The "An End To The Confederate Flag" Story

St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church in Northeast, Maryland.

It was an ordinary day.  Walking through the graveyard that surrounds St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church in Northeast, Maryland looking for the tombstone of Pvt. James A. Lowndes.  James was a soldier in the Civil War who happened to fight for the South.  I made a visit to the same church a few years ago to search for Civil War heroes and to take photos of some of their graves.  All featured American Flags standing next to them except for Pvt. Lowndes whose tombstone featured a Confederate Flag.  This is the same flag that has caused our Country so many problems in the past few months.  To some the flag is a symbol of "heritage" and not one of hatred or white supremacy.  Some still believe that the Civil War was not about slavery, but about "the fact that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition."  But, wasn't slavery the foundation of the Civil War the Confederacy?  Was not the flying of the Confederate flag on the South Carolina Statehouse the morning after nine black men and women were killed in an act of hatred and racism despicable to you?  

The gravesite of Pvt. Lowndes as seen a
few years ago.  The Confederate flag no
longer flies over his grave, but the
United States flag is still there.

And if it wasn't, why wasn't it?  I was raised in the North along with my fellow little league baseball team members and school friends who were black and I never thought we were different, but I know some who feel different.  Why do they feel that way?  They probably have reasons, but I'm sure they make very little sense, at least to me.  Well, I decided to visit St. Mary Anne's and see if the flag was still flying.  It was absent from it's holder next to Pvt. James A. Lowndes grave site.  What would Pvt. Lowndes think?  I don't even know if Pvt. Lowndes was a black or white man, but I wonder if he would care if a United States flag were placed over his grave to show that he fought in the war that helped start the road to equal justice for all races.  We are a long way from achieving that goal that the Civil War was fought for, but maybe someday ………  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.