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george wrote:The flag was removed from the capital here several years ago, in a "compromise", to an area outside the capital which is a confederate memorial. Now, they want to renege and have it removed from everywhere. Gave them an inch, and now they want more.

I am proud of my southern heritage, and proud of that flag.

That being said, the only time I see that flag being flown now is by racist red-necks. It has morphed into a symbol of bigotry. That is, when I see the flag on a truck or house, I do not think they are flying it in reverence to their heritage, but rather proclaiming their racism.

Correct, it was not on the capital building (as so many will vehemently tell you), rather it was at a Confederate Monument on the North Side of the State House.

Oh yeah, on the East side, there is an African American History Monument as well. I guess those folks suggesting that the folks there are racist don't ever walk around to the East side. Hmmmm....

baldeagle wrote:I hate to disagree with you guys, but the war was over slavery. The southern states seceded because they correctly believed that the Republicans intended to abolish slavery. Everyone at that time believed that. And as soon as the Republicans took office they passed a bill intended to emancipate the slaves, The First Confiscation Act of 1861. It is a matter of historical record that the act contained an Emancipation Clause, which was gutted by Congress. The War of Northern Aggression.

The first act of the war was the attack on Fort Sumter. South Carolina believed that a Federal fort on their coast was a threat to their independence. Lincoln believed it would be a tacit acknowledgment of South Carolina's independence to abandon the fort, so he ordered immediate reinforcement. The Confederate Army asked the occupants to surrender. They refused, so South Carolina began bombarding the fort and thus the war began. The First Shot of the Civil War The Surrender of Fort Sumter, 1861

South Carolina seceded in Dec 1860, before Lincoln had even been sworn into office. Fort Sumter was attacked in April, 1861. The First Confiscation Act was passed in August, 1861. All eleven states had seceded by June, before the act was passed.

If you read South Carolina's Declaration of Causes of Seceding, slavery is mentioned 38 times, including this:

The Presidential election of 1852 resulted in the total overthrow of the advocates of restriction and their party friends. Immediately after this result the anti-slavery portion of the defeated party resolved to unite all the elements in the North opposed to slavery and to stake their future political fortunes upon their hostility to slavery everywhere. This is the party two whom the people of the North have committed the Government. They raised their standard in 1856 and were barely defeated. They entered the Presidential contest again in 1860 and succeeded.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded by its followers.

I think it's abundantly clear what the cause of the Civil War was - the Republicans wanted to abolish slavery and were willing to use every means they could employ to succeed. The southern states did not want slavery abolished and chose to leave the Union rather than submit to the government.

You are not disagreeing with me. I made no statement about the cause of the war. If I were to do so, I might say that it was about imposition of federal law vs. states' rights to self-govern. But I did not say that.

I only stated what the flag stands for now (for me, and for a great any people where I grew up). It is a Southern pride thing. That is all.

A number of years ago, I had a team of folks working for me in Hampton Roads, VA. We all flew in from across the US each week, and my team consisted of folks from Texas, Virginia, Illinois, and Connecticut, among other places.

Given our travel schedule (fly in on Monday morning, fly home on Friday afternoon, four nights in a hotel, four days of a car rental), we had a bit of flexibility. Once, one of my guys said to me, "instead of flying home to Connecticut this weekend, I'll stay here. WIll you cover the hotel bill for the extra three days? A quick bit of math allowed me to see that he would be saving me $$ by not going home for the weekend, so of course, the answer was, "Yes".

Monday morning, the team gathered together, and I asked how the weekends went. My Connecticut guy was excited. He'd driven all around the area, visited Kitty Hawk, and visited other historical places. His most interesting comment was that he thought it was odd how many Confederate flags he saw around. "I thought those were illegal?!?" he stated. (no, he was not a kid...he was in his 40's).

"No, they're not illegal. Why would they be?" I asked.

"Because of slavery".

I smiled and explained. "No, but I understand your confusion. You've probably been told all your life that the Confederate Battle flag was a symbol of slavery and hatred of black people. However, for those of us that grew up down here...it just means we hate Yankees!" I went on to explain that, "where he grew up, there are a lot of references to the Revolutionary War, but down here, we still remember the War of Northern Aggression. That flag is a symbol of Southern pride, not of hatred - well, except hatred of yankees, of course!" (I said with a smile on my face)

It was that simple...and he understood it so easily. Why is it that nobody does now?

Nah, don't answer that question. I know the answer already. I just needed to rant.



For the record, I fly the US flag on my front porch 364 days a year. The only day that I don't is on the 9th of April each year. I don't fly any flag on that day - and it has NOTHING at all to do with race.