Besides, there are other flags to be worried about. The Confederate flag, for example. The murderer of the nine black people in the church in Charleston had been photographed holding the battle flag of The Army of Northern Virginia, and that was enough to write finis to the flag in public display on government sites. We have no problem with legislatures voting not to fly that flag above the state capitol, nor with governors ordering it removed. We do think it is not right to remove it from national cemeteries (especially since, by law, Confederate veterans are considered to be US veterans) or to remove images of it from gift shops on federal property or for companies to prohibit its use on cakes or on the covers of game boxes; and to ban a thirty-year old TV show from being aired because a Confederate flag is emblazoned on the roof of a muscle car is pretty close to ridiculous.
Then we have the Cuban flag, which was raised this week over the first Cuban embassy on US soil in over fifty years. The Communist government of Cuba has behaved as Communist regimes do everywhere: it is oppressive to its own people; repressive of liberties; has fomented revolution, it has created millions of refugees; and continues to do all of those things. The Confederate States of America endured for about four years – and its citizens were Americans all of their lives except for those four years. The Cuban government has been a blot on humanity for over fifty years, and shows scant sign of reforming. – and yet its flag is welcomed, while the Confederate flag is scorned.
Then we have the black flag of ISIS, which is displayed frequently by jihadis and Muslim radicals – but the US government still can’t figure out the motivation of those people who display it. The Obama administration believes that young men turn to violence because of a bad economy or a lack of jobs or climate change or because some previous President failed to show enough respect to their faith. One racist murderer with the Confederate flag is enough to overturn 150 years (to use Lincoln’s words) “of malice toward none, with charity for all” … “to bind up the nation’s wounds,” yet dozens of radical terrorists with Islamic symbols aren’t sufficient to convince the Obama administration what “motivates” the killers.