I grew up in the North and don't know much about the Civil War. The flag that has become such a debate was nothing much where I grew up. If anyone had it displayed it was usually just country folk, but it was rare.
I moved to Tennessee in December 2011. There are more rebel flags, but same thing. Just country folk and rednecks. Everyone is happy and gets along. No one seems to make a big deal about the flags and neither did I. The Civil War is something I knew little of so I just saw the flag as a flag of rednecks, a thing of the south.
In August 2013 I took these photos of Charleston Cemetery in Tipton County.
I actually posted them on a Facebook group and we had an interesting discussion about grave markers. That's what I wanted to know. What the marker was. Someone even mention that now they make some out of recycled bowling balls. Not sure how true that ways, but it was an enjoyable discussion.
Now, it's almost 2 years later. Since some evil person held that flag in a photo, it has been determined to be the reason for the senseless murder of 9 people. A Facebook post in a cemetery group with these kind of things is now deemed offensive to some. Now people are just walking into cemeteries and removing these types of things and putting them in the trash. Why was it not offensive back then when I posted it? If it was so offensive, why did they not "educate" me on the offensiveness of these items back in 2013?
Today, just like I did when it first happened, I blame a young, whacked out, selfish jerk for killing 9 people during a prayer service. It was his choice, not history's. He was a Godless soul. His lack of God and disrespect for others allowed him to choose to take the lives of 9 people. We try to blame mental health issues, gun laws, conservatives, a rebel flag for the reason he killed, but I just blame him. He is an evil thinking person.
When the tragedy first happened people were coming together and praying. When the tragedy first happened, people shared the photos and names of the victims to honor them. When the tragedy first happened, people despised the killer. We were united. All Americans stood together in the fact that this was wrong. Healing began... then someone blamed a piece of material, a dead body, a man-made statue. Now we have forgotten those church members who were senselessly killed. We now have division....
Is division what those people in the church died for? At that prayer service were they praying to have a flag taken down, a dead body dug up, a statue to be removed, a street name to be changed, an elementary school name to be changed? Those people praying welcomed a young man in their prayer service. They had unity, he did not. I doubt they were praying for any of the things we are fighting over today.
Whatever your belief is about the flag, dead bodies, statues and names, I'll respect it and try to see your side. I feel like I'm an outsider looking in, trying to gain understanding of why something that has been around for years has to come down or WWIII will start. Please take time to read history. I try to read something from all sides. I feel the division we have today is from a lack of knowledge. Read about all those who fought and died under both sides. Read about the people that worked to build so many things in the north and the south. All those people had a part in our history. If we destroy it, we will not know what they did. We will not learn from their hard work and perseverance.
I'm a photographer who is surrounded by remains of the Confederate. I want to know more about it instead of being dumb about it. There is a historical structure I photograph frequently that was built with slave labor. It still stands today. People keep it up because they appreciate it. They honor those who built it. I'd love to post a photo of it, but I fear today that someone may want to burn it down because they are offended. That building is something to be proud of. It's someone's heritage. They built it with their hands. It means so much more that slaves built it. I just wonder if there is family around today that had family members that built it. The past is the past, but the hard work of those who built and labored over that building still stands. That has to stand for something.
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