We cats love the province of Quebec. We love Montreal and Quebec City, adore Quebec wine and cheese, and wish we spoke the beautiful French language better. But we don't fly the Quebec flag, even for fun.
Why? Because people might think we are separatists. Which we are not.
See, that's the thing about symbols. They can carry meaning and messages that are not only powerful, but perhaps completely different than their creators intended. Quebec's provincial flag is a pretty one. But because the Parti Quebecois and the folks who want to split from Canada wave it for a cause we don't support, we avoid it.
We bring this up as a helpful illustration to America's current national discussion of the Confederate battle flag. Of course, there's one crucial difference: The designers of the Confederate flag clearly never meant their banner to be anything but a symbol of the dissolution of the Union. Later, it was seized upon by Southerners vehemently opposed to civil rights. (We've never seen Quebeckers flaunting the fleur-de-lis as they burn crosses, bomb churches, and shoot or string up innocent black people.)
We cats just want to go on the record that both notions — slavery, and separation from the American union our founders worked so hard to craft — are repugnant. And we HISS at anyone who would wear, bear or defend a flag that, like it or not, symbolizes either one.
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