In Maryland, there has just been another anti-Confederate-American outrage.
For the past ten years at the Baltimore National Cemetery, members of the Maryland Division Color Guard of the Sons of Confederate Veterans have posted their colors for the Boy Scouts of America We Remember ceremony by displaying Confederate states’ flags – along with the Stars and Stripes.
This year, Wayne E. Ellis, director of the Baltimore National Cemetery, ordered that this Confederate color guard (marching in their Confederate uniforms) could march – as long as they did not display the Confederate flag.
What if they display the state flag of Mississippi – which includes the Confederate Battle Flag and which was so recently supported as is (rather than a proposed change) by a two-thirds referendum vote – including counties whose population is heavily black?
Should Memorial Day at National Cemetery ban any display of Betsy Ross’ 13-star U.S. Flag – because that government allowed slavery? Should we change the name of our capital city and the only one of our states named for a person, because it is named for our President Washington, who, like Jefferson and other presidents, owned slaves?
Ray Rooks, color sergeant of the Maryland Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans, has written, among other things:
“We have the full support of the Boy Scouts and the Marine Corps League, (who) also left in protest. … This was a clear violation of our First Amendment rights.
“Mr. Ellis kept bringing up the case that Maryland does not recognize Confederate Memorial Day.”
Is Ellis aware that half of the Maryland state flag was specifically adopted by the state Legislature as a memorial to Marylanders who served in its Confederate armed forces?
Should the state flags of both Maryland and Mississippi be banned?
Color Sgt. Rooks also reminded director Ellis of the court case won by the Maryland Sons of Confederate Veterans, when Democrat Gov. Parrs Glendening’s administration tried to censor license plates that included the Sons of Confederate Veterans seal – which includes the Battle Flag.
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