Confederate flag banned from mural at VA (CO)

[struggle4progress]

Associated Press, news source
7:55 a.m. MDT August 14, 2015

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) - Officials at the Grand Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center have called for the removal of the Confederate flag from a mural inside the facility's cafeteria.

The Daily Sentinel reports that the two-year-old mural is a depiction of American military history, featuring the American Revolution to the war in Iraq.

Medical center spokesman Paul Sweeney says the upper reaches of the Department of Veterans Affairs have asked that the Confederate flag shown behind an image of a Union soldier and a Confederate rebel be removed.

A banner will hide the Confederate flag until the artist of the mural is able to remove it ...

http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2015/08/14/va-confederate-flag/31707413/

[Bunkalup]

1. Wow, too bad. We need that flag around to remind us, if we

erase it completely, it's horrible symbolism may be forgotten. Good intentions I guess.

[LanternWaste]

4. Objective history will always acknowledge both the good and the bad

No worries. Objective history will always acknowledge both the good and the bad of any culture and/or region, and ensures it will not be forgotten regardless of whether or not a particular flag, panting or statue is or is not celebrated and displayed in a VA cafeteria, an IHOP or on public grounds.

[enlightenment]

2. As much as I have approved of the various

states' removal of Confederate flags and monuments to Confederate leaders, I do not agree with this.

The mural is an overview of history. There was a Civil war in the United States. There were two sides and one of them used the Confederate battle flag. Erasing it won't change that. The mural is not glorifying the Confederacy; the image is simply showing the two sides, in context.

[gratuitous]

3. The photo with the story doesn't show much

So I don't know how extensive the mural is, or what history it's denoting. But if the mural was depicting the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 with a prominent display of the Union Jack (and similar depictions for the Great War, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and so forth), then I'd tend to agree.

However, if none of the other historic depictions of war feature the flag of the other side, then I think it's appropriate to re-do the section pertaining to the Civil War. I could easily see a Black veteran going in for service at the VA and being put off by the confederate flag. Hospitals should be places of healing.

[enlightenment]

5. Impossible to tell without seeing the entire mural.

Though I strongly suspect this isn't the only incident of iconography - be it the Union Jack, the swastika, etc. - in the mural.

History often isn't pleasant, but hiding it is even worse.