What is a Symbol?

What is a symbol? Why do they matter? Why do we rally around them? For years and years there has been a sort of division in the United States regarding an issue that might seem odd to some and sacred to others: flag burning. In particular we are discussing the burning of the stars and stripes… the American Flag. The amount of respect and care that is paid to our flag is enormous. As children we pledge allegiance to it and as adults we stand whenever we see it presented. Most Americans are aware that our flag has a special way in which it is to be folded. When we notice flags being flown at half-staff we recognize that something isn’t right and that we are saddened and/or in mourning.

Yes the flag matters an enormous amount to our country. I’ll be the first to admit that prior to this week I didn’t know we had a “flag issue” in our country. I didn’t know that it was still a practice in some areas of our country to display the flag of the confederate states from the Civil War. As a Jew I find this to be as insulting as a German institution flying the Nazi flag in Germany today. But what I find all the more remarkable is that for a number of years in this country… for generations… this flag was seen as an act of patriotism. Let me see if I have this correct: the crime is called treason??? Yeah that’s the one, you know the federal offense that carries the death penalty. Last time I checked the actions of the confederate states in the years leading up, during and after Civil War were treasonous ones. Abandoning our union and forming a new one and then taking up arms against our country… Abandoning the constitution and then creating a whole new rule of law for a “new country???” The confederate flag is a symbol of treason and should never be allowed to be flown in our country let alone by government institutions.

But it isn’t only a symbol of treason. It is a symbol of hate, oppression and of ugliness. Some in the South would like to believe it is a sign of pride in the south. What is that pride about? Is it about heat? Is it about peaches, oranges and cotton? Is the pride that they are espousing about the rich history of the south in terms of all that it achieved for humanity and for our country? No… it is not. It is a sense of pride in a legacy of standing up to the federal system. A legacy of free thinking and of marching to the beat of a different drummer. It is a pride in a legacy of self-improvement and of a historical connection to our countries past. I bet you all are thinking right now that that is what it is all about. You’re wrong. In the south they still from time to time refer to the Civil War as the “War against Northern Aggression.” In the south they still refer to us northerners as Yankees (and that isn’t said out of love).

I am penning these words from a camp in Northern Georgia. Just yesterday morning after we crossed into Georgia from Florida we saw an enormous Confederate Flag flying next to I-75. In the vicinity of where I am right now is a Mt. Rushmore-like monument to the leaders of the confederate states. By the way, a number of KKK members had a hand in its creation and used to hold rallies around it. And lastly, here in the south we do observe Memorial Day but we also observe Confederate Memorial Day. All of this is a long winded way of saying that you might very well want to whitewash (pardon the term) the pat and re- appropriate a symbol for good. But at the end of the day a flag is not just a flag and with it you have enormous baggage. In the south, where desegregation was fought to the bitter end. In the south where Jim Crowe was the law/practice of the land. In the south where voter registration laws have systematically disenfranchised African-Americans and other minorities… in that south the Confederate flag is not a source of pride so much as it is intimidation and insulting.

As I said from the outset: symbols matter. When the Torah is marched around the room we Jews reach out to touch it and offer a kiss. This act is one of faith and one of adoration. However, it is crucial that one understand the underlying reasons for this custom. If when one kisses the Torah they only think of the parchment on which it is written. If they only think of the wooden rollers on which it is held. If they only think of the clothing that covers it… Then they are simply practicing idolatry. When we kiss the Torah it is the message and the story that we are kissing. It is the history of our people. And that makes it a symbol that matters. That is why we fast for 40 days if it is dropped. Because the message behind it, the history behind it and the story behind it are central to who we were, are and will be. If the same is remotely true of that flag then it is worse than we thought at first. And if it isn’t than the argument is pointless from the outset.

The nazi flag has no place in Germany and the Confederate Flag has no place here. We believe in symbols and we protect symbols. But we only do this when the thing the symbol symbolizes is worth honoring. Fighting to keep a people enslaved and keeping them subservient is not noble it is a moral stain on our past. All of the confederate flags should go as that is not who we seek to be any longer.