Confederate Battle Flag Poll

[Ibanez]

So I should piss and moan that I'm in the minority? Stop talking in abstracts, it makes for a horrible and meaningless discussion. Pick something concrete.

[AZGrizFan]

So I should piss and moan that I'm in the minority? Stop talking in abstracts, it makes for a horrible and meaningless discussion. Pick something concrete.

How can I pick something concrete when I don't know what it would be that would be important enough for you that might offend some people? Point is, it's a slippery slope that we've now started down. It's ALREADY morphing into a cleansing of ALL things Civil War-related:

The debate over the rebel flag that began anew after last week's church shootings in Charleston, S.C., has morphed into a full-blown Confederate controversy.

While Stars and Bars have long been associated by many with slavery, the latest campaign to remove Confederate emblems has extended beyond the flag to statues, memorials, parks and even school mascots. Never has the debate over what symbolizes heritage and what stands for hate covered so much ground, as efforts to strip icons that have been part of the visual and cultural landscape of the South for decades are afoot at national, state and local levels.

In one Arkansas town, the school board voted unanimously Tuesday to ban the song "Dixie" for the next school year and phase out “Rebel,” the school’s mascot.

“It came to our attention that the public has been pretty upset about the Confederate flag, which has already been removed, the rebel mascot [and] the playing of the ‘Dixie,’” Fort Smith, Ark., school board member Susan McFerran told reporters after the board voted for the changes.

In Maryland, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamentz is pushing a plan that would change the name of Baltimore's Robert E. Lee Park. A spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told The Associated Press she supports the name change and is willing to work with the county to find an appropriate alternative.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have called for a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader, to be removed from an alcove outside the Senate chambers. The bust, with the words “Confederate States Army” engraved on it, has been at the state Capitol for decades.

A group of Kentucky officials, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, want to kick a statute of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis out of the state Capitol rotunda, and activists in Minnesota have demanded a lake named after John C. Calhoun, a senator and vice president from South Carolina who supported slavery, be re-christened.

There's a new move to change the name of Baltimore's Robert E. Lee Park, named for the legendary Confederate general.

The battle flag of the Confederacy, long seen waving above state capitols, from front porches of homes and on memorabilia and garments throughout the South, was the first casualty of the movement fueled by church shooting suspect Dylann Roof's embrace of it and white supremacy. Photos of Roof posing with the flag litter a website which he is believed to have created to house his hateful manifesto against African-Americans.

National retailers Amazon.com, Walmart, Sears and Etsy this week all announced plans to remove merchandise depicting the Confederate battle flag.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for lawmakers to remove the flag from public grounds, and in Alabama, Gov. Robert Bentley unilaterally ordered the immediate removal Wednesday of four different Confederate banners, including the battle flag, from an 88-foot-tall memorial that stands at the state Capitol entrance nearest to the governor’s office.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan opposes the use of the Confederate flag on the state's license plates, according to a spokeswoman for the Republican, and is in talks with the state's department of motor vehicles and attorney general to address the issue.

At the federal level, though, there’s now talk of whether Congress should remove statues with ties to the Confederacy from the U.S. Capitol. Among those are statues of Joe Wheeler of Alabama, who is wearing a Confederate military uniform with “CSA” emblazoned on his belt buckle. Another is of South Carolina leader Wade Hampton, leader of the Confederacy and Ku Klux Klan supporter.

But some are concerned that the snowballing effort to rid the nation of Confederate symbolism is a historical whitewash.

“They are part of our history and not all of our history is dandelions and butterflies,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., told Fox News. “A knee-jerk reaction is not helpful.” He later asked, “Where does it stop? Especially if you start letting people define our history.”

While some, like Mulvaney, have questioned whether the push to purge could wind up erasing an important part of America’s past, University of Alabama history professor Joshua Rothman, believes the distinction lies not in learning about the Confederacy but in how people choose to honor it.

“I don’t think there is a reasonable position anyone could take that says that the history of the Confederacy shouldn’t be talked about in a university or school or museum,” he told FoxNews.com, adding that the problem lies in celebrating the Confederacy, especially using taxpayer money.

I don't know Rep. Mulvaney from a hole in the ground, but he's SPOT ON about this. Where does it stop? When will EVERYONE be satisfied? The answer is easy....NEVER.

