The irony of your post is astonishing. All those of us who honor the flag have ever asked is to be allowed the right to do so, the same right accorded to people who are freely allowed to wave Malcolm X flags, gay rainbow flags, Mexican flags at illegal alien rallies, and a variety of other flags and symbols representing the far left. Yet, we're told that we're wicked and beyond the pale by the very people who defend those flags. We celebrated and honored our history for decades until the Political Correctness infection spread to the point that the left came after us, and they've done so with a totalitarian vengeance. Dick "Turban" Durbin a few years ago even tried to remove Confederate Flags from Confederate veterans' graves. Yet you think we're the ones who feel the opposition must be totally crushed? Absolutely astonishing.
Rather than examine the negatives of the CSA they instead immediately attack the North, Abraham Lincoln (LDS), and mainly, the poster. Drinking comments, Irish were pussies, anti Catholic smears, anyone who doesn't love the CSA hates the South, anyone who disagrees is a Yankee, a liberal, a South hater, all are used.
Well, I haven't made any anti-Irish or anti-Catholic comments, though I would say that as a member of an ethnicity and a church that has often been smeared you should have a little more empathy for others who are victims of similar smears. You have a right to be proud of your ethnicity and faith, but at the same time if you're going to wear them on your user name then you shouldn't be in the business of telling others that they have nothing to be proud of in their own ancestry. You say something like that, especially when billing yourself by your own ancestry, you're likely to get some harsh and personal responses.
Yes I am old enough to remember the 1980’s. I am old enough to remember before the 1980’s. You think that the resistance to the Rebel flag began with one whack job in Congress?
It absolutely can be traced to that event. Prior to that no one but a complete loon got bent out of shape over Rebel Flags. I'll give you another example of how no one got their little knickers all in a twist over this subject. Back in 1975, a long lost letter was found in the National Archives from General Robert E. Lee. Prior to his death, he had written this letter requesting that his citizenship be restored, but it got lost. Well, in 1975 it was found, and it created a national wave of sympathy for General Lee. A bill to restore his citizenship passed the Senate on a voice vote (no opposition). In the House, they scheduled a roll call vote and only ten members voted no. That's 10 out of 435. Those ten, by the way, were the hardest of the hardcore loony leftists. John Conyers, Bella Abzug, Ron Dellums, etc.
If that letter had remained lost, and were found today, can you imagine what would happen? The Dems would howl with cries of "racism" and "hate" at the suggestion that Lee's citizenship be restored. Probably 70% of the GOP would agree, and a decent sized chunk of folks like you here at FR would say the same thing. Such is the power of Political Correctness and its ratcheting of our nation ever further to the left, year after year.
How can I reach across the psychological divide to someone so invested in one world view as to resist all self examination?
LOL! Thanks for the advice IRISH CATHOLIC.
You want to honor your ancestors. OK. But why are you so fixated on one five year period where people sought to break the United States in half to preserve the slavery of other human beings who were the ancestors of people today?
We aren't. If you'd just leave us alone we'd celebrate when appropriate and nothing more would come of it. The controversy and the fixation comes when people put on the fake halo and the holier-than-thou cloak and start howling "racist, racist, slaveowner, slaveowner". How would you like it if every St. Patrick's Day people threw a tantrum and tried to shut you down? In fact, some did. Remember all the demands that "gay pride" marchers be included? As I recall, all us "southrons" sided with you guys on that.
Why is that segment any more honorable than three generations before or three generations after? Why the fixation?
For heavens' sake, no one said they were. It's just an important part of our history and we wish to honor it. We also honor the founding fathers and the 4th of July. In fact, when (not if, but when) PC advances to the point that war is declared on the founders (after all, they were a bunch of slaveowning white property owners who denied blacks and women the vote), we'll be the last ones fighting to defend them. I fully expect people like yourself to flip to other side and start screaming about how "racist" George Washington was and how we really need to set a new tone of "tolerance" in America by discarding him as a symbol.
As for the politics of the Rebel flag, it is a political straw man for people to fight over. It has been since they have been putting it on flags to begin with. To equate it with abortion and gay rights is...odd.
Not odd at all. The same leftist intimidation tactics used to shut down debate on those issues are used on this one. "You're a sexist, you're a homophobe, you're a racist". The same media bias is at play, with the media in full cooperation mode with the Democrats, putting pressure on the Republicans to dump the pro-lifers, dump the defenders of tradtional marriage, and dump the Rebel Flag southerners. The same wimpishness can be seen among so-called mainstream Republicans. The same boastful smirk can be seen on the Democrats' faces every time the GOP retreats a notch. Identical.