I CONFESS, I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN STATE'S RIGHTS; I think we have allowed Washington to supersede the States when it should have kept hands off. I will concede there are times the Feds ere right, but most often not.
But I also believe that some of the folks flaunting the Stars and Bars don't know anything about that flag or, in deed, for what the Confederacy stood.
The Stars and Bars was NOT the flag of the Confederate States of America (CSA); it was the CSA's common battle flag.
The CSA's last NATIONAL flag was far different.
Call it what you will, the War for Southern Impendence, the War Between the States, or the Civil War, the war was not about slavery - Lincoln didn't issue the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the CSA until late in the conflict and then only when the Federals' capitol was threatened.
Moreover, there were armed blacks serving in the CSA forces.
An aside: the term "red neck," applied to anyone whose social status is less than yours, refers to the sunburned necks of white farmers/planters who did their own field work.
In addition to blacks in CSA uniforms, a number of Cherokee Indians, remembering the Trail of Tears also served in the CSA's ranks. Interestingly, black soldiers of the CSA were paid the same as white soldiers, unlike the Federals that paid their black soldiers less than whites.
Granted, there ARE stupid people who assume the Stars and Bars equates to racism - both some of the whites who flaunt the flag at anti-anything demonstrations, and blacks who think anything recalling the CSA is racist.
Frankly, this scrivener thinks flying the CSA battle flag when the issue is either state's rights or freedom of speech is wrong; the proper flag would be the CSA national flag. Ok, the battle is to restore state's rights and to preserve free speech, but since the battle flag is found obnoxious - or worse - by some, let the emblem be the national flag and what it represented.
I am NOT suggesting that "the South will rise again," but that it behooves the government in Washington to remember WHY the CSA was formed - and that was NOT about slavery.
Neither the national flag nor the battle flag represented slavery anymore than the "Betsy Ross" flag of 1776 when ALL the colonies depended on the labor of slaves and indentured servants)
Even though the KKK started off as an organization to counter carpetbaggers who came to the post-war south to swindle the populace, it quickly turned racist and for that I find it offensive; down there with neo-nazis, skin heads, and similar bottom feeders.
I find it interesting that after many blacks had migrated north - either escaping slavery in the south or to find work following the war - there has been a very large immigration of northern blacks to the traditionally southern states.
Most people - all races - who know their history don't object to the FLAG as much as the people who use it as an excuse for stupid, dangerous behavior.
Hauling down the CSA battle flag won't change idiots' mentality; they'll simply find another symbol to represent their hate and ignorance.
Maybe we should do away withi the cross the Klan uses as a symbol. That is as logical as hauling down the battle flag.
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