of whether it is on or off post.

That said, the Confederate flag, to me, symbolizes a region of the country that took pride in its heritage as a place where white people felt it was their right to enslave black people; to exploit them in a cruel plantation economy justified by notions of racial superiority. Regardless of whether every individual Southerner or Confederate soldier owned slaves or even thought about the slavery system as an institution, they benefited from that system and were willing to fight to the death, even to literally kill family members from the north, to preserve it.

My personal experience with the flag is mostly just watching the kinds of people who display it. The more "loud & proud" they are, the more I tend to see certain stereotypes reinforced. Disdain for people of certain colors, for example, or a sense that they were unfairly picked on by bullying government.

1) The Confederate Flag is a touchy subject, displaying it openly while on military undulations is wrong. It shows service members that you are not up for change and you only agree with one culture and not all cultures basically closed minded. What you do off base is your personal buisness, but you will still be under scrutiny because of your obligation to the military.
2) it means you still represent slavery, abolishment, and one nation, the confederate nation. Others see and think the samething.3) I have not personally experienced this stupidity, but I can say that majority of the nuckle heads that do wear or display the flag don't know half history behind it. Some do it for show and just to be seen or noticed, low self esteem medication.

Here is the thing, if you are actually offended by the Conferderate Flag I think you need to read history... The feelings of hatred, hurt etc... Actually stem from a common misconception that the flag represented slavery or racism, the reality is the flag represented the right of the states to decide for themselves... If you actually read all of history you will find that slavery was not the real reason for the Civil War, though it was a contributing factor it isn't actually the reason... The southern States wanted less federal government and to be able to decide what was right for their constituents based on local votes and not federal jurisdiction... That being said it is through ignorance, politics and misjudgment that the harmless piece of cloth that represented a huge turning point in our great nations growth and development has been demonized... The reality of it is, we defend freedom of speech and expression.. If you take your oath seriously, then you shouldn't care what others are saying and doing as long as it is not causing harm to others... No where in the constitution does it say that we have freedom of speech, religion, expression etc.. Just so long as it doesn't offend others... Also to say they can't display the Confederate flag because others find it offensive, does that also mean that eventually you will also ban the GA state flag because it is part of their flag because someone is offended... Then what if someone is offended by the color green, do you now ban anything with that color, where does it stop? When do we either allow the freedoms that so many have died trying to protect, or do spit on their graves as we become the tyrants...

I can appreciate that for some the confederate flag represents positive things like being a Southerner and the good elements of southern history but to me it has too much baggage associated with racism, slavery and the civil war so I'd prefer it not be flown. That being said, I'm not going to freak out if some military members want to display it. It's a free country.

As an EOL (Equal Opportunity Leader), my best advice is to refrain from using or displaying such symbols of controversy, even more so after recent events. I personally find it in poor taste, as well as disrespectful to display such "heritage". Keep it at YOUR HOME... it is not worth the risk of losing a career by creating hostile dialog leading to complaints. Just my two cents worth.

I have no problem with the confederate flag as long as it's flown for the right reason and not as a statement of being a racist biggest.