The symbol of treason inappropriate in a park

Paul Carpenter

August 8, 2008

For more than 600 years, Shuri Castle has been the cultural and historical epicenter of Okinawa.

When American Marines captured it toward the end of the Battle of Okinawa, they raised a flag there.

Gen. Simon Buckner Jr. gruffly ordered that the flag be taken down. He felt the victory's honor belonged to all American GIs, not just those represented by a flag he called ''inappropriate.''

It was a Confederate flag and Buckner, the son of a Confederate general, ordered that it be replaced by an American flag. Three weeks later, he became the highest ranking American killed in World War II. He is honored by the Army's Fort Buckner on Okinawa.

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That story has special meaning for me because I often visited Fort Buckner while stationed at nearby Kadena Air Base, and my wife grew up four kilometers from Shuri Castle. It also resonates because it's about a Southerner who could see that flag for what it is: Inappropriate .

Another Lehigh Valley man has an additional perspective of World War II.

''As a Jew whose family was slaughtered by Germans, I've never been big on German culture,'' he wrote, asking that I keep his name confidential.

Nevertheless, he is fond of German motorcycles and he attended a local festival with a German name, Das Awkscht Fescht, an antique car show that ended Sunday. This year, the featured car was the DeSoto.

''I was quite struck by the Confederate flag hung on the tent covering the classic DeSotos at this festival,'' the man wrote.

''I didn't know the DeSoto was a Southern car. My father had one,'' he said when I contacted him.

''It [the flag] was damn inappropriate. Usually we see them on the front of a bigotmobile,'' he said. ''They say it's tradition, but it's screaming, 'I'm a bigot.'ÂI thought, God, what's going on here?''

Although I missed Das Awkscht Fescht this year, I have had glowing things to say about it in past years.

The crowds, however, are usually pretty much all white and the event, held in a public park in Macungie, has an ethnic flavor and a German name. Therefore, you'd think the people who run it would be sensitive to the implications of displaying a flag that is widely regarded as blatantly racist.

I asked Scott Rarick, spokesman for Das Awkscht Fescht, about that.

''I was out there,'' he said, ''and never saw the Confederate flag.'' He did indicate, however, that the person who contacted me was not the only one who complained about it.

''It will be addressed,'' Rarick said, but added this comment about complaints:

''Everybody's entitled to their opinion, and everybody's entitled to freedom of speech, as well.''

That did not seem to be the case in 2004, when I exercised freedom of speech by saying the Confederate flag stood for ''racist policies [antebellum slavery] every bit as shameful as those embraced byÂGermany 72 years later.''

At issue in 2004 was an effort to prevent an artist from displaying work critical of the Confederate flag and what it represented.

Bigots demand freedom of expression to display that flag, which I called America's foremost ''symbol of treason and bigotry,'' but they do not want anyone else to have the freedom to disagree with them.

''I support the right to display a Confederate flag,'' I wrote at the time, ''no matter how repugnant it is to decent people.'' But I also said others should have the right to express contrary views, which brought angry and threatening letters from all over, but mostly from the Deep South.

I still support the right of bigots to display that flag, but it seems inappropriate to sanction it in a public park at an event that has ethnic overtones and a German name. To put it in perspective, suppose somebody had a tent full of antique Volkswagens, Adolf Hitler's gift to the world, and put up a Nazi flag as an expression of German pride.

Celebration of the Macungie area's German heritage is one thing. It's something else if people are given a government park to promote the symbol of treason and bigotry.

Where is Buckner now that we really need him?

paul.carpenter@mcall.com 610-820-6176

Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.