Getting Free from the Past

Can you spot the difference in the two photos above? In some ways they are alike, but in one way they are very different. The picture on the left shows a Confederate flag flying in a place of honor at the South Carolina State House. It's not sharing the cupola mast with the flags of the United States and South Carolina, but it is in a place of honor, and protected--by state legislation.

The photo on the right shows the German Reichstag, the seat of government of Germany. Several flags can be seen. They are all the German national flag, re-adopted in 1949, replacing the swastika-bearing flag of the Nazi Reich (and, since 1990, the black-red-and gold represents unified Germany).

Both of the entities represented by the photos made war against the United States--South Carolina, as part of the Confederacy in the American Civil War; and Germany, as the Nazi state under Adolf Hitler. Both lost.

In today's Germany, there is no widespread nostalgia for the old days of the Nazi regime and the oppression it placed over Europe, especially against a minority group considered by many as filthy and subhuman. Glorification of the Nazi state is frowned upon. You can see no flags of the Third Reich flying at the Reichstag today. In contrast, South Carolina (and many throughout the South and even beyond) idolize those who fought for the continued oppression of a minority group many of them considered filthy and subhuman, and South Carolina
flies a Confederate flag at a memorial at the State House. Although slavery was officially ended in South Carolina by the Emancipation Proclamation, former slaves and their descendants continued to be persecuted and oppressed by Jim Crow laws. 

After the racially motivated murder of nine individuals in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina continues to honor the symbol of oppression. Germany got over its stained past; South Carolina has not.

"Rebel Flag at South Carolina Capitol" by Jason Eppink.
"Reichstag building Berlin view from west before sunset" by Jürgen Matern - Own work (JMatern_071104_8454-8458_WC.jpg). Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki 

UPDATE:  State Representative Norman Brannon has announced that he plans to sponsor legislation to remove the Confederate flag. 

Senators Do Bad, Feel No Shame

Most Republican, and some Democratic, senators shamefully decided to vote against the wishes of about ninety percent of the American people, defeating* a measure that would only weakly address the horrific death toll caused by firearms by extending background checks. Those senators' shame was assuaged by the knowledge that their overlords, the National Retailers of Armaments, will reward their assault on the American people, as always, with riches beyond their dreams.

If only the people would remind their elected officials that although the NRA can give politicians seas of money, only the people can give them votes.

I expect that, in the wake of the explosions at the finish of the Boston Marathon, we will hear a spokesman for the NRA declare that "The only way to stop a bad man with a bomb, is a good man with a bomb." I do not expect the spokesman to admit that what stands between the weapons manufacturers and twenty murdered children, is the NRA.

*Clarification:  By "defeating," I of course mean "filibustered" so that there was no actual vote on the actual measure.

The Cost of Doing Business

Recently, financial behemoth HSBC was ordered to pay a $1.92 billion dollar fine for money laundering. Sounds like a great big fine, until compared with HSBC's great big assets--over $2.55 TRillion. The bank apparently broke a few federal laws (the Bank Secrecy Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act). Regulations are all too often insufficiently enforced, with penalties not stiff enough to deter bad behavior; indeed, fines simply become part of the cost of doing business.

Following on the heels of the news of the HSBC fine was news of yet another mass shooting of innocent people. Twenty children, boys and girls who were only 6 or 7 years old, were shot multiple times, along with 6 teachers and administrators, as several of whom tried to stop the killer or protect the children. The killer finally, shot himself; it is reported that a woman found shot dead in a house in town may have been the killer's mother, also shot by him.

Early responses to the news included such reactions as "I can't believe this happened," and "How could this happen here," along with various politicians saying, "Now is not the time to talk about gun control." The gun lobby spends vast sums promoting their agenda--and for a large segment of the interests the NRA represents, these murders are just part of the cost of doing business.