Free Republic

Can somebody tell Gov. Phil Murphy that the voters elected him to run the state, not to start another civil war? Apparently not. Last week, our governor opened up hostilities between New Jersey and Mississippi over the issue of state flags. One from each of the 50 states flies in Liberty State Park – or did so until Murphy declared Friday that Mississippi’s flag must be removed. It seems that Mississippi’s flag incorporates elements of the Confederate Battle Flag. That’s the flag known mainly for drawing people into long, boring arguments about exactly what it signifies. Fortunately, we here in...

from rural southwest Virginia, WSLS television (Roanoke) CHRISTIANSBURG (WSLS 10) – About 20 Christiansburg High School students were suspended Thursday after wearing clothing with the Confederate Flag on it. wearing clothing with the Confederate Flag on it. Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake says 22 or 23 students came to school violating the dress code. Drake says they were given the opportunity to comply with the dress code, but refused so they were given one day of in school suspension (ISS). Drake says the students became disruptive in ISS and refused to follow school rules so the majority of...

Why is the left is so intent upon removing the Confederate battle flag from public display? After all, everybody knows that outside a handful of skinheads, people don’t display the Confederate battle flag in order to celebrate America’s “original sin.” We’re long past slavery. Well, not the race hustlers like “they’re going to put y’all back in chains” Joe Biden or his boss – not to mention perennial White House guest and tax cheat Al Sharpton and spiritual counselor to presidents Jesse Jackson. But, by and large, everybody else is past slavery. Then there’s the point where the campaign may...

In an historic move that will forever be remembered as the day racism finally came to an end, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has signed into law a measure removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds. The culmination of weeks of debate, the flag’s removal has had a series of ripple effects. The Southern Poverty Law Center declared racism “dead,” the NAACP officially merged with the Ku Klux Klan, and Southerners everywhere denounced their heritage of black oppression. Or not. Instead of focusing on the heinous crimes of one disturbed murderer, South Carolina and the rest of the...

The nation’s pitched and passionate debate over the display of the Confederate flag has found its voice in the northern state of Minnesota, where a firefighter flew the most enduring symbol of the Civil War South alongside Old Glory on a fire truck in a July 4th weekend parade in Albert Lea. The Confederate flag flew at the same height as the U.S. flag from the back of the truck belonging to the Freeborn County town of Hartland during the “3rd of July Parade” on Friday, which was organized by the Chamber of Commerce. Also over the weekend, the Confederate...

If you are paying attention to the mainstream media, you might be fooled into believing that most Americans want the Confederate battle flag consigned to the dustbin of history because it's a racist symbol. In fact, a new CNN poll reveals the surprising fact that sentiment with regards to the battle flag hasn't changed much in 15 years: most believe it to be a symbol of Southern pride, not racism. And while a slim majority agrees the flag should be removed from government property, a majority think that most of the suggested ways to remove the flag from American life...

I often wear a suit or sport coat, which means that I have a lapel on which to wear a lapel pin. As an American, I often wear an American flag pin, but I do frequently wear others… sometimes a “Celebrate Freedom” pin from a veterans group, sometimes a “little feet” pin from a pro-life group, sometimes a campaign button for whoever I’m supporting that election season. In addition, I sometimes wear a pin celebrating my ethnicity. I’m Italian, Irish, Scotch-Irish, Austrian, and German. I happen to identify mostly with the Italian and Irish aspects of my heritage, so it’s...

John Schneider is blasting TV Land for its decision to erase from its schedule — due its depiction of the Confederate flag — reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard, the wholesome show that made the actor a teen idol in the 1980s. “The Dukes of Hazzard was and is no more a show seated in racism than Breaking Bad was a show seated in reality,” Schneider told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. TV Land confirmed Wednesday that it pulled the show in the aftermath of the June 17 shooting in Charleston, S.C. perpetrated by Dylann Roof, who was a fan...

to Burn the Confederate Flag A Florida college professor’s plan to burn a Confederate flag on Memorial Day is stirring up controversy by those who say it should instead be a time to remember those who have died while defending America’s freedom. Julian Chambliss, chairman of the Department of History and Africa and African-American Studies program at Rollins College, told the Orlando Sentinel that he decided to host the event because the days of slavery in America are dead. “That part of our history needs to be buried,” Chambliss said. The ceremony will be just one of several to take...

