Moderators, was my post removed from this thread or did I just forget to hit the submit button?Vol Texan wrote: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.
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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.
If it was removed, please tell me why and what I should or should not have done to make it acceptable.