Silent Fighting

On the end of the strip of local bars, shops, pool halls and restaurants in the small town of Guthrie, Kentucky, lies the Holiday Motel, a now rundown business after years of unfortunate events. There were no public pools or parks in Guthrie, so the pool at the Holiday Motel used to be a hot spot for many of the locals in Guthrie. One summer, a couple of black kids paid the two dollars it cost to swim there on a hot day. She says “It was like we sent an electrical charge through the water,” when the white folks jumped out of the water, disgusted at the fact of Ms. Eskridge letting the boys swim. They tried to argue with her to make the boys leave, but the only response to the angry white couples was “kiss my grits,” a modern “kiss my ass”. The pool now lies under several feet of dirt and weeds. Her and her husband buried the pool, rather than make it a place of racial dispute.
This type of action is fairly uncommon in the racial town of Guthrie, Kentucky. People seem to appreciate and support the segregation in town. Klan meetings are not rare, and the occasional cross burnings is not uncommon; KKK propaganda is often passed out at local crowded places such as the traffic coming out of the local church. A doughnut woman standing next to the off duty Klansmen wearing “furry earmuffs, snug booties and green mittens” explains to Tony how her son just joined, and how he is a “Grand Titan already!” These people are townsmen by day and white activists by night. The war is still being fought silently.
That day the Klan handed out 750 flyers to the people of Guthrie; the town that once housed a young man before he was shot out of his car by several black teenagers for flying a confederate flag off the back of his 4x4 Chevrolet. He leaves behind his wife, once young children, mother and father. David Westerman, father of Michael, said something that caught the attention of my classmates and me. He said, “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like its still going on.” The Civil War is a war commonly acknowledged as the “end of slavery,” or the “equality for all men, black or white,” led by the famous Abraham Lincoln. Was it really the end? Were the once separated states really brought together? The answer is clear. Freeing the slaves had little to do with the way people see equality. It is evident; the war is still being fought today. People of different races, ethnicities or sexual orientations, are constant victims of discrimination.
Michael Westerman, 19, was killed for flying the confederate flag, which is his old high school’s logo, off the back of his truck. Some people interpret this as a sign of racism or a sign of strong opposition for the South’s joining with the union to form the United States. Michael’s aunt, Brenda, tells Tony about Michael’s affiliation with the flag. She describes his childhood, growing up with the flag displayed on his bedroom wall, bike and car, as she sips coffee from a mug with a centered rebel flag on it. “Michael was raised with that flag, just like my own son…It’s just part of our life.” Tony later talks with Michael’s wife Hannah about Michael’s affiliation with the flag. She explains to him how the flag meant nearly nothing to him besides his pride to graduate from that school. She tells him how Michael didn’t like to go far into the Confederate history. “He didn’t, like, dig into it.” He asks her the significance of the flag on his truck and she replies, “He’d do anything to make his truck look sharp. The truck’s red. The flag’s red. They match.”
Several weeks after his death, the Confederate Flag Day rally had turned into a tribute to Michael Westerman. Many people claimed that Michael “was an avid student of his family’s rebel genealogy and had planned to join their group.” His truck was displayed in the rally as a sign of his allegiance to the Confederacy. These people have re-created his life story, his childhood and his beliefs, to make it seem as if he died protecting the meaning of the flag.
The people of Guthrie, Kentucky have helped me see the wide majority of people not only in the South, but everywhere that are so poorly and wrongly educated. The war is being fought silently. It is no longer North vs. South, Union vs. Confederate. It is now white extremists, against all that go against their beliefs. It is very visible to see how this town’s opinions have influenced its residents and nearby communities. Will the war stop? Will the violent crimes against those who are different then you ever stop? I do not believe so. Someone always has to be better then the other guy.

Horwitz, Tony. Dying for Dixie. Confederates In The Attic. Pantheon, 1998. Print.