OVERREACTION? TV Land Pulls ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ Reruns?
Where is the line drawn or the limit set for political correctness in dealing with erasing the Confederate flag and history itself? Apparently TV Land has joined the PC march in pulling Dukes of Hazzard show reruns from their network.
According to ABC News, TV Land’s decision was seemingly decided because the Confederate flag is painted on the roof of The General Lee, the orange Dodge Charger driven by the Duke characters; it had to be let go.
Is the goal of the liberal political correct police to sanitize all and any connection, photo, movie, television program, video or statutes that have the slightest connection to the Confederate flag? This seems awful familiar to another sanitizing effort that was used by the Nazi Party in the 1930’s when they engaged in wholesale book burning as well as eliminating any vestiges of Jewish influence in Germany.
This is not to compare Nazism and its horrific actions of ethnic elimination to the political correctness of heavy handed history correction efforts of liberals today. Yet, the similarity is startling. Whatever transgressions that were committed under the banner of the Confederate flag are part of history. Yet, TV Land is engaging in what amounts to totally knee-jerk in its application of assigning racism to a television show comedy.
The horrific slaughter of nine innocent worshipers is a tragedy that the nation will still be grieving over for some time to come. But, the appearance of a Confederate flag in one of Dylann Root’s social media posts may in fact be simply a background prop for a young man who might be mentally imbalanced.
While it is true that the Confederate flag has been used as a rallying point for many avowed racist activities and murders by the Ku Klux Klan and other racist hate groups since 1865, there is a point where the focus should be firmly placed upon the actions of the individuals and not on the flag itself. By using this same logic, the tens of thousands of American Indians that were murdered including women, children and old people was done with the American flag flying above their innocent bodies.
Of course the deeds that were done while the flag was waving does not mean that the flag itself was to blame for those murders be it the Indians in America or the innocent black parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina.
In one of the other photos that has appeared from the 21-year-old alleged murderer’s social media page, Root is seen burning an American flag. Does that mean that he also hates America and Americans as well as his avowed hate for blacks?
There is certainly no defense for hate but there also is no defense for those politically correct police who jump onto the blame train and put their vitriol into overdrive. Many Southerners have an attachment to a South they feel embodied a history that was more than about slavery.
You don’t have to agree with it, but in a nation where beliefs that do not harm, hurt or destroy are protected, why make an attempt to abolish them because someone does not agree with them?
The retailers like Sears, Walmart, Amazon, eBay and even the crafts site Etsy that have banned the sales of Confederate flag merchandise may have jumped the gun.
America is a nation which has a rich history which draws its strength and its vibrancy from varied cultures, backgrounds and histories. To make an attempt to erase all vestiges of one part of the nation‘s history because politically correct individuals believe that one possibly sick unbalanced young man used a symbol to represent his racist actions, may be one step that may take the nation backward and not forward.
Image: http://oldschool.tblog.com/post/197015550