[Ibanez]

Those things don't really matter to me. Calhoun street, the citadel, the DOC, etc...aren't going anywhere. They aren't the symbols of hate. The flag is the symbol. I don't see, locally, any renaming.

But I get the slippery slope argument. I don't care what other states do. But I see all this waning in a few weeks.

[AZGrizFan]

Those things don't really matter to me. Calhoun street, the citadel, the DOC, etc...aren't going anywhere. They aren't the symbols of hate. The flag is the symbol. I don't see, locally, any renaming.

But I get the slippery slope argument. I don't care what other states do. But I see all this waning in a few weeks.

Hmmmm....I think you're wrong about that. Once the PC police get their claws into something, they will beat it into the fucking ground. This is no exception. Having something named after ANYTHING Confederacy-related is now considered a no-no. Watch it mushroom.

[Ibanez]

Those things don't really matter to me. Calhoun street, the citadel, the DOC, etc...aren't going anywhere. They aren't the symbols of hate. The flag is the symbol. I don't see, locally, any renaming.

But I get the slippery slope argument. I don't care what other states do. But I see all this waning in a few weeks.

Hmmmm....I think you're wrong about that. Once the PC police get their claws into something, they will beat it into the fucking ground. This is no exception. Having something named after ANYTHING Confederacy-related is now considered a no-no. Watch it mushroom.

We will see. I know most of the city council and the guy who will most likely be the next mayor. They have already stated they aren't going to let it go far. There's no point. The battle flag, yeah remove it. But the statute of Calhoun isn't coming down. History is taking the good and bad. If they do rename Calhoun st, for instance, revert it to its original name ( Boundary St. ) or name it after Marion since it runs along Marion Square.

There was talk in 2000 of renaming everything and the only thing that happened was the Confederate flag came down from above the statehouse. Maybe this time is different but what's the end goal? It won't change attitudes for the better. If anything, animosity will grow among those being disenfranchised( southern whites who aren't hicks like Roof.) and there are more of us than there are of him.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

I think the Calhoun statue needs to come down.

[93henfan]

I can't believe Klean voluntarily joined such a racist outfit that would name its bases after Confederate Generals:

Camp Beauregard
Fort Benning
Fort Bragg
Fort Gordon
Fort A.P. Hill
Fort Hood
Fort Lee
Fort Pickett
Fort Polk
Fort Rucker

[OL FU]

I guess there is no chance for that citdog statue.

[Ibanez]

I guess there is no chance for that citdog statue.

Oh, I'm sure there's a statue of a flaccid penis somewhere.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

Well then I'll quit working on the rendering.

[Vidav]

People can fly the flag of the failed traitors all they want. I don't care. What is the problem is a state flying it over their capitol. There is a huge difference and if you pretend not to see it then there is no help for you.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

[mrklean]

There's always one Tom in the Group.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

[tribe_pride]

People can fly the flag of the failed traitors all they want. I don't care. What is the problem is a state flying it over their capitol. There is a huge difference and if you pretend not to see it then there is no help for you.

That is my position on the issue as well. Same reason I don't like Robert E. Lee Day, etc. If individuals want to support it, that is fine with me, but I don't believe governments within the United States should be supporting those who led or objects or symbols represented by a part of the country that attempted to secede from the Union.

[Baldy]

Just wait until the race merchants find out that Robert E. Lee's birthday and Confederate Memorial Day are state holidays in Georgia.

http://team.georgia.gov/wp-content/uplo ... lidays.pdf

Oh and Gone With The Wind should now be banned as well.

http://nypost.com/2015/06/24/gone-with- ... rate-flag/

[BDKJMU]

People can fly the flag of the failed traitors all they want. I don't care. What is the problem is a state flying it over their capitol. There is a huge difference and if you pretend not to see it then there is no help for you.

State's rights. A state can fly whatever flag they want. Its non of the god damn fed govt's business..If you can't see that there's no help for you..

[houndawg]

The battle flag and streets named after Confederate generals isn't causing crime. It's a red herring. Cultures of hate, distrust and misunderstanding in black and white communities have more to do with race problems.

I'm proud to be from Charleston. I have ancestors that fought for the Union and Confederacy, but this flag is t about hate. That's a power that groups have given it. If we're going to remove it, then why not remove the U.S. flag, the flag that has wronged more blacks than the CSA ever did. A flag which flew over the country when we massacred Indians, mistreated immigrants, kept Slavery alive during the Civil War, waged war under bogus claims and gave the world the Kardashians.


