DOING WHAT DLYANN ROOF COULD NOT DO

Politicians have done a pretty good job at doing what Dylann Roof failed to do -- stirring up unrest, agitation and more hatred.

Roof said he wanted to start a race war.  He failed.  He failed miserably.  His tragic act of murder and mayhem united a nation--of all colors, all faiths and all regions.  

Until the politicians stepped in and quickly divided the country again.  They divided the country over the most senseless of all issues--a confederate flag.

If the confederate flag was an issue in Charleston, it should have been dealt with quietly, quickly and without fanfare.  And it should have ended there.  But it didn't.

Several states are now embroiled over the issue.  The federal government is involved.  Major retail chains have felt the need to respond.  The media--which has only one food source--controversy--has responded.

The unity and solidarity in the aftermath of the Charleston murders lasted for about 24 hours.  In this case, demolition of wonderful goodwill and solidarity was not triggered by racists, white supremacy, neo-nazis, the klan, or any of the normal suspects.  Quite the opposite, the strife was created by political leaders, but by Democrats and Republicans who did not want to be one-upped by Democrats.  And the target of their strife is poorly chosen:  the confederate flag.  More precisely, they strive about what the confederate flag means to them.

In today's politically correct world, one can define anything--as anything we wish it to be.  In our existentialist worldview, nothing is absolute or even probable.  Your gender, race, nationality...whatever, can be defined however you want it to be defined.  Remember Rachel Dolezai, an NAACP leader who turned out to white, not black?  It doesn't matter. I was tortured over breakfast recently by two ABC news commentators wrestling with the question, "What is race?"

So, what is a confederate flag?  It can darn well be anything you want it to be in today's America.  You define it.  The possibilities are wide open.  It can be just an artifact of a bygone era, a historical symbol of the fact that the North and South once fought each other in a long,deadly war; or it can be a symbol of all that is evil in the world.  You choose.  Unfortunately, a few people (some with good intentions, some not so good probably) chose to define the flag as something it never was.  The flag is an inanimate object, incapable of good or evil and with no power to hurt anyone.