Life In The Crossroads - Vol 2

I just realized that today marks the one year anniversary of when I found out, via form letter, that my Air Force career was set to come to an end. Y'all...I can't even tell you how I was feeling. Actually, yeah I can. Pissed right the hell off. You should never end someone's career by a damn form letter. For that, I will never forget the name of the person who did it. I won't say her name because google has search engines and I don't want her name to bring up this blog. Needless to say, my opinion of her isn't very high. Miranda asked me how do I feel after a year and I guess the best way to sum it up is...I move forward. What the heck else can you do? To be positive though, I can tell you I would not have imagined this past year being ANYTHING like it was and by the grace of God I'm here to blog about it. Now on to lighter matters: the confederate flag :) When I was in college I had a good friend, Eddie, from Barnwell, South Carolina. As a freshman, he flew a confederate flag outside of his window. To be fair, he wasn't the only one. When you go to Auburn, this is the thing you're going to see every now and again. I asked Eddie why the confederate flag and he told me "because of the heritage". I asked "heritage of what?" Eddie didn't really answer. Few years later, a guy I'd known since freshman year, Roy, invited me to his place. It was decorated with a ton of confederate flags. But unlike Eddie, he walked me through every flag and explained to me what it was and its history. It was very interesting. I then beat his butt in college football on playstation. I digress. Roy remains, literally, the only person I've met who could fully explain why multiple confederate flags flew. All of the history. Most people just say "heritage'. All I want those people who are up in arms about confederate flags going down, who talk about heritage, to think about is this: is this an inclusive heritage? Is this something you can celebrate with everyone? I'm not Irish. I can be Irish for a day on St. Patrick's. I can be Hispanic on Cinco De Mayo. I cannot say I would want to be a part of anything "Confederacy." Confederacy didn't include me or anyone who looks like me and for that I can never back that flag. I served under the American flag as a veteran. Put that other flag in a museum. Put it in your house...just don't expect me to visit. Ever. I've run long on this, but I'm passionate about it for many reasons. 9 people should not have had to get gunned down before this monumental thing happen but for some reason true change doesn't seem to come without blood shed. This will serve as little solace for those who were killed, but maybe it will help some. And maybe the flag not flying over states as if it's still 1863 will help many others. And maybe we just got a bit better as a country. God, I hope so. We need some light so badly.