Just tell them you're a Dean supporter!
Hey, I sure am!
Posted on 11/07/2003 6:20:22 AM PST by stainlessbanner
ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. -- The polarizing effect of the Confederate flag is intense enough to keep it out of most polite conversation in the South this week, even with the spotlight on the divisive symbol because of a remark made by Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean.
A Rocky Mount, N.C., flag distributor, after emphatically demanding that neither he nor his company be identified, said he "sells the hell out of" the Confederate flag. "I think any time the issue comes up, people want to buy 'em," he said. "Sort of a way of saying: `We don't care how you do it up North.' "
The distributor would not say how brisk recent sales were, but said he had not noticed an increased demand since Dean's comment on Saturday about wanting to be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickups," criticisms from rivals at a forum in Boston on Tuesday, and what the former Vermont governor described as words of apology on Wednesday.
Across this North Carolina town at Via Cappuccino coffee shop, owner John Fatheree said neither Dean's flag comments nor the attacks on his words were generating much discussion from an otherwise talkative clientele. "It's too cantankerous," Fatheree said. "There are other ways to get past the [racial] issue than to focus on a symbol. I always ask: `What motivates issues like this?' Obviously, other agendas are involved."
For the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the agenda is preserving the Confederate battle flag as a historic symbol, quickly summed up as "heritage, not hate," when it is thrust into the spotlight.
"Well, when I first heard Dean say that about pickups and Confederate flags, I wondered how many days it would be before he was made to apologize," said Ron Casteel, a Jefferson City, Mo., resident and chief of staff for the national organization of the group, which incorporates the flag into its logo.
"The flag is a convenient political football, a hot button for the left or right that is used for their own political ends," he said. "It is not fair to characterize the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of hatred and slavery. It is a complex subject that deserves more than a sound bite."
In two neighboring communities in eastern North Carolina where Civil War battles were fought and cotton remains a substantial crop, Dean's comments and the reexamination of the Confederate flag have not been as hot a topic as the economy and recent local elections.
"I had coffee this morning with some of the folks Dean was trying to characterize, and nobody brought it up," said George Fain, publisher of The Daily Southerner, an afternoon newspaper in nearby Tarboro. "We've had no letters to the editor about it."
Tarboro's 11,000 population is an even mix of whites and African-Americans. Across the Tar River, the 2,200 residents of Princeville, a town founded by freed slaves, are almost all African-American.
"At the store and around town, there's some talk about the [CNN] debate," interim Town Manager Samuel Knight said. "But I wouldn't say a lot of discussion. I think people knew what [Dean] meant. He wasn't meaning racial overtones. He was saying Democrats should court those voters, get that segment of the white population in their corner. He just used the wrong term."
But in the Richmond suburb of Midlothian, Va., Bob Moates, the owner of Bob's Sport Shop, said he was angered by Dean's description of the flag as a "racist symbol" during his defense of his remarks at the Faneuil Hall forum.
"It's not a racist flag at all. It's a heritage thing. Plenty of blacks fought for the Confederacy," said Moates, a white man who had ancestors who did so, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Just tell them you're a Dean supporter!
Bob, there you go spouting the truth again. Better watch out the PC revisionist police will want to speak with you.
NC bump!!
Just tell them you're a Dean supporter!
Hey, I sure am!
Me too! They go good in the biscuits and gravy!
free dixie,sw
And I have a CBF bumper sticker on my truck, but I wouldn't vote for Dean ... he's a DemocRAT!
Wow, this is the first time any of those nine Democrats actually did anything to create jobs. lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.