In the ongoing Lexington, Virginia, Confederate flag flap, news comes that a US district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Sons of Confederate Veterans challenging a Lexington city ordinance concerning the displays allowed on city lightposts. Here’s the ruling.
For commentary, see:
… what Kevin Levin says, both in his initial report and in his analysis of reaction to the news.
… Andy Hall’s reaction (Andy believed the city was going to prevail; as he points out, even Virginia Flagger leader Susan Hathaway agreed).
… how SCV offical Brandon Dorsey responded on the Southern Heritage Preservation Group (note how he invokes massive resistance to integration in his attempts at playing the victim card, a trait of those Confederate heritage advocates who complain that folks are intent upon “evilizing” the South and [white] southerners).
I note that the Virginia Flaggers, for all the talk and videos we see, were not a part of this lawsuit. Doubtless we’ll hear all sorts of excuses why. But perhaps that’s what happens when you try to defy the law rather than use the legal process … and perhaps it’s really publicity and ego-gratification, not heritage. Otherwise we’d see commentary on their Facebook page and blog. As of this morning … none. Not a word. Testimony, I suspect, to their ineffectiveness, and to their attachment to flagging the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (note that they’ve left other Virginia targets alone … I guess their dedication is … wait for it … flagging). They claim that what the VFMA has done at Pelham Chapel is illegal … but I don’t see them going to court to prove it.
(Oh yes, I know I’ve given some frustrated novelists material for a few more blog and Facebook entries. I enjoy that.)
I’m sure there will be some back-and-forth about this over the next several days. The fact remains that this was a fairly easy call: Andy Hall laid that out some time ago. It was also easy to predict the declaration of self-professed “victims.” The truth is that this is a tempest in a teapot. You may fly a Confederate flag in Lexington, Virginia. You just can’t do it on city lightposts. Calls to boycott local businesses aim to alienate the very private citizens outsider groups should want to get on their side.
But that wouldn’t fit the need to pose as a victim of evilizing outsiders consumed by political correctness and hypocrisy, now, would it?
Crossroads 