Whose Flag?

 

Whose Flag? The flag that ignited the Trail of Tears and condemned my Native American Ancestors far from their Promised Land?

The Flag that ignited Manifest Destiny and stole, robbed, cheated and raped millions of Indigenous peoples to broken treaties, destruction and death.

The Flag that ignited the slave ships of the Middle Passage where my African Ancestors were kidnapped from the Motherland. Denied their heritage. Their religion. Their customs and traditions.  And what of those thrown overboard as so much excess baggage.  Or the others who jumped rather than condemn generations to slavery and Jim Crow.

The Flag that ignited the Dred Scott decision telling us we are only 3/5ths of a man? Where are we in the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Do you see any Native or African Americans in those paintings? Not even any women!  So do we salute a flag, a symbol of colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow and racism? Since we were not included by the Founding Fathers most of whom were slave owners?

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dred-scott-decision

Do we honor a flag that forced my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents to get off the sidewalk when white people approached? Get to the back of the bus. Settle for sub-standard schools and housing. Forced sterilization which was done throughout the Southern Bible Belt states.

The flag of Dixie-crat racist Strom Thurmond whose death revealed the Black Daughter he had kept hidden for nearly 70 years?

Read the story of Fanny Lou Hamer one of the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement.

 

 

 

 

What of our white Sisters and brothers like Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner up to and including Heather Heyer? White Americans who fought evil and lost their lives. Does the flag represent them?

Does this flag represent the two Indian engineers who were murdered or the Chinese doctor who was dragged from his airplane seat?

Did that flag represent the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=47

http://www.history.com/topics/chinese-exclusion-act

What of the Japanese Americans who were stripped of all their worldly goods and sent to camps just because they resembled the enemy?  And By the Way who is our enemy?

What of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama–a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders where  Four young girls were brutally killed.

What of the the nine who were murdered last year in South Carolina during a Bible study by one whom they welcomed as a fellow Christian but who turned out to be a demon.

Tell me again why I should put my hand over my heart or in my case salute since I am a U.S. Army Veteran for this flag. This flag who denied my Korean War Veteran Dad who was in uniform and hungry. Who tried to get a hot dog and the white man said we don’t serve Niggers?

Tell me why this flag and this country whom my Great, Great Grandfather William Henry Halstead who fought in the Civil War still denies it’s promise to me and all his descendants?

Did and was this flag the covering for the slave master who barged into my Great, Great, great, great Grandmother’s slave cabin late at night and forced himself on her?

Did and was this flag the covering and excuse for the Married Redneck Drill Sgt coming to my barracks and calling my name after hours?

Tell me again why we honor this flag and why does this cloth not live up to it’s promise to ALL Americans?