Posted on 12/01/2008 11:13:21 AM PST by fella
Motel's choice of flag upsetting to some
by Kyle Mooty Madison County Record Editor
The owners of a Huntsville motel insist their decision to replace the United States flag with a Confederate flag following Barack Obama's victory last week in the Presidential election had nothing to do with race.
In a written statement to The Record, the owners of the Faubus Motel did say that the reason for the change in flags was politically driven.
The motel is not associated with its former owner, Alta Faubus, who sold the motel in the 1980's. It has been owned by James and Linda Vandiver since 1996.
Ellen Kreth and Fara Faubus, Alta Faubus' grandchildren and owners of The Madison County Record, stated that they have no association with the Faubus Motel and do not agree with the Vandivers' political views or the flying of the Confederate flag at the motel.
A Fayetteville television station reported the motel's choice of flags following Obama's victory. The station inserted interviews from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of State Colin Powell into the story, talking about the historical significance of Obama being elected.
Some neighbors of the motel have complained to The Record and to the TV station of what the flag symbolizes.
James Vandiver said he had flown the flag before and that he had not heard any negative comments, then said he would only respond to questions in a written statement. The Vandivers issued the following statement to The Record on Tuesday morning:
"On election night, we lowered Old Glory from our flag pole because we are no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave (except for our military)," the letter stated. "The sound principals for which Old Glory stood have been abandoned. We raised the rebel flag of the Old South in protest. Since political correctness forces people into a limited frame of reference, we wish to say this loud and clear, this was not about race. We resent having a Marxist in the White House no matter color he is. If Mr. Obama had tried to enter the White House as an ordinary citizen, he would not qualify for a security clearance because of his past associations. We decided if Obama can refuse to properly salute the flag and his buddy, Bill Ayers, could stand on the American flag in a trash-filled alley, then we could take Old Glory down in honor and respect.
"We are angry with a biased, agenda-driven media. We are angry that for the past eight years President Bush and the Republican Party have been blamed by the Democrats and their cohorts in the media for the incomplete and irresponsible way that the group A.C.O.R.N. let down potential voters in the state of Florida in 2000. A.C.O.R.N. has used our tax dollars to carry out, contrary to the law, a partisan "get out the vote" effort of scandalous proportions. The other arm of this nefarious organization bullies and harasses banks and lending institutions to make the risky loans that have jeopardized our nation's financial security. We are outraged that the Democrats, who portray themselves as the great defenders of the night to vote, did not feel compelled to ensure the rights of our military to be guaranteed their full privileges during the election.
"Old Glory is still displayed on our American owned and operated sign. So far, the response from our clientele has been supportive and positive."
Huntsville Mayor Larry Bates had not heard of the motel's choice in flags until Monday.
"I don't have any comment other than to each his own," Bates said. "I wouldn't tell Jim not to do it. It's strictly up to him. It's on his property. The city won't be flying (a Confederate flag)." The motel, located next to Pizza Hut, has a standing sign in front of its offices that reads "American Owned and Operated."
Jessie Bryant, an African-American from Fayetteville who is ending a 14-year run as a member of the Washington County Quorum Court, grew up through the segregation era. Bryant, born in 1926, was asked about her reaction to the Confederate flag being flown at the Huntsville motel.
"It's just his way of expressing his dislike for what happened. If that's his way of protesting what happened, he has the right," Bryant said. "He has the privilege of changing the flag. It's his way of expressing how he feels. It's obviously a dilemma with him. He feels a little bit of his heritage has been taken away, which is not true at all. In America, he still has the same privileges of anybody else. There is nothing we can say or do about it."
Bryant's son, Arkansas State Trooper Louis Bryant, was killed by Wayne Snell during a traffic stop in 1984 on U.S. Highway 71 between De Queen and Texarkana. That stretch of highway is now known as the Trooper Louis Bryant Highway.
And what are the rules of which you speak? Do you mean the rules of debate, or the rules of good behavior, or the rules of civil discourse? Did you possibly mean the Ten Commandments? Show me the rules you say I need to learn.
