Whatever the swastika has symbolized

through the ages, it now stands almost universally for hatred, racism

and even genocide. At least such are the connotations in the minds of

the vast majority of our contemporaries.

This change of meaning is possible

because of a general principle: meaning is not inherent in things but

is conferred by rational minds. Meaning follows usage.

To put this more formally,

a symbol S has meaning M if and only if someone believes that S has M.

This, of course, allows that a symbol may mean different things to different

people, though the Nazi appropriation of the swastika has rendered its

meaning all but monolithic.

Consider the current "Hatred

or Heritage?" debate over the 1956 Georgia state flag. Flag defenders

often urge that the Confederate battle flag which takes up two-thirds

of the Georgia flag symbolizes a Southern heritage, which they wish to

keep alive. It represents the noble and principled Robert E. Lee and the

heroic soldiers who served under him against overwhelming odds. The men

in General Pickett's division who marched into almost certain death for

the sake of their cause carried that flag.

Defenders of the flag observe

that 90 percent of such men were not slaveholders, and therefore should

not be thought of as defending slavery.

Rather, they were defending

their way of life from what they perceived to be an oppressive federal

government that threatened the liberties guaranteed them by the Constitution.

Some contemporary flag defenders

still defend states' rights over against perceived encroachments of the

federal government. Even for such advocates of the flag and states' rights,

at least for some such advocates, issues of race are quite beside the

point.

Unfortunately, the familiar

Confederate battle flag represents something other than nobility and valor

in the minds of many. Some see it as a symbol of racial oppression.

This, of course, stems from

the observation that, even if the War Between the States was not about

slavery, it was certainly precipitated by the slavery issue and resulted

in the abolition of that institution.

Had those who carried that

flag prevailed then, at best, the peculiar institution would have died

a slow natural death. It is no work of creative fiction that leads many,

African-Americans in particular, to forge a conceptual link between that

symbol and this sad chapter of American history.

One may argue that the presence

of the battle flag represents only those nobler parts of our Southern

heritage, but the fact remains that some 28.7 percent of Georgia's population

are unlikely to see it as representing a heritage that they wish to keep

alive.

One may observe (rightly) that

the pre-1956 Georgia state flag was directly inspired by the "Stars

and Bars," the official flag of the Confederacy.

The argument often advanced

upon the heels of this observation is that there is nothing particularly

offensive about the 1956 flag since its predecessor bore similar historic

connections to the Confederate cause.

The problem with this argument,

however, is that it overlooks the significance that the battle flag came

to acquire in the century following the war.

It flew at the segregationist

Dixiecrat convention of 1948 and, in the intervening decade or so, came

to be associated more and more with racism and the issue of segregation.

Further, the Confederate battle

flag has been appropriated by a variety of white supremacist hate groups,

chiefly the KKK, over the years, and therefore has naturally come to be

associated with racial hatred and apartheid.

At least one recent flag defender

retorts here that the Klan has flown the U.S. flag at its rallies and

marches. He asks, "Why is that flag not regarded as 'divisive' as

well?" My answer is that, in flying both flags, the Klan is stating

that they want an America that is tempered by their racist ideals.

It is common for Klansmen to

regard themselves as patriots, defending constitutional liberties under

attack by the federal government and, perhaps, the political left.

For me, the decisive consideration

against the 1956 flag is precisely the fact that it is the 1956 flag.

If the Klan is one hate group that has appropriated the Confederate battle

flag, the 1956 Georgia Assembly is another.

Make no mistake about it: the

1956 flag was unfurled in defiance of federal antisegregation laws as

well as a thumbing of the nose to the then-fledgling civil rights movement.

Barely a month before signing

the flag into effect, Gov. Marvin S. Griffin said, in his State of the

State address, "There will be no mixing of the races in the public

schools and college classrooms of Georgia anywhere or at any time as long

as I am governor."

His predecessor, Herman Talmadge

had warned that "blood will flow in the streets of Atlanta"

as a result of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision that effectively

struck down segregation in the public schools.

Flag defenders may tell you

that the 1956 flag was created to commemorate the Civil War centennial

that was then five years in the future. This is worse than implausible.

The bill that brought us that

flag is immersed within a series of acts of the Georgia Assembly that

were overtly racist, from their participation in the segregationist Southern

Manifesto to the Interposition Resolution of 1957.

Indeed, Denmark Groover, in

addressing the 1956 General Assembly, boasted that the new flag would

"... serve notice that we intend to uphold what we stood for, will

stand for, and will fight for." It was a repentant Denmark Groover

who addressed a similar assembly in 2001 in favor of striking the colors

that he had had a hand in hoisting some 45 years earlier.

Opposition to the 1956 flag

is not yet another silly appeal to political correctness. Nor is it trivial:

either our flags are statements of who we are and intend to be or they

might as well be sewn into laundry bags.

This flag will forever be associated

in the minds of many with the Georgia of such opponents to civil rights

as Lester (Axe Handle-in-Hand) Maddox. It is the official flag of Georgian

apartheid.

Those committed to the dignity

and equality of humanity should oppose its reinstatement.

Mark D. Linville, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy

Atlanta Christian College