Posted on 10/19/2004 5:14:54 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
As I drove down 5th street yesterday, I spied a bumper sticker that addresses an issue I have been waiting for an excuse to write about. It was in the back window of a pickup truck, whose ability to operate I found simply amazing, strategically situated between an empty gun rack and another sticker depicting Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) urinating on "Osama" with a devilish grin on his face.
I will leave the "Osama" reference and defamation of an innocent newspaper comic strip character alone for the purposes of this article, and will concentrate on the content of the other bumper sticker. It was a simple, Confederate flag, next to which was written the words, "Heritage not Hate". Now, if I have ever read something more deserving of one of my diatribes, I cannot recall.
This statement, which for the record I believe to be sheer nonsense, speaks of an issue with which I had very limited experience before relocating to North Carolina, but an issue of importance nonetheless.
All my life, the Confederate flag was something of a joke to me. M history classes in high school and earlier had taught me that the Confederate defeat during the Civil War was a good thing, that the moral argument against slavery (espoused by the Lincoln government in Washington) was a black and white issue, about right and wrong, and that the Union triumph is 1865 was righteous.
Granted, the history I was taught spoke from a biased perspective, from the moral high ground of the abolitionists and northern intellectuals, and never really addressed the true, underlying reasons for the Civil War, which I would come to learn much later. After considering all the information I have been able to locate on the subject, after long hours of trying to understand just where the Confederacy was coming from and why they wanted to defend their way of life, I have come to a few conclusions.
Naturally, these conclusions reflect my upbringing and Northern perspective, and I am more than confident than my loyal readers will have more than a few comments of their own to contribute.
First of all, "Heritage not Hate", is an extreme cop out. Sure, the Confederate flag, displayed in the year 2004, some 140 years after the actual conflict ended, may stand for some long forgotten Southern pride issue. It may stand for the struggles that people in the Southeastern region of the United States suffered through and the wars that they fought.
It may stand for some perceived difference between the North and South, which apparently has persisted to this day, and may fondly recall the era of Southern dominance of the United States.
Woops, little mistake there. The South has never "dominated" anything. It is another region within the greater whole, just as it was then and remains so today. As for the "Not Hate" part of the bumper sticker, a more laughable statement I cannot recall. There are far too many damning coincidences that will forever relegate the Stars and Bars to the level of racist propaganda.
Why is it that hate groups all over the country, to this day, fly the Confederate flag as a symbol of their ideology. White Supremacist organizations,
, the sad, pitiful remnants of the Klu Klux Klan, along with many other neo-Nazi and racially motivated groups all include the Confederate flag amongst their symbols of worship.
Is this coincidence? Are people who fly the Confederate flag, be it in bumper sticker form or on the end of a flagpole, trying to align themselves with such openly evil and backward-thinking organizations? I don't think so. I think that people fly the flag to recall the once glorious Confederated states of America and celebrate their history, while at the same time somehow overlooking the racial implications inherent in the very symbol they hold so high.
Make no mistake. Whether you choose to recognize it or not, the fact remains the same: The Confederate flag is a racist symbol. It was during the Civil War, it remains so today. I challenge anyone to show me an African-American person with a Confederate Flag bumper sticker or "The South will rise again" written in their computers screensaver.
Is this a coincidence? You would sooner find a swastika flying outside the Israel embassy as you would a Confederate flag flying at an N.A.A.C.P rally. To me, the symbols have long been morally relative to each other. Both stand for hate, oppression, and the wanton murder and destruction of a group of people because of some perceived inferiorities. Plantation owners in the South, before and during the Civil War, treated slaves the same way they treated horses and sheep.
They were not human beings, quite the contrary. They could be bought and sold like farm equipment and with as much compassion. So to during the Nazi era in Germany; Jews were not considered people in the same way that German citizens were, therefore their wholesale murder could be justified. Anyone who cannot see the glaring similarities between the Confederate flag and the Swastika needs to pick up a history book and do some research.
If you care to display a symbol that represents the brutality and viciousness and lack of humanity that was involved in something like the slave trade, as the Confederate flag clearly does, you are entitled. The first Amendment to the Constitution allows you the freedom to display just about whatever you care to, but consider this. If you are going to fly the Stars and Bars, don't sugar coat it. Don't downplay the racial aspects and idealize the cultural aspects. They are one in the same.
Be up front and honest about your feelings. Confederacy= Hate I think would be a far more realistic bumper sticker, and as we speak I am in negotiations to have a number of said bumper stickers produced. Let us just call a spade a spade and forget about the "Heritage not Hate" nonsense. It is hateful, you know it is, and beating around the bush about it only takes away from the power of the argument. Let the responsive mud slinging commence!
btw, i saw a bumpersnicker on a PU over the weekend. it said:
LUV NYC? take I-95 NORTH!
couldn't have said it better myself.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
the last time we were in "dacity" on business & eating in a local wateringhole, one of the "local gentry" said in a LOUD voice, (while GRACE was being said):
"Would yew guys look at them _____holes. they're PRAYIN'! Must be from outatown."
SADLY, i fear he was CORRECT.
ALSO: when a group of us went to Ground Zero in early 2002 to pray, SEVERAL locals made LOUD "jokes" about how STUPID we were to be on our knees there.
one guy said to a young lady in the group: "Honey, since you're on your knees i got something for you, while you're down there". there was LOUD LAUGHTER at his "cute comment".
on the whole, "dacity" makes me GAG. you can keep it and those "oh, so lovely and marvelous knewyawkers" too.
free dixie,sw
M.,as you are NEW to the forum, may i introduce the BