Well, the "neo-Confederates" are up in arms over the "Committee's" protest of Confederate symbols and activities on the campus of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, thus reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this April 17, 2014.
As a direct and collateral descendant of several Confederate veterans and lifelong Southerner and committed "traditionalist," as well as being a proud graduate of the W&L Law School, I feel I am privileged to comment on this turn of events. At W&L and later, I have had a premonition that this issue was, sooner or later, going to rear its ugly little head; and so it has.
It appears that the "Committee," a small interracial group of law students at W&L, are bothered by the overt display of Confederate memorabilia in the "Lee Chapel" and elsewhere on campus, and they are also exercised about overt neo-Confederate activities on "Lee-Jackson Day" on the campus. I assume that involves a lot of display not only of the formal Confederacy "Stars & Bars" flag but also the more widely-known Confederate battle flag with white stars embedded in the blue Cross of St. Andrew (the "X") on a red ground. This is the flag usually associated with the Confederacy but it is not the "Stars and Bars," contrary to most folks' beliefs. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are apparently leading the charge to counter the efforts of the "Committee" to ban such pro-Confederate stuff from the W&L campus. The Committee has argued that those Confederate things are offensive to the black and other minority students on campus and also to some of the white students as well. The "Sons" argue that preservation of important traditions requires that W&L, the final resting place of Robert E. Lee (the patron saint of all things Southern), be the fountainhead of Confederate remembrance. Oh, my.
While I was at W&L, It was obvious to me that, sooner or later, this issue would come to a head. I did not say nor do much about it at the time because I simply was not sensitized to the issue. It was not important to me, but the offensiveness of it was not readily apparent, either. Contrary to what most of my friends would say, I am proud to consider myself a "traditionalist." I understand the power of the "old ways." "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" goes the saying. Needless meddling is wrong. I still believe all that. When in the Boy Scouts in North Carolina, I was the proud displayer of the Confederate battle flag which was also emblazoned on our "East Carolina Council" shoulder patch. When I went to the 50th Anniversary Boy Scout Jamboree in Colorado Springs in 1960, I took a fistful of small Confederate battle flags to trade for stuff; Scouts from the north and west would eagerly give up seriously valuable stuff to get them! I was a solid Dixie guy, even if I venally profited from my Confederate heritage!
In my last year at W&L, I was present at the interment of "Traveller," Robert E. Lee's horse, the skeleton of which had been on display in the basement of Lee Chapel for many years. The powers that were had finally decided to give the skeleton a decent burial beside the Chapel, complete with an engraved stone slab on top. So, one day, I was strolling across campus in my T-shirt, shorts and sandals, with rather long hair. I meandered over to a crowd of somberly-dressed people clustered around the grave of Traveller. An Episcopal priest in full vestments from the nearby church was conducting a burial service for Traveller, and the assembled crowd of respectful mourners eyed my slovenly appearance suspiciously and with unconcealed disdain. What surprised me most about that whole affair, however, was that I had never realized that Traveller was an Episcopalian!
The past 42+ years have had a profound effect on me. Regardless of my past, I am now sensitized to many things in ways I was not before. For example, I now favor gay marriage though I did not before. My ex-wife also favored gay marriage; she would say that she did not see why gays should not experience the pain and heartbreak of matrimony, same as straights, and I thought she was joking! I finally had a breakthrough in my understanding about the Confederacy that opened my eyes to what had been going on and what I had been doing: I came to realize that the proof of white Southern inbreeding is our penchant for celebrating a War we lost! I did not want to be part of that "proof" any longer!
Not only am I now concerned about my own image and attitudes, I am also of the belief that needless offensiveness is simply wrong and a waste of time. I don't mind being offensive as Hell when the need arises, and most acquaintances will attest to that. But, I see no point in hurting other people's feelings for no reason, REGARDLESS of whether or not their subjective position is "right" or "wrong." I try to no longer correct others so long as what they say or do does not infringe on me, nor will I go out of my way to overtly cling to some pointless activity or standard if I know that it hurts someone's feelings. I won't rub their noses in it unless I think they deserve it. Then, I will "rub" with a vengeance! (Of course, I get to decide all that.)
Which brings me to this: W&L should get rid of all the Confederate trappings that are pointlessly annoying people and, being a totally private campus, it should ban like activities (not individual students' conduct or statements, though) that tend to hurt people's feelings. Because it can. Students should continue to be free to make asses of themselves. That is an important principle, regardless of who gets annoyed, because the answer to offensive "speech" is more "speech," not censorship. W&L does not need a "speech code" nor to punish mere stupidity. But, at the same time, it does not need to contribute to the glorification of a war we lost!
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