The Stars and Bars

On June 24^th,, a Sunday, a young White man walked into the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina during a bible study session. He was welcomed and sat through the class for an hour before declaring he was there "to kill black people" and then opening fire, killing nine parishioners. I won’t dignify the killer by mentioning his name, but I’m sure everyone knows whom I am referring to.

God lord, we are not even safe in church anymore! Why would a person do such a low, despicable thing?

It’s too easy to blame it on racism and white hate groups. Since the end of the Civil Rights movement in the ‘60s, I can’t remember sensational reports of blatantly racist hate crimes of this sort. There may have been a few, but nothing like the September 15, 1963 bombing before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama—a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured in that bombing. You don’t hear of cross-burnings and lynchings much anymore either. These hate groups don’t seem to be doing much besides wallowing in their own misery and paranoia.

These days, however, terrorists are being increasingly recruited on-line through the “social” media. (Although, I don’t see much social about it. Maybe there needs to be a special web section for an anti-social media.) This killer posted pictures sitting with a Confederate battle flag, and spouted racial hatred and an affinity for White hate groups. Other terrorists have black flags of the Islamic State and spout hatred of anyone not of their particular pseudo-religious bent.

Whoa, back the train up! This guy had a Confederate battle flag?

That’s right. The flag was what everyone seemed to focus on. Suddenly this inanimate piece of cloth was reviled more than even the despised handguns and assault rifles or even the maniac that did the shooting.

Ah, but there is a Confederate battle flag flying over a Confederate Soldiers Memorial on the South Carolina statehouse grounds. From a single picture, you get the feeling that the Confederate battle flag somehow managed to climb down from that flagpole and murdered all nine people in that church. Well, it simply had to go.

Scant mention was made of the vile young man with the twisted mind, or surprisingly, not even much mention of the weapon he used. Although, a few weeks after the shooting it was reported that the background checks to purchase the handgun were faulty.

After much ballyhoo and protestation, the Confederate flag was lowered and relegated to the Confederate Museum.

Suddenly, though, the people who cry over any perceived slight were protesting just about everything containing the name of a Confederate soldier, street names and names of buildings were now to be changed. And it wasn’t limited to Confederates. Now any name anyone deemed offensive was to be changed – Washington, Lee, and Jackson Streets along with Squaw Bread and Redskins football team are now racist. The carving of three Confederate Generals at Stone Mountain State Park in Georgia that had stood since completion in 1924 by Gutzon Borglum – the same Gutzon Borglum that carved Mount Rushmore – must be blasted from the face of the mountain, was the battle cry. Political correctness is running amok!

People need to get a grip. Slavery is dead. President Lincoln ended that abomination in 1863. The 13^th amendment put the nail in that coffin. The Civil War has been over for 151 years!

The flag that people seem to think depicts slavery and racism is not even the flag of the Confederacy. The flag of the Confederate States of America was entirely different – not the “stars and bars.” This flag was one carried into battle by brave men who fought for the rights of their states and their homes. Most of these men never even owned a slave. That flag is no different than the pennant Colonel George Custer’s 7^th Cavalry carried into battle for the North.

Any racist connotation ascribed to the “Stars and Bars” is merely a product of those who have hijacked the flag for their own vile purposes and is a disgrace to the men who fought valiantly under those colors. We should be condemning those people, not the flag they happen to have with them. If that flag reminds you of slavery, it is your problem, not the flag’s. Cotton reminds some of slavery too, but they have no problem wearing cotton products. If those hate groups displayed the American flag, would the reaction be the same?

The Confederate battle flag is a relic of our nation’s history, and should be treated as such. It should be revered and honored as with any other relic of men who fought and died for their country.

Leave Stone Mountain and the paint job on Beau Duke’s car alone!

Solar For Everyone!

Okay, let’s just imagine for a minute that you are a business owner. Your business is to generate electricity for millions of homes and other businesses. Along comes the supreme regulator who dictates that you can’t use the fuel most of your generators run on. You’re devastated! You simply can’t afford to replace the generators or upgrade to a different fuel. In a benevolent moment, the dictator allows you to buy credits from others that have extra credits and keep your generators cranking. Well, that’s not much of a solution. You will still have to raise the rates you charge your customers.

Bummer! But wait! Here is a nifty solution. Have your customers give you electricity that you can sell back to them. If they give you enough power, you will even be able to sell your credits. But how do you convince your customers to go along with this scheme? Common sense would dictate that they would want to be paid for providing you an infrastructure that will keep you from needing capital expenditure.

Aha! Let’s call it GREEN! Everybody loves the green ideas. Let’s get the customers to all install “Green Energy” solar systems at their own expense and have them provide you with power. You then sell power back at a reduced rate. Everybody wins, right?

In the old days of a many-tiered rate structure this propaganda worked. A lot of homeowners bought (literally and figuratively) into this scheme. What with rebates, zero down and free installation, who could pass up a deal like that?

Okay, but how much does your solar installation really cost you? You are paying for it! You may even have a lean against your home for the cost of the solar unit. How much are you saving in the cost of electricity? Does it offset the cost of the solar unit?

Now, mull this over. The Public Utilities Commission just voted to reduce the tier structure from four or five to just two tiers. And they are giving the big users a whopping break on charges. Well, of course, the power companies aren’t exactly benevolent, so they are going to raise the rates for small users … the ones on solar.

No, I’m not against solar energy. In fact, I believe it would be a great investment … if you could get off the grid.

I know people who are self-sufficient with power. Some have solar, and some have wind turbine power; some have both. None are connected to the power grid. Mother Nature provides all the electricity they need, and Mother Nature is not controlled by the PUC and won’t raise the rates.

There are people who, without fail, point out what they see as drawbacks to self-contained power generation. Yes, there are cloudy and windless days, and yes, the amount of power generated can and does fluctuate. That is what batteries are for. Ah, but batteries are dangerous and messy. Wrong! Gel cells have no mess and properly contained they are no more dangerous than the battery in your car. When things really go south and you just can’t get enough power from your units, there is always a backup generator powered by natural gas or diesel.

Of course, all this equipment costs money … and it ain’t cheap. But again, what are you paying for that solar unit that gives the power company free capital improvements plus free power – not to mention the ability to sell pollution credits on the cap-and-trade market?

 Solar for everyone? Well, as P.T. Barnum once said, there’s one born every minute.