Confederate Flag

I went to a car show yesterday in Carlisle, PA. All GM cars this time. http://www.carlisleevents.com/carlisle-events/carlisle-gm-nationals/default.aspx (i'll post pictures later.) Anyway, I went by a stand early in the day that had several handheld confederate flags, maybe a dozen larger flags and then also about a half dozen beach towels with the confederate flag on them Before leaving the show in the afternoon, we again walked past the booth selling these flags and towels and he was completely sold out. I asked him how long did it take to sell them and he said he was sold out by noon and then asked me if I knew where he could buy more in the area. I didn't, so he was going to have some over-nighted for the show today. He said there is a trading company online that ships overnight and the flags are made in China, which makes them less valuable. Imagine that.
 
Activist removes Confederate flag at S.C. Capitol


A black female activist climbed a flagpole Saturday in Columbia, S.C., and briefly removed a controversial Confederate battle flag from in front of the Statehouse.


After scaling the 30-foot pole and retrieving the flag, she was arrested by State Capitol police who waited for her at the bottom inside a small, wrought-iron fence.


The flag, which is protected by state law, was raised again a short time later. A pro-flag rally was previously planned at the site Saturday morning.


The activist group known as Ferguson Action said on Twitter


the woman, identified as Bree Newsome, had been arrested.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...lag-remove-activist-ferguson-action/29383973/

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Madness. Flags don't kill people. Guns kill people. The flag is a side issue.

Flags are symbols and are important but when the symbol becomes destructive it is time to get a new symbol.
 
Letter from a proud Alabamian: Most people outside of the South, think most of us living in the south having ancestors that owned slaves. I believe this is not true. My ancestors owned a small farm that raised cotton and had a had a small sawmill. They were poor and all of their neighbors were poor. In harvest time they helped each other out. My grandmother was a widow. My grandfather died of a heart attack and left young children (my dad was 7 years old). Grandmother told me that there were people who traveled the countryside, during harvest, looking for work and when she could afford it, she would hire them. I had prejudiced relatives and not prejudiced. I was fortunate to have progressive parents. My Dad was a man who fought for Blacks to have the right to vote. He was in politics and the Blacks in our county were in the majority. There is a small black university in the town so we had many black educated people in this town/county. He and my Mother were civil right leaders. No Confederate flags flew, not even on the pickup trucks. I was not taught hate, but shown by example to respect others. I know I lived in a town that
was unique in the South. I was fortunate.
 
To be honest my family and myself have always thought that the flying of the Confederate flag was low class. I am so glad that our Governor chose to take it down at the Alabama capitol.
 
The creator of the confederate flag in his own words. http://www.politicususa.com/2015/07...symbol-white-supremacy-southern-heritage.html


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Heritage is often defined as something inherited due to the place, time, or circumstances of someone’s birth. Heritage is not unlike culture which includes the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group transmitted from one generation to another. Both terms, heritage and culture, have been thrown around a lot recently by Americans living in the former Confederacy to defend their sick twisted clinging to a flag symbolizing white supremacy and treason against the United States of America.

Southerners are quick to claim that the Confederate flag, no matter which version, has nothing whatsoever to do with either white supremacy (racism) or treason. In their estimation they know is a lie, the Confederate flag(s) are just a symbol of Southern heritage and culture. However, that was never what the flag symbolized and there is no better reference to what the flag stands for than the words of the treasonous racist who designed it.

The white supremacist who designed the Confederacy’s flag(s), one William T. Thompson, gave the definitive reason why every Republican, KKK member, and so-called Southern heritage advocate still supports flying that symbol of treason and racism.

Thompson was proud to admit that “As a people we are fighting to maintain the heavenly ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause. Such a flag would be a suitable emblem of our young confederacy, and sustained by the brave hearts and strong arms of the south, it would soon take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations, and be hailed by the civilized world as THE WHITE MAN’S FLAG.”

Many Americans of all races today refer to any of the Confederacy’s flags as “the white supremacist’s flag” and they would not have been wrong during the Civil War and they are certainly not wrong in the 21st Century. When the racist flag’s defenders claim it is just an innocent symbol of their Southern heritage and culture, they are defending the white supremacy they know the flag symbolized during the Civil War continuing to the present. It is part of the Southern culture, and their beloved heritage, they have learned all their lives and likely studied in history classes.

The KKK certainly understands what the Confederacy’s flag represents; the South’s white supremacist heritage. It is why shortly after calls for the racist symbol’s removal from South Carolina government buildings and grounds, the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan’s Pelham, North Carolina chapter reserved the Statehouse Grounds in South Carolina for a rally next month.

 
For our non-American friends, there is a protocol as to how and when the U.S. Flag is to be flown, especially when other flags such as a state flag, the POW flag, another country's flag, etc. are flown alongside of it. There are also rules for flying the flag at night, during bad weather and how to dispose of the U.S. flag when it becomes tattered and/or torn. Growing up in a military family and myself serving in the Marines and combat, I have a great amount of respect for the flag. To this day, I still stand and place my right hand over my heart when the Star Spangled Banner is being played.

It "used" to really irritate me to watch on TV people in other countries and here in the U.S. burning our flag. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that burning the U.S. flag is to be allowed under the First Amendment of the Constitution.


It still troubles me to see the burning of the US flag. Always will.
 
I am not overly troubled by flag burning. The only thing that can besmirch a flag IMO is the behaviour of the people who wave it aloft or who serve under it. The Me Lai massacre was a stain on the American flag but some idiot burning it in a demonstration can do it no harm at all. The flag burners simply reveal themselves as people who have not much respect for the feelings of others. Sometimes it might be justified to draw attention to something that is very wrong, but mostly it is just attention seeking.

The Confederate Battle Flag has been appropriated by extremists and as such is more sullied now than ever. It should be removed from their hands. Burning it to make a point is not unreasonable given recent events.
 


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