Lawyers from California have cast accusatory eyes on Mississippi, declaring that the state’s Confederate symbol on its flag that’s flown at a Santa Ana display is racist and needs to go. The Orange County Bar Association has passed a resolution to remove the Mississippi flag from the Santa Ana civic center where it now hangs, along with the flags of all other states, The Los Angeles Times reported. Members of the group say the Confederate symbol is an outdated relic that represents racism and hatred, The Associated Press reported.

COLUMBIA — Waving the Confederate flag from the state Senate chamber floor, Charleston Democrat Sen. Robert Ford declared that blacks and whites should come together as South Carolina remembers the Civil War. Ford, who is black, said that before the war, his ancestors were slaves. After the war, they were free men and women. “Doesn’t that give me a reason to celebrate?” Ford said. “What it means is the war was able to unite America.” Ford’s comments come as the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter next week and the start of the Civil War....

WASHINGTON -- I burned an American flag once. I could lie and say I was exercising my First Amendment rights, that I was protesting the first flag-burning statute Congress approved in 1989, but that would attribute more noble motives to my immolation of Old Glory than I actually had. Really, I just wanted to know how it felt to burn it. It felt really, really weird. Southerners have a flag fetish. We've been wrapped up in them for some time. Fine motives are generally attributed to the flags in our fights over them. As the Senate debated the flag-burning amendment...

Disciplining a student for wearing a $5 T-shirt five years ago could end up costing the Warren Hills Regional School District close to $1 million. The Warren County district has been ordered to pay nearly $600,000 in plaintiffs' legal fees incurred during the 5-year-old free speech rights battle over whether a high school student could wear his "redneck" T-shirt. That tally does not include the amount the district has paid its own lawyers. Thomas Sypniewski Jr. was suspended for three days during his senior year in 2001 for wearing a T-shirt that listed blue-collar comedian Jeff Foxworthy's Top 10 reasons...

One of the most divisive symbols of the country's racist past — the Confederate flag — flew over Lake Worth City Hall on Wednesday without raising a peep of protest. Mayor Marc Drautz, who cleared the way for the symbol of the South to be hoisted, suggested that would-be protestors may not have recognized the red-and-white-striped flag for what it was. And, he acknowledged, that's just the way he wanted it. When the mayor, for a second year, gave Palm Beach County members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans the go-ahead to raise a flag to mark Confederate Memorial Day,...

Today H.K. Edgerton, a black man from Asheville, N.C., will walk into Maryville with a Confederate flag and a hope for ``dialogue.'' He'll stop at the Blount County Courthouse, at about 1 p.m., to get his message out, one that he hopes will bring blacks and whites together, rather than divide people. He walked this week from Johnson City and has experienced both affection and anger from people he's met on the road. ``This is not about a longevity trip, not like it was when I walked to Texas. This is more about coming to Maryville to try to change...

The Truth About The Confederate Battle Flag Leon Puissegur The Confederate Battle Flag has been under the gun of groups that tend to lead people in the wrong way to its inception. These groups, which place forth, the ideas that the flag represents hate and slavery cannot produce a single document to support these ridiculous claims. In fact all the documents found show the contrary to be true. I must point out that the Confederate Battle Flag never flew as a State Flag since its sole purpose was to distinguish the two armies from each other. It has become...

The NAACP expressed outrage Saturday over Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt’s order to fly the Confederate flag over a state historic site, and asked the public to rally against it. Blunt ordered the flag flown today, for one day only, at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site near Higginsville in honor of Confederate Memorial Day. The order came after Rep. Mike McGhee, an Odessa Republican, made the request on behalf of local residents. Mary Ratliff, the president of the Missouri State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she had already written the governor to ask...

After reading Marcy Newman’s article "Symbols of Racism" (1/13/05) in The Arbiter, I had to wonder if Boise State is an institution of higher learning or just another of those campuses specializing in a type of politically correct indoctrination. In her article where she mentioned "what the Confederate flag really means," Newman told of a student who, according to her description, violated her space by wearing a jacket displaying the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) battle flag. She rambled on with her interpretation of what the Georgia legislature had in mind when it adopted the ANV battle flag into its...

What's wrong about this photo? Or if you're a true-born Southerner, what's right? While scanning through some of the up and coming movies in 2005, I ran across this intriguing title; "CSA: Confederate States of America (2005)". It's an "alternate universe" take on what would the country be like had the South won the civil war.Stars with bars:Suffice to say anything from Hollywood on this topic is sure to to bring about all sorts of controversial ideas and discussions. I was surprised that they are approaching such subject matter, and I'm more than a little interested.Some things are better left...