Page 8A, News, State-by-State
“South Dakota Hot Springs: Confederate flags are flying again at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where they were removed last week after some patients complained that they represented racism. VA Black Hills Health System Director Steve DiStasio told the Rapid City Journal the flags were returned Tuesday as ‘a reflection of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for America’.”
Dear Mr. DiStasio,
Oh Steve, where do I even begin?
First, I understand your confusion. This may blow your mind, but other than a handful of residents of North Dakota, no one thinks of you as ‘the South’. The Black Hills are not in Dixie. I studied geography at the collegiate level: I don’t expect lay people to be up on all the minutiae. (But when you have the time, I have some truly mind-boggling things to tell you about North Carolina and West Virginia. Prepare to have your socks blown off!)
And second, I’m not really sure it would be accurate to say the Confederate soldiers “gave the ultimate sacrifice for America.” I mean no disrespect, but I just don’t think that it is historically precise. But then, I never studied the Civil War in college (well, other than Ducks vs Beavers), so I may be wrong.
Sincerely,
PS: A lot of people are truly offended by the Confederate flag. It does have some ideology associated with it that is, in all honesty, odious.
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