The connection of the Confederate Battle Flag with the murders of nine church members in South Carolina has prompted the National Park Service to end sales of the flag in gift shops and bookstores located inside parks.
“We strive to tell the complete story of America,” Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said of the agency’s reputation for telling difficult parts of our history. “All sales items in parks are evaluated based on educational value and their connection to the park. Any stand-alone depictions of Confederate flags have no place in park stores.”
In a news release the director said the murders of nine church members at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, which is near Fort Sumter National Monument, galvanized a national discussion that includes symbols and relics from our nation’s past such as the Confederate Battle Flag. A manifesto linked to the suspect in the case included photos of himself with versions of the Confederate flag.
“As that discussion spread across the country,” Director Jarvis said, “one of our largest cooperating associations, Eastern National, began to voluntarily remove from the park stores that it manages any items that depict a Confederate flag as its primary feature. I’ve asked other cooperating associations, partners and concession providers to withdraw from sale items that solely depict a Confederate flag.”
In the telling of the historical story, Confederate flags have a place in books, exhibits, reenactments, and interpretive programs, the Park Service said. Books, DVDs, and other educational and interpretive media where the Confederate flag image is depicted in its historical context may remain as sales items as long as the image cannot be physically detached. Confederate flags include the Stainless Banner, the Third National Confederate Flag, and the Confederate Battle Flag.
Comments
Eric, you just go on ahead choosing who and what to defend in your screeds and folks will pretty much decide about you without Lee or myself coloring the picture. You've done pretty well in this most recent in staking out your ground.
And, by the way, ignoring a "do you still beat your wife" question of your construction is not the same as running away.
"do you still beat your wife" question
Hardly - a legitimate question whose honest answer would clearly negate your position. Not everyone - or even most, of those that display the Stars and Bars are racist.
The policy explicitly supports flying Confederate flags where the flag provides historical context. The flags aren't being removed from display at Gettysburg or any of the Civil War parks. Contra anonymous on June 26, the flags will continue to be part of park interpretive programs.
The policy requests the removal of confederate flags as stand-alone items available for purchase in gift shops run by concessionaires and cooperating associations. Items that include the image of one or more of these flags along with other content about that park are not included in the request for removal. However, under this policy, if you want to purchase just a confederate flag, or confederate flag t-shirt or license plate, etc., you will have to go elsewhere. Eastern National is adopting this policy, some other individual concessionaires are not.
Is the claim of ecbuck and anonymous and others really that stand-alone confederate flags _must_ be available for sale at park gift shops? Or has the discussion veered far from what the NPS policy really is, and far from any nexus with NPS, to whether one should or should not fly the flag?
"Is the claim of ecbuck and anonymous and others really that stand-alone confederate flags _must_ be available for sale at park gift shops? "
No the observation is that the actions of some wacko should not be rationale for their removal from the gift shops - or anywhere else for that matter.
This is quite simple, in my book. The flag represents traitors that were an enemy to the United States. At public buildings that are part of the 50 states, this treasonous flag has no right to be flown. We don't fly nazi flags or the flag of the royal queen (other previous enemies of the US) on state or capital grounds either.. It's similar to erecting religious monuments on public grounds, like a manger. This promotes the wrong ideology and makes this country support one religion over another. Flying a treasonous flag is the same concept. Now, if some bigot with a poor lineage and an even poorer sense of morals wishes to fly this flag at their broken down trailer or at their business, than that is their right and protected by the US bill of rights. But, it needs taken down off of public grounds.