Mississippi had a chance to cast their votes recently to vote for a new flag. Our old flag, for those of you who don't know, has a Confederate flag in the corner. And it still does, because Mississippians voted to keep the flag the state has had since the days of the Confederacy.
That's why I've lost faith in Mississippi.
Mississippi is probably more looked down upon than any other state in the U.S. Which is understandable, if you think about it. Compared to the rest of the country, Mississippi has the most children born to teenage girls, the most high school drop outs (and therefore the highest number of illiterate adults anywhere in the nation), the lowest grade requirements for graduation, and the lowest standard of living.
We had our chance to make a statement to the rest of the country. That the Mississippi of today isn't the Mississippi of Mississippi Burning and A Time To Kill. We could have said we're not all a bunch of tobacco-chewing, cousin-kissing, racist backwoods redneck degenerates that yearn for the days of slave-manned plantations and Southern Colonels arm-in-arm with their julep-sipping Southern Belles. We could have proven that not all of us seethe at anger over the "War of Northern Aggression" and yammer about the day that the "South will rise again." (The latter isn't likely to happen without a slave infrastructure to rely on, anyway.) We had our chance, but we screwed it up. Instead, Mississippi decided to cling to its racist flag like a security blanket, sucking its collective thumb, finding comfort in its history of race-hate and oppression. And of course, pride and Southern heritage are the convenient justifications for this.
"But It's Just a Symbol." Yes. That's the point. The flag is a symbol, something that represents everyone that it flies over. (And I'm so sure every black person that looks up and sees the Confederate flag is so proud to be represented by that symbol...) I wouldn't be too averse to our dispensing with symbols altogether, because it's difficult to represent something as complex as people with a mere flag. But if we're going to buy into the whole symbol thing, shouldn't we have a symbol that represents all of us, not just those that revel in our racist past?
"But It's About Pride, Not Hate." Whatever. The Stars and Bars represent the Confederacy, a long-dead collection of states that attempted to divorce itself from the United States because it didn't want to give up their slaves. Yes, I know, the issues dealing with the Civil War were much more complex that that. I know the North used slavery as a push-button issue to force the war, and that they did mean things to the South while they were down here kicking the crap out of us (which I always thought atrocity was part-and-parcel to the whole war thing, so shouldn't we quit whining about that?). But slavery was the fundamental issue at stake. And the South deserved to lose, because we would have continued to use slaves until someone forced us to stop. It's beyond me how anyone could feel pride in slavery, in a bunch of dead soldiers who died fighting for an evil cause, in the segregation and race riots that are the aftermath of such a corrupt system, or in the current racial tensions so prevalent here.
"But It's Our History." Yes, the Confederate flag was part of our history. It flew over Mississippi, and rest of the Confederacy, for four whole years. (Until the Northern troops came down and rightfully stomped the South into submission, and used the rednecks' bodies to fertilize their own fields). But the United States flag flew over Mississippi for more than 40 times longer than the Confederate flag did. Seems that Mississippians don't have a very good concept of time (which may be related to the high dropout and illiteracy rates).
"But the Issue Was Put To a Vote." Yes, this is true. And though I hate that many Mississippians voted to keep the flag, I'm also angry at those who wanted a new flag but didn't get out and goddamn vote. Half the population of Mississippi is black, and it's fair to say that the overwhelming majority of them don't have rebel flag bumper stickers and whistle "Dixie." And not all whites wanted the old flag; I've spoken to quite a few who didn't. Basically, if everyone who could have voted did, we would have a new flag. But maybe we deserve what we got for our apathy and laziness. (I didn't vote because of registration problems; of course, this is my fault for not correcting this sooner.)
So I've been thinking about all this, and I thought of a solution. Let's vote in a new flag, and this time the Confederate flag will be incorporated into the new design as well. But in the opposite corner of the flag, I want another symbol. It will be a white noose framed by a blue background (to fit in with the color scheme already in place). The noose will represent every black man that was lynched and hung for looking a white woman, or that was wrongfully accused of some crime, or that stole from a white landowner because he was poor and hungry, or that became too uppity and decided to vote, or that protested segregation. If the hillbillies who willingly threw their lives away during the Civil War deserve a memorial, then so do all the men that have died in the aftermath of that war. So every time that a white Mississippian looked at the flag, his heart may swell with pride at the Stars and Bars, but he would also see the noose. And in his mind's eye he might see a struggling, weeping black man being hoisted up on a horse, and then see that same man kicking and twitching as the rope slowly strangled the life out of him.
But then I thought how redundant that flag would be, because the noose and Confederate flag mean the same damned thing. And I fear that too many white Mississippians would feel as much pride for the noose as they would for the Stars and Bars.
So I give up. Never will I defend Mississippi or Mississippians from those that would condemn or mock us again, like I have before, even if their facts are wrong or even are outright lies. (Heck, I might throw more fuel on the fire.) When I do tell anyone I'm from Mississippi, I do so with some amount of shame. And I look forward to the day that I can afford to leave this state.

My Own Mistake
Recently, I had a discussion with someone regarding what I wrote above. It didn't start out that promising, with ad hominems and assumptions being traded back and forth through e-mails, but it ended amicably once we discovered our common ground. And this gentleman helped me put things in a different perspective... including rightly calling me on some of the things that I said. And I'm not so arrogant or stubborn to be unable to admit when I'm wrong.
First, in the above rant, I strongly implied anyone that takes pride in the Confederacy, or respects the flag that flew over it, is a racist. This is both arrogant and inaccurate, and indulges in the same sort of intolerance that I'm accusing others of. Certainly, there are racists that fly the Rebel Flag, but there are many in the North and elsewhere that decry that flag but nurse intolerance in their hearts. The Confederate Flag is a symbol, and as such that symbol can mean different things to people with different perspectives. The infamous swastika is also a holy symbol for Hindus, who have used the symbol for the past four thousand years to bring luck and prosperity; the serpent reviled by Judeo-Christians is seen as a source of wisdom and fertility in other cultures. Who am I to say what the Confederate Flag (or anything else) means to another person?
I also expressed no sympathy for the Confederate soldiers that died in the war -- in fact, I made fun of them. This too was wrong. I have no right to mock their sacrifice, even if they fought for a cause or confederacy I don't personally believe in. For a modern parallel, let's look at the Iraq war: I may not support what passes for U.S. foreign policy these days, and I don't appreciate being mislead by the current administration regarding the reasons we entered Iraq. But should I celebrate when American soldiers die? Of course not. The loss of human life on that scale is nothing to take lightly, and for losing sight of that I apologize.
I still feel the Confederate Flag carries a dark heritage and is often venerated for the wrong reasons. So often, people don't even bother to consider what it means, and either embrace or dismiss it out of hand. But changing what that symbol means to people -- Southerners and Northerners, whites and blacks, Mississippians and non-Mississippians -- is something that will take time and a shift in paradigm. Removing the symbol from the Mississippi State Flag, railing against it, even banning it... none of this would accomplish very much, and would open yet more wounds. It doesn't resolve the misunderstandings Southerners must deal with every day. It doesn't purge the poison in our hearts. Lasting and meaningful change has to happen within, and that can't be legislated.
Whether that healing happens remains to be seen.