Majority ≠ Right

One of the founding principle of our country, and a defining characteristic of any just society, is that the minority must be protected from the tyranny of the majority. I would go further to say that we should be judged not in how we treat most people, not in how well we provide for those who already have the advantage of numbers on their side, but in how we treat the few, the disadvantaged. We don’t decide right and wrong by popular vote. Those of us in the majority should not seek out that which pleases us at any cost to others. We have a deeper responsibility to use our power to care for those who lack power of their own.

Which brings us to the Confederate Flag. A recent poll states that the majority of Americans view the flag as a symbol of southern pride and heritage. It doesn’t matter. At all. The simple truth is that the descendants of slave owners have no right to decide the moral correctness of a symbol which sprung, clearly and unequivocally, from the fight to keep a group of people enslaved, judging them to be lesser beings simply because of the color of their skin. It’s those who face the symbol as a reminder of their past, the fact they were brought to this country in chains, traded like livestock with no rights as human beings – they are the ones who get to decide what that flag means and whether it should be flown freely as a symbol of our current government. By a decided majority they find the symbol to be one of hatred and bigotry.

Our debate should not be about what the flag represents. We should be asking how we wish to treat each other. Is it important for us to hold onto something which so obviously is rooted in a time when we were deeply divided? We don’t need to erase the symbol or its history from all accounts. We don’t need to ban private expressions or dictate what any people should think or feel. But as a just and free society we need to separate our official institutions from a symbol that holds nothing but past horrors and continued hurt for a large group of our people. These are our brothers and sisters who are hurting. These are our children who must be raised under the flag’s shadow. How can we justify the pain it causes? How can we expect them to have any faith in or devotion to a government that claims pride in a past that was built on a practice we all agree was an abomination? Let us take down the flag. It’s the least we can do.