Posted on 03/21/2008 1:43:24 PM PDT by cowboyway
Many heads turned in Ringgold Wednesday when they saw an African-American man dressed in a Confederate soldier's uniform, carrying a Confederate flag.
It wasn't a joke. H.K. Edgerton came to Ringgold to make a bold statement - he opposes city leader's removing the Confederate flag from the city's flag pole.
Edgerton says the Confederate flag is misunderstood, feared and hated because people are trying to be politically correct - which he says desecrates the honor and real meaning of the Civil War era emblem.
"I'm here because your town council climbed into bed with all the politically correct folks who are practicing social, cultural genocide here in the south land of America," Edgerton said.
Edgerton is marching against that cultural genocide as he calls it, and is getting a warm welcome from people in Ringgold who support his fight for the Confederate flag.
Jim Caldwell meet Edgerton carrying the flag and said "it's history, part of history and it don't need to be swept under the rug."
Edgerton is from Asheville, North Carolina, where he's also the immediate past president of the N.A.A.C.P. there. His visit to Ringgold marks the five-year anniversary of the same march he made from Asheville to Austin Texas - 20 miles a day, six days a week.
He says he has no respect for modern day civil rights activists who as he puts it, trash the Confederate flag.
"Just pointing to those scally-wags like Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, who climbed into bed with these folks to increase their coffers to continue tainting and disturbing history," Edgerton said.
Two years ago many people packed Ringgold's city hall to protest the move by city leaders to get rid of the Confederate flag. It flies no more on the town poles.
Edgerton says many people don't understand that black men, alongside whites, fought for the Confederacy and the principals it was founded on.
"So here I am, trying to bring an understanding that there was folks who look like me who earned a place of honor and dignity here under this flag. And this flag is just as much for folks who look like me as any white man in the south land of America," Edgerton said.
These atrocities were committed by soldiers under the American flag, not the Confederate flag. Should the American flag be banned as a 'symbol of hate'?
It should be given equal stature to the "Malcolm X" symbol because the purpose in displaying both, the interpretation of both and the potential offensiveness of both vary equal.
States rights was the cause, slavery was the occasion.
If the South seceded tomorrow because the north insisted on universal health care, would you foolishly say that the South didn't want people to have health care?
What should be given equal stature to the Malcolm X symbol?
the potential offensiveness
Please point out the section of the First Amendment that discusses offensiveness.
Used to see this guy a lot around here, walking while carrying his flag. I always thought it would be cool if I (a typical white person) put on a t-shirt with a picture of MLK on it, and walked with him for awhile.
“put on a t-shirt with a picture of MLK on it, and walked with him for awhile.”
I imagine H.K. would have welcomed the company. You might even have learned a thing or two.
States rights to enslave people was the cause and the occasion. It was the South's disgrace.
If the South seceded tomorrow because the north insisted on universal health care, would you foolishly say that the South didn't want people to have health care? "
If the South seceded tomorrow because the South insisted on universal health care, I would say that they seceded for universal health care and any other excuse was a transparent rationalization and propaganda to persuade fools to support it. I grew up in the south and my great grandfather fought for the South, presumably because of that nonsense. But it takes a special kind of stubborn denial and foolishness to believe in it after 150 years.
Dude, just read the sentence right before my last statement. It's yours, I quoted it.
Please point out the section of the First Amendment that discusses offensiveness.
Please point out where I said either symbol should treated contrary to the first amendment. I think neither have a place in public buildings, but that's up to the voters. I think neither have a place in school or the workplace, but that's up to the administrators and employers. But if some idiot wants to wear one on his shirt in public or put one on his car and deal with the friction, good luck with that.
Did you know the North had slaves, too? And Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation kind of as an afterthought. He didn’t care one way or the other about slavery.
bttt
“I grew up in the south and my great grandfather fought for the South, presumably because of that nonsense. But it takes a special kind of stubborn denial and foolishness to believe in it after 150 years.”
Didn’t learn much did you?
States rights was the cause. Lincoln, and the north generally, didn't give a rats ass about the slaves. Hell, some northern states had laws on the books forbidding freemen to stay in their states longer than 30 days. And how about the New York riots where they targeted blacks and hung them from lamp post.
Slavery was the albatross around the necks of Southern independence but slavery wasn't the cause. States rights was the cause.
f the South seceded tomorrow because the South insisted on universal health care, I would say that they seceded for universal health care and any other excuse was a transparent rationalization and propaganda to persuade fools to support it.
That wasn't my question. Answer my question: If the South seceded tomorrow because the north insisted on universal health care, would you foolishly say that the South didn't want people to have health care?
I grew up in the south and my great grandfather fought for the South, presumably because of that nonsense.
It's too bad that your great grandfather isn't around to explain why he, and thousands of other Southerners, volunteered to fight for Southern Independence.
But it takes a special kind of stubborn denial and foolishness to believe in it after 150 years.
And it takes a special kind of stupidity and politically correct denial to embrace the left wing doctrine of revisionist history and biased propaganda.
Okay. You're smart and I'm a tard. Hows about explaining the American flag/Malcolm X connection cuz I can't see it.
Please point out where I said either symbol should treated contrary to the first amendment.
You brought up 'offensiveness'. That's usually the first step in any politically correct attempt to silence free speech.
But if some idiot wants to wear one on his shirt in public or put one on his car and deal with the friction, good luck with that.
Thank God that the idiots that support political correctness don't rule the roost.....yet. (With the help of so called conservatives like yourself, they may yet win.)
But you make a helluva point about 'friction'. It's a good thing that some people aren't afraid to 'deal with friction'. It makes it possible for those that prefer to cower in their safe havens to be free.
A public school education combined with an unwillingness for independent study sadly results in a lot of misinformed citizens, which is exactly what the libs want.
“A public school education combined with an unwillingness for independent study sadly results in a lot of misinformed citizens, which is exactly what the libs want.”
True but it goes deeper than that. My great great grandfather, who by the way, like many, many of his peers, never own a slave, fought for the South, my great grandfather raised my grandmother in his legacy, my grandmother in turn taught my mother who taught me. We can debate causes til we turn blue in the face, it’s a heart thing. Some get it, some don’t.
Dixie ping
State's rights to enslave people was the cause.
That wasn't my question.
Your question wasn't analogous or relevant so I gave you one that was.
It's too bad that your great grandfather isn't around to explain why he, and thousands of other Southerners, volunteered to fight for Southern Independence.
He lived in among a people blanketed by propaganda to cover their crimes against humanity. You have no excuse.
And it takes a special kind of stupidity and politically correct denial to embrace the left wing doctrine of revisionist history and biased propaganda.
You're right. I'm just too stupid and politically correct to embrace slavery.
You are correct, beckysueb.
In a response to a New York Tribune editorial he wrote a letter to Editor Andrew Greeley explaining why slaves were being freed . He stated,
” My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union”
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