Posted on 06/21/2015 7:04:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The battle flag of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, which is the flag most commonly referred to as the Confederate flag, has long been a symbol that divides the country. While its display has always been contentious, renewed anger arose after Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old male who posed with the flag several times in his manifesto, went into Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and murdered nine innocent people over their race.
The furor over the flag was more pronounced due to the fact that it still flew high over South Carolina’s capital, less than a two-hour drive away from the massacre, even as other flags throughout the country were brought to half-staff. In response, activists have pushed for “National Burn the Confederate Flag Day.”
National Burn the Confederate Flag Day
Within days of the Emanuel AME Church massacre, an event page sprang up on Facebook promoting June 27 as National Burn the Confederate Flag Day. The page implores people to flood social media with photos and videos of these burnings:
“This is our day to demonstrate that it is no longer acceptable to fly this flag anywhere. Organize a Confederate flag burning event in your area on Saturday, June 27th, and flood social media with pictures and videos using the hashtags #FeelTheBurn and #TakeItDown “
The furor over the flag still flying over South Carolina hasn’t gone unnoticed, even by Republicans. One South Carolina state representative, Rep. Doug Brannon, has promised to pre-file a bill that will remove the flag from the state capital. He said:
“I had a friend die Wednesday night for no reason other than he was a black man. Senator Pinckney was an incredible human being.”
Senator Clementa Pinckney was a state legislator killed in the Emanuel AME shooting, and he also happened to be the reverend at the church. As was expected, Rep. Brannon received considerable backlash on his Facebook page.
Even Mitt Romney, the man who no longer has to worry about impressing the more bigoted base of his party, said that the flag should come down. He sent out this Tweet on June 20:
Mitt Romney
✔ @MittRomney
Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it
is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor
#Charleston victims.
10:09 AM - 20 Jun 2015
These are Republicans calling for this symbol of hate to be removed, but activists aren’t waiting this long. In fact, there have already been Confederate flag burnings at places like Independence Mall in Philadelphia. With National Burn the Confederate Flag Day right around the corner, though, it’s highly likely that sporadic reports like the one out of Philadelphia will increase greatly.
The Confederate flag is the flag of racial bigotry. There’s no doubt about it. Need a bit of proof, other than Dylann Roof proudly waving it in pictures before committing his racially-motivated crime? Here, look at this timeline… it’s pretty short.
•May 17, 1954: Supreme Court rules in Brown v Board of Education that schools throughout America must desegregate.
•1956: The Confederate flag is added to Georgia’s state flag under Governor Marvin Griffin, who had said “The rest of the nation is looking to Georgia for the lead in segregation” and that he would protect segregation “come hell or high water.”
The flag is about hate. Period. There may be some who say “It’s our heritage,” but really, what heritage is there to be proud of? The heritage of seceding from the Union in order to keep slaves? And I don’t want to hear the argument that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, because it was. Southern leaders of the time said so in their own words, so there’s irrefutable proof the Civil War was about slavery.
So on June 27, head outside with your camera and light up a Confederate flag. Show the world that Americans aren’t bigoted or hateful. Show them that the majority of us want the Confederate flag wiped away from existence… but we’ll settle for putting it in a museum.
The “Museum of Treason.”
The “We Got Our Butts Kicked Museum.”
The “These Colors Don’t Run, Oh Wait, They Do… That’s What Surrender Means Museum.”
And I’m not sure if any of those museums exist… but they should. If you’re ready to take part in this great new national holiday, visit the event page here. If you need a quick Confederate flag, check out eBay’s page for them… just try not to buy one from a seller who makes any statement close to “South Will Rise Again.”
Maybe, if it's an actual "historic battle flag," and not a replica.
But I doubt anybody's going to break into a museum to do that.
So, no, it's probably not "exactly like" that.
Mexicans didn't believe Texas would secede to join the United States in the 1820s, then American settlers moved in until they made up the majority of Texas' population, and they wanted to be part of a country that spoke English.
Texas will be majority hispanic and spanish-speaking within a few decades, if demographics continue along the current trends.
Didn't say you did. Ann Coulter does, however. It depends on what audience she's speaking to on any given day. If she's at a Lincoln Day dinner in a northern state, she says "our party freed the slaves". If she's speaking to some Tea Party group in the deep south, she embraces the confederate flag and claims the civil war "had nothing to do with slavery".
So, no, its probably not “exactly like” that.
Yet. Its close enough.
Ann Coulter will do whatever she has to do to sell her latest book.
When did Tejas secede from Mexico to join the United States? Texians defeated the Mexican army and became a republic. After ten years Texas joined the United States.
That means Mexico was defeated twice in Texas. Yet they still fly the Mexican flag at parades and every protest. So, I might be willing to support no longer flying the Stars and Bars if they’ll stop flying the Mexican flag in our country.
Here’s how I see it. The Founding Fathers knew they would fail if the southern states didn’t join with the northern states. But to get them to join they had to allow them to keep the institution of slavery. Less than a hundred years later they changed their minds. So the southern states said “Then we’ll change our minds and leave the union we voluntarily joined.”
But a tyrannical government went to war to force people to remain it’s citizens against their will.
And for those who always say “It was about slavery” let me say this. If that war was to be fought today I’d fight under the Confederate flag (Not the stars and bars). But the thought of owning another person sickens me. So, I wouldn’t be fighting to keep slavery. I’d be fighting a tyrannical government.
Valid point. I don't think the Mexican flag should be flown at parades in the United States, either. Or the British flag for that matter.
I might be willing to buy the argument that "we can't let the media define the confederate flag as a symbol of racism" if the freepers making that arguments weren't the same ones that happily accept the "GOP=red state" argument because the media decided back in 2000 that the color red, traditionally associated with communism, should now be used to represent Republicans. They can reclaim the confederate flag when they stop following the media's marching orders to say "red state" constantly.
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