The Politically Correct Thought Police are at it again.

The Oct. 21 editorial in the University Daily Kansan calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s capitol provides another example of America’s paranoia of displaying anything possibly offensive to anyone. It overlooked several hypocrises in NAACP policy and dismissed all arguments to "heritage and culture" in half a sentence, much like the ACLU does when responding to KU seal arguments. I am not from South Carolina, am indeed a Kansas native, yet I feel compelled to respond.

Any American history student knows that South Carolina was at the heart of an antebellum culture that was practically the opposite of its Northern counterpart. It was an aristocratic, chiefly agrarian society much like Great Britain at the time. Yes, the economy was heavily based on the efforts of slaves but what many do not realize is that the North was just as dependent on slaves as the South was--without products coming from the South the North would not have been able to keep its factories in operation. South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union, and the other Confederate states wanted to preserve their way of life, and flying the Confederate flag is the state’s way of remembering those honorable days, but not necessarily the horrendous practice of slavery.

Northerners seem to believe in this romanticized image of the Civil War with the glorious Union invading the evil South to free the slaves. To say the Civil War was fought over slavery is like saying the American Revolution was fought over a high tea tax. Lincoln did not free a single slave with the Emancipation Proclamation--he issued it in the hope slaves would rebel against their owners. That’s right, Lincoln used slaves as a military tool. In fact, slaves were most likely treated better in the South than in the North (until they were freed, anyway).

When are Americans going to realize that we can’t regulate everything that might possibly offend someone? It simply isn’t possible given that anyone could find grounds to be offended by anything if they so wished. As a Christian I could claim that I take offense at Kansas’ state motto because it is in the language of an empire that slaughtered thousands of my kind and ultimately used my religion as a military tool. "Ad astra per aspra" isn’t bothering anyone, and neither is KU’s seal resting in front of Budig Hall nor the Confederate flag in Columbia. Incidentally, the Stars and Bars actually is part of the state flags of Georgia and Mississippi--why isn’t the NAACP complaining about this?

The comparison made in the UDK between the Confederate flag and a swastika is almost as silly as one made a few weeks ago between Moses and Carl Sagan. Last time I checked Jefferson Davis did not order the slaughtering of six million blacks. I find it odd that a student has the right to draw a swastika in a state-owned building but a state cannot display a symbol of a heritage it is proud of, minus slavery. Where is the ACLU in all this anyway? Why isn’t it defending South Carolina’s right to free expression?

A final thought: The acronym NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Awfully un-PC. Why doesn’t the group change its name to the National Association for the Advancement of African-Americans? Is it because of, dare I say, tradition?