Given the climate of racial tension across the country, the timing could not be worse for a Confederate flag to show up at the Whidbey Island Fair parade.
Only a few days before the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s shooting in the streets of Ferguson and in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, the South’s former war banner made an appearance in little old Langley.
The event, typically a piece of Americana that people come to cherish as tractors, horses, goats and, this year, people dressed as bunnies for the 91st fair’s theme of “Hare-Raising and Amazing,” was hardly the place for such a controversial image.
Supporters defend it as a symbol of Southern pride and heritage, as a homage to distant ancestors — people who carried the Confederate flag — who fought for the South in the Civil War. But for a group such as the American Legion, one that has a department of Americanism and is devoted to all things stamped in Old Glory’s red, white and blue, to fly a former secessionist war banner seems like cognitive dissonance.
Defenders argue that we shouldn’t whitewash history, and they’re absolutely right. Striking all mention of the flag or banning its creation or even its ability to be flown isn’t what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the proper place and context for the flag, one that once stood for the Southern states’ right to own slaves and was revived during the fight for Civil Rights as a symbol of segregation.
If people are so proud of the South, why not fly their family’s state flag — Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina — above a banner that split this nation in two, that infamously saw brother fighting brother.
To see a pair of Confederate flags waving in equal prominence to the United States flag was disappointing. One nation’s flag won that war, and one lost. They don’t deserve equal importance.
It’s unfortunate that this happened, throwing mud on an otherwise delightful affair. As Island County Fair Association Board President Jason Kalk said, “This is a small part of a wonderful weekend we had.”
American Legion Post 141 Commander Kevin McDonald, who himself said he has Southern heritage, apologized that the sight of the flags upset people, and has already promised that they will not be included in future American Legion Riders fair parades. Contrition is always a wise decision, and education is a solid second step.
A history book, a museum, a family memento, those are appropriate places for the Confederate flag. Even political demonstrations seem better suited for such a sight, but not the Whidbey Island Fair parade. Whidbey Island has no ties to the Civil War or to the South, and its fair parade should be dedicated to the county’s history and future of agriculture and education.