Removing the flag will change nothing.Whites don't like blacks and vice versa due to history and the current culture.You can't legislate the problem away. It'll take a conscious effort from all of us to change the culture.

We have no problem with each other on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons during the fall.
We have no problems with each other when we all serve in the Military.
We have no problems when we have to work together in the aftermath of a natural or man made disaster.

So why is it that we just can't treat each other like humans. You don't have to like me, but you are going to respect me. Am I know I BULLSHIT a lot, but this s a serious question.

This isn't true. The only time in my hitch that I was ever in harms way was at Ft. Polk, LA, one night when I happened to be walking past the post theater at exactly the time that a double feature of "Shaft" and "Mandingo" was letting out. They called me White Lightning for weeks.

[BDKJMU]

http://fusion.net/story/157774/black-wo ... erate-flag" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Vidav]

People can fly the flag of the failed traitors all they want. I don't care. What is the problem is a state flying it over their capitol. There is a huge difference and if you pretend not to see it then there is no help for you.

State's rights. A state can fly whatever flag they want. Its non of the god damn fed govt's business..If you can't see that there's no help for you..

[JohnStOnge]

What is the problem is a state flying it over their capitol.

I don't see any problem with a Southern State wanting to fly a Confederate Battle Flag or even the Confederate National Flag. Why not? They were forced to stay a part of the United States. Does it make you proud to be part of a country that conducted an invasion that resulted in the deaths of something like 750,000 soldiers and who knows how many civilians simply to force people who didn't want to be part of it to be part of it?

However, that's not the issue with the particular flag in South Carolina. In that case, the flag is part of a memorial to Confederate war dead. What flag would you fly there? Would you fly the flag of the invading nation that claimed their lives? Would you fly the flag of the enemy they were fighting to defend their homes from?

[JohnStOnge]

And by the way, if there was any doubt that Obama has no business being in the position he's in, that thing of lighting up the White House should have eliminated it. I should not need to explain why that is so further.

I can't think of a single President of my lifetime who would've done something like that under these circumstances. Talk about a divisive action. As far as Democrats of my lifetime go Kennedy wouldn't have done that. Johnson wouldn't have done that. Carter wouldn't have done that. Clinton wouldn't have done that.

The guy has no sense at all. That he was ever elected once much less twice does not bode well for the future of the United States. A population that would elect somebody like that has serious issues.

[Chizzang]

These debates have been hilarious to watch...
Some folks sure get worked up over a flag (and that goes for both sides)

I can promise you
There's isn't a damned flag in the world I give 1% as much of a f*ck about regardless of the situation as half the folks killing themselves over this issue - its just a damned flag - who gives a gawd damned

and its the flag of the losers just to make it even more hilarious...
Jeezus, man let the losers flag fly if it makes 'em feel better
its a daily reminder "Hey look, we lost" how about that



They should be made to fly the damned thing after this debacle of an argument

[AZGrizFan]

These debates have been hilarious to watch...
Some folks sure get worked up over a flag (and that goes for both sides)

I can promise you
There's isn't a damned flag in the world I give 1% as much of a f*ck about regardless of the situation as half the folks killing themselves over this issue - its just a damned flag - who gives a gawd damned

and its the flag of the losers just to make it even more hilarious...
Jeezus, man let the losers flag fly if it makes 'em feel better
its a daily reminder "Hey look, we lost" how about that



They should be made to fly the damned thing after this debacle of an argument

Interesting. I figured you, of all people, would understand it's not about the flag.

[CAA Flagship]

These debates have been hilarious to watch...
Some folks sure get worked up over a flag (and that goes for both sides)

I can promise you
There's isn't a damned flag in the world I give 1% as much of a f*ck about regardless of the situation as half the folks killing themselves over this issue - its just a damned flag - who gives a gawd damned

and its the flag of the losers just to make it even more hilarious...
Jeezus, man let the losers flag fly if it makes 'em feel better
its a daily reminder "Hey look, we lost" how about that



They should be made to fly the damned thing after this debacle of an argument

Interesting. I figured you, of all people, would understand it's not about the flag.

The flag is the victim here.
Regardless, it really is a pretty cool looking flag...........as flags go, that is.
Not as good as the Jolly Roger though. That might be the king of flags.