E. Scott Cracraft: Tributes to the Confederacy do no belong on public property

To The Daily Sun,

Driving in Laconia, I sometimes don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see a large, gas-guzzling pickup truck with a HUGE Confederate battle flag flying the truck. Sometimes I am tempted to point out that New Hampshire was one of the largest contributors, percentage wise, of UNION regiments. But perhaps he knows this and just flies the flag to be offensive?

It may surprise some people, but, as they say down South, “I DO got a dawg in this hunt.” I was a military brat, raised in the North and overseas, but my roots lie in the “Deep South.” My parents had deep Southern accents and we ate lots of grits for breakfast! My parents met at Ole’ Miss and most of my male ancestors fought for the Confederacy. Only the Cracrafts themselves were divided, literally, “brother against brother.”

But just because I was raised to root for Ole’ Miss, it does not mean I want the Confederate flag at their games. The flag is offensive to many people.

For years after the Civil War, ”The Flag” was not that big of a big deal in the South. In fact, making the Confederate flag part of former Confederate state flags or flying them over public buildings, did not really become common until the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s.

The Confederate battle flag has no business being flown on or over government property, including military bases. It should never be part of the logo of any publicly supported school or university. And, should bases be named after generals the U.S. military defeated long ago?

Perhaps they do belong in Confederate cemeteries. Or, as President Obama said, maybe the appropriate place to display confederate flags is in museums. If you want to fly the flag on your own property or vehicle, you may have that “right” but don’t be surprised if you offend people!

As for Confederate monuments, they were not put up on public property in Southern cities until long after the war. They were often sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) who began a deliberate plan to revise the history of the Civil War and see the war merely as a noble “lost cause” for “states’ rights.” They were also put up in the years after Reconstruction deliberately to remind African Americans who was “now in charge.”

We do not have to destroy these statues. They could be given to museums dedicated to the Civil War which could then set them up on their own property. They do not belong in public spaces.

It is amusingly (and sadly) ironic that many of the same folks who wave the Confederate flag, label those who do not like it “traitors.” Don’t they know that the South met the actual constitutional test for “Treason” by “making war on the United States?”

E. Scott Cracraft

Gilford