And conversely the consequences from any Increased revenue are their own.
Yeah, One person's opinion!
You know what they say about opinions? That they're like arseholxx, everyone's got one!
Wrong Guess !!
The Confederate Battle Flag did not represent the political agenda of the Confederacy, nor did it represent the Confederacy itself.
It was a Battle Flag (Cross of Saint Andrew) designed by the army and used by the military to positively identify a combative force.
You should read up on the Confederate General Stand Watti, who was involved in quite a bit of Indian killing during 'The War'.
I take it you found the proprietors' lucid explanation to be disingenuous and deliberately misleading?
That they don't really object to the friendship with flag-trampler and Weatherman bomber William Ayers?
Or to the Bolshevist program represented by the president-elect and his political myrmidons?
But they can get into a snit over Obama's achieving office, just because he's a Negro of some description?
One is tempted to wonder whether they'd have done the same thing if it were Colin Powell or Clarence Thomas or Condoleeza Rice or J.C. Watts taking the oath of office. Do you really think they'd be breaking out the Battle Flag if J.C. Watts had just been elected President on a "Contract with America" platform?
What happened, specifically?
NASCAR ban Confederate flags?
I’m somewhat familiar with the Cherokees during the war, which is why in a previous post I mentioned that they fought their own civil war within the larger one.
You misunderstand.
I believe in States rights, I just don’t think using a polarizing and divisive symbol like the Confederatate Flag to make the point....ah... makes the point.
The battle flag is a representation of the confederacy used on the battle field. The confederacy, inter alia, most definitely advocated the continuation of slavery.
The flag positively identified a combat (not combative) force that was fighting for the victory of the confederate states.
Your comment would also mean that the Stars and Stripes did not represent the United States, the swastika the Third Reich nor the hammer and sickle the Soviet Union.
It's revisionist history; give it up.
The only people thinking that flag is a symbol of racism are northern liberals, including those living in the south. Nothing screams the issue of State’s rights like that flag, and while it won’t bring over those who oppose the flag, they were never for the issue anyway. States rights is the opposite of Socialism and those screaming about the flag are Socialists in general.
If you can dismiss his comments that easily, that's up to you. I tend to hold in somewhat higher regard the opinions of the actual players in the historical drama than those of us commenting 150 years down the line. It is my historical bias.
It was a Battle Flag (Cross of Saint Andrew) designed by the army and used by the military to positively identify a combative force.
Certainly one of the more creative arguments I've seen on how to divorce the flag from the political quagmire it often is at the center of.
A combative force, eh? And your suggestion is that the presence of a combative force (combative over what?) in no way represents the political agenda of the state that fields said combative force? That you have identified the purpose of the flag on the field of battle itself does not, in any way, mean that the only purpose of that flag is for identification purposes.
Rally 'round the flag boys means a whole lot more than getting together with your own, it is symbolic of rallying around the cause you are going to battle for. JMO.
Wasn’t ‘their own civil war’ an extention of the hard feelings between the ‘Trail of Tears’ people and the ones who came West earlier on their own?
said this a few times but it seems those who do not know their history think the battle flag was the Govt southern confederacy flag
It;s like uneducated northerners come down here and say Oh my look a rebel flag, are we safe around here.
They’re idiots and the liberals, the NAACP, the uneducated need to go north and learn history
ever heard the one of well the KKK flies it but if you tell them that the KKK flies the stars and stripes they have an hard time understanding things then.
EXACTLY
yes it was.
his time liunes are getting all mixed up.
The cherokess as well as the other 5 nations of indians joined the south because they feared their land taken away from them and plus they had freedonm under the south.
The cherokees split after the trail of tears and we all know who forced that.
bump
To a considerable extent. Most of the “early movers,” as I understand it, were more traditional and less tied into the southern slave-based economy. They therefore had less sympathy for the southern cause and tended to remain loyal to the Union.
They were in the minority, of course.
But I could be wrong on some of this. It’s been a long time since I read about it.
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