Are My Allergies Confederate Flag Related?

“No, Austin, your allergies are not related to the Confederate flag,” Dr. Jekyll answered emphatically as he studied my chart during my office visit.

I sneezed.  Right on cue.  “Look at that, Doc.  You mentioned the Confederate flag and I sneezed.”

I sneezed again.

Dr. Jekyll shook his head in disappointment.  “According to your chart, your IQ is very high.  When you come in here asking if your allergies are linked to the Confederate flag, however, I begin to suspect that I have the wrong patient’s chart.”

I knew Dr. Jekyll was right, Modern Philosophers, but my allergies have gotten worse over the last few days, which just so happens to coincide with all the nonsense in the news about the flag from the former Confederate States of America.

The American flag in the above photo flies proudly from The House on the Hill (I’m certainly not going to post a photo of the other one!).  I mowed that gorgeous front lawn in the shadow of Old Glory the other day, and I did not sneeze once.

For those of you keeping track at home, I mow the lawn under the watchful eye of the Stars and Stripes, and my allergies don’t bother me.  Merely mention the Confederate Flag in my presence, though, and I start sneezing.

Achoo!

I know I’m just a guy in a toga, and not some fancy pants doctor, but there looks like there’s some connection there.

Has anyone else found that the mention of a certain flag aggravates the allergies?

After I graduated from high school, my family moved to Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy.  While I never lived in Virginia, I did visit a couple of times and two things left a lasting impression on me:

All the Confederate flags and the statues of Confederate heroes on Monument Avenue.

I’ve never really understood why the South clings so much to its Confederate roots.  People love to remind us that the South shall rise again, but I don’t think that the U.S. Military takes that as a serious threat.

The Civil War was not a good time in this great country’s history.  Brother fought against brother.  American cities were burned by American soldiers.  Americans killed each other on the battlefield.  One of our greatest Presidents was eventually assassinated.  Why would you want to fly the flag of the country behind all that?

The South not only lost the war, but the Confederate States of America was also wiped off the map and made part of the United State of America.

The Confederacy didn’t have a chunk of land taken away and continue on in a weakened state as Germany did after the World Wars.

It was wiped out of existence entirely.  Its citizens were forced to call themselves members of the conquering nation.

The country stopped existing, so there’s no need for there to be a flag anymore.  I certainly don’t see why that flag should be flying from the State Capitol in South Carolina, which is part of the United States of America.

Putting this in sports terms, the end of the Civil War was like the Super Bowl if the losing team was told it no longer existed, and was now a part of the winning team.

So, the Seattle Seahawks would cease to exist, and the New England Patriots would double in size.

If that happened, there would no longer be a need for Seahawks uniforms, fan gear, or equipment, right?  No one would declare that the Seahawks would rise again because they would now all be Patriots.

Just writing this post has caused me to go into a sneezing and nose blowing fit.  My allergies are definitely related to the Confederate flag, regardless of what Dr. Jekyll says.

For the sake of this nation’s, this United States of America’s allergy sufferers, let’s put this whole Confederate flag debate to rest.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was even going to write this post tonight, but on the way home, I heard something on the radio that convinced me to go for it.

Ironically, it was the words of an Irishman that made me realize that I needed to address this issue.

The lad’s name was Bono, and he was chatting it up during a live version of the U2 classic Pride (In the Name of Love).

As the band played on behind him, Bono talked about his dream to live in a world where everyone was created equal.

The song is about Martin Luther King, Jr, and I know that if that great man were alive today, he’d have a thing or two to say about the Confederate flag.

Maybe I’m not allergic to the flag itself, but rather, to what it represents…