Posted on 04/23/2006 10:32:45 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Perhaps he's an idiot to you, but there are more important things in life than money. I don't think he was worshiping a relic, but rather he was taking pride in his heritage, and exercising his right to display the Confederate flag on his truck. The person who should have been reprimanded was the person who complained! The flag is not obscene nor insulting, so people should have more important things to do than try to tell other people what they can and can't do. A license tag is not harming anyone, and it's time "political correctness' was put to rest. Tampa should have been ordered to give him his job back with pay IMO.
The Confederacy is part of the South's heritage as much as the Union is part of the North's. We've been taught a different form of history than the North has. We were taught, and believe, that the war was fought over States Rights, and there is as much history to support this as it is to support the Northern interpretation that it was fought over slavery. Robert E. Lee had no slaves at the time of the war, but Ulysses S. Grant did! We could probably argue the cause of the War Between the States until doomsday, and not all would agree, but the Southerner should have as much right to honor his heritage, as say, the NAACP. Should we demand that everyone remove a sticker or a license plate if it has an NAACP symbol on it because it offends someone? I don't think so, and I do think it's time for common sense to prevail in the court room and the job place! Perhaps the man who fired him should have his job taken for being intolerant of another person's belief, and for denying him his First Amendment Right.
Would you feel the same way if the man was fired for displaying a Christian flag that may have offended someone? I could be offended regularly by loud rap music, piercings on customer service representatives, pants that are 10 sizes too big and, of course, anyone Liberal bumper stickers. I shrug it off.
Someone was upset about his car.. not his work performance, or his language, or anything relating to his job.
Someone was offended by something displayed on his mode of transportation.
The politically correct police have determined that that the Confederate Flag is offensive to some people though it's been around since the 1800's.
I have a suggestion for the offended masses... hit your head against a wall repeatedly so you have something more important to complain about.
I fully support this guy's right to display this flag, and anyone who would support firing him for it is completely insane. I don't know all the details, do you? Maybe he's already found another job and doesn't want his job back. Mabye he's got money elsewhere. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that if he had a Malcolm X license plate he wouldn't have been fired.
I have to agree with you. No way would Sharpton and Jackson not have made a state issuing a confederate plate into a BIG issue. There would have been marches and an attempt to impeach Bush, I mean Jeb.
Democrats created the Confederacy, The Confederate flag and the Klu Klux Klan, The Republicans ended slavery, saved the union and created the NAACP.
Being proud of confederate heritage means what? You are proud of being the tools of The Democrat masters, gleefully lynching black people and republicans alike in the south while flying the confederate flag to strike fear in the hearts of those that are on the recieving end of the hate it embodies.
He wasn't denied his 1st Amendment Rights, he wasn't allowed to exercise them in his workplace during the time he was supposed to be working.
Now he has all the time in the world to exercise those rights.
"or park his truck off city property"
So as a private citizen not employed by the city, can he park his truck on citu property now?
i have a sate issued nc.plate with a confederate flag on it scv.
"the hate it embodies..."
So where is the hate when my high school took to the field to the tune of Dixie with a black player taking the lead and waving the Stars and Bars?
Whatever happened to just STFU and working??? Keep your personal beliefs outside of work, OK?
bump
I had thought the man's First Amendment Rights had been violated because of this statement in the article: "He feels vindicated," attorney Luke Lirot told the Tribune, "by knowing the courts have recognized he had a First Amendment right to display the Confederate flag as a reflection of his Southern heritage and traditions that he viewed as important."
I guess you would support this even if it was the American flag or a Christian flag, which predates the 1800's. The term you use (worship) is poorly chosen IMHO.. Pride maybe, Worship is going out on a far limb.
I have seen better arguments from you Extreme, this one just begs to be chopped down. The tree's core is rotten thru and thru..
Still alive and well, in China and Cuba...
No kidding - this guy LOST, Big time!
Bump.
They fought for the right of the state government to keep people slaves.
Unlike the American revolution, the South did not list any grievances except they did not like they idea that slavery was going to be limited by the incoming Republican Party.
What the South should take pride is in the contributions they have made to American freedom since the Civil War.
I'm sorry it is the truth. The Klan was created by Democrats officials and former confederate officers to terrorise blacks and republicans alike in the south and in a time when the north was trying to rebuild the south and return it to the union in was that shameful banner that was used as a weapon of terror in the night.
The case didn't go to court, they settled out of court and on the cheap, had they gone through the court system and won he might have received more than 100 times the settlement and at his job back, instead in a day and age where you can get a million dollars for spilling a cup of coffee on yourself he got next to nothing and a pink slip and calls it a victory.
That must be his southern pride at work.
I agree totally with your second paragraph, but won't comment on the third paragraph.
Hopefully, there will be more present day matters we will agree upon than disagree.
"No Replies."
Guess that means {crickets.} Or maybe Extremely Obtuse Extremist actually id busy over posting at DU.
I respectfully disagree. He works for the city, parks in a city parking lot, and thus represents them. They deserve a say in what he puts on the car he uses for work. If he painted obscene words on the hood of his car they would have a right to ask him to remove them. To some Americans, a Confederate flag is every bit as offensive.
Clearly this man had no case, and the city just wanted it to go away. But if it were me I wouldn't have paid him a thing.
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