Southern delusions at the heart of the Charleston killings
By: Volney Gay
Updated: June 8, 2016 at 7:10 pm
... It seems strange that a battle flag from a rebellion against the United States would be celebrated by an American state 150 years after that rebellion failed. No American state flew Union Jacks 150 years after the English lost their war with the American Colonies. Stranger still is that many Americans, loudly proclaiming their love of country, also love a battle flag used to rally those who wished to destroy that country. How can we understand this oddity? ...
In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Southerners fabricated a propaganda masterpiece, arguing that slavery was not the major cause of the rebellion. Their centerpiece was the idealization of Southern soldiers and Southern leaders ... Endless discussions of battles, guns and tactics have flowed since then ...
Hypnotized by the lost cause of the Civil War, those under its spell could not awaken without the shock of wanton cruelty inflicted on innocent victims. The murders at Emanuel AME Church provided that shock. A deranged young man, who wrapped himself in a Confederate flag, chose to murder people who were black and who were praying, in a famous black church to which he was invited.
... The idealization of Southern heroes was so strong it required the sacrifice of innocent blood to break it ...
http://gazette.com/how-southern-delusions-lie-at-the-heart-of-the-charleston-killings/article/1577878