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Ernest Hooper, Tampa columnist can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com

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herewegoagain

[goldstategop]

Liberals are intolerant of any one who doesn't agree with them 100% - and not just over a flag.

[2banana]

No, the Confederate flag should not be banned in schools. I would never deny a person's right to freedom of speech. But for those who feel compelled to wear it to school, I ask only one thing: Think about what you're doing.

How do you feel about Malcom X caps? Gangsta Rap artist jackets? Che Guevara shirts?

[G.Mason]

"Some 30 years later I shudder because people are still holding on to this symbol of racism."

Yet another intellectual fraud who spouts the revisionist drivel.

Teach your children well ...... home school them.

[zook]

You really have to have way too much free time to worry about or be offended by the Confederate flag. To those who are offended by it, I say, just quit it.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Flags of any sort are the least of our problems. Symbols mean differnt things to different people. If symbols could hurt you it would be an even more dangerous world.

I own no Confederate flags but I can't for the life of me figure out why this one symbol gets picked out to be such a big deal.

Let's concentrate on real problems such as parenting before we worry about symbols.

CG

[cripplecreek]

Its a piece of cloth ernie get over it.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

When will I believe that this flag is about heritage and not hate? When I see people from Confederate organizations seriously confront racists who use the flag to espouse bigotry.

So I should not wear my cross until racist stop using it to espouse bigotry? Silly fellow.

[azhenfud]

"If you want to show pride in the South, paint a plate of grits on a T-shirt and wear it to school."

Mr Hooper may wear his food well, but mine's not that becoming on me....

[JesseHousman]

... a 141-year-old symbol that should have been buried at Appomattox...

What a ridiculous statement!

[Rebelbase]

"But, for decades, it was used by the Ku Klux Klan as a banner for segregation and persecution"

[Constitution Day]

But, for decades, it was used by the Ku Klux Klan as a banner for segregation and persecution. And white supremacists still embrace it today.

Early KKK poster.

Check the sign out.

Old songbook.

1960's in Birmingham, Alabama

More photos here

[mtbopfuyn]

the sight of a truck rumbling up my street with a Confederate battle flag in the window made me and my friends shudder in fear.

Didn't get past the first couple sentences. Shudder in fear, hogwash! Thirty years ago was the '70s, the 1970's. He's such a baby, in more ways than chronologically. What he should shudder in fear with is black on black drive by shootings. He should shudder in fear about the lack of black men not able to keep their pants zipped and not taking the responsibility to raise their children in a two parent working family. What he should shudder in fear about is that black children are worshiping rappers and drug dealers. A piece of cloth isn't going to harm him, but his lack of responsible journalism will.

[junta]

No doubt Hooper thinks America is a "racist" nation.

[WKB]

MS PING

[archy]

No, the Confederate flag should not be banned in schools. I would never deny a person's right to freedom of speech.

He's lying. He would if he could pull it off.

[wayoverontheright]

Rebel flag continues to divide our nation....

It's not the flag at all which is dividing us, it is the wholesale purchase of victimhood by black America from the Democratic Party's plantation general store.

[Little Ray]

What a wuss; he's a disgrace to his race and culture.

[mtbopfuyn]

OK, I went back to read the rest of his hate-words, but didn't get very far... again. Where's the barf alert? Too bad he didn't tell his son that the flag and all it stands for is not the KKK. Too bad he didn't tell his son that the Civil War was fought over states' rights. Too bad he didn't tell his son that there was a good percent of free blacks before civil war and there were slaves of every color including white. Too bad he didn't tell his son that there were black Confederate soldiers who fought for their beliefs. Too bad he didn't tell his son that it was his own African brothers who sold his ancestors into slavery and that slavery is alive and well in Africa today. Too bad he lied to his son. Too bad his son will grow up with the same hatered and cause even more 'diversive' non-'thinking.'

[stboz]

Ah, yes, the St. Pete Pravda....