Amus de Wauchope

With the stroke of the governor's pen New York Senate bill S8298B is signed into law and, effective immediately, vendors at the New York State Fair (and any in-state fair receiving government funds) are prohibited from selling any symbol of hate or any other tangible property "inscribed with such an image". This law further prohibits any New York State institution from displaying any symbol of hate on public property without serving an educational purpose.

The bill's sponsors are quick to assure us plebeians that this restriction on speech is a good thing and absolutely insist these restrictions will only extend to the Confederate battle flag or white supremacist and neo-Nazi imagery.

To be fair, I can understand why political leaders in a Northern state would work to prevent State and subordinate jurisdictions from proudly flying the Confederate flag. As part of the Civil War, New York contributed roughly 465,000 soldiers to the war effort - more than any other state - and over 50,000 did not return home.

Surprisingly, the bill's official written purpose makes no mention of the Civil War or the soldiers who died in it. Instead, the given rationale is the "Confederate Flag is a symbol of racism, exclusion, oppression and violence towards African Americans. Its symbolism and history are directly linked to the enslavement, torture and murder of millions of African Americans throughout the mid-19th Century and beyond. [...] Its public display is designed only to instill fear, intimidation and a direct threat of violence towards others." (Emphasis added)

This is just another issue which progressives don't understand and simply don't want to understand. Yes, the flag has been appropriated by racists and their organizations, but to everyday Southerners it is a decades-long symbol of regional pride and a link to the cultural traditions unique to the South.

For nearly 80 years after the Civil War, the Confederate flag was interred in the pages of history. After all, the South had lost the war and their desire for independence had faded with their defeat. It was another war, World War 2, where the flag made a resurgence among the Southern servicemen and opinions about the flag began to change. During World War 2, Southern soldiers and sailors flew the Confederate flag over the ships and bases where they were stationed. This act was an homage to the southern military tradition and an amusing reminder for the "yankees" that southerners were present. It was well before the close of the 1940s that the Confederate flag found its way into Southern collegiate stadiums when a southern team was facing a northern opponent.

It was from these generally innocent actions that the Confederate flag entered the contemporary southern lexicon. The Confederate flag is not a symbol of hate and, ironically, the earliest contemporary usage was when brave American soldiers were fighting the Japanese Empire and the actual Nazis during the second world war. There is simply no reason and no excuse for Governor Cuomo signing this attack on the 1st Amendment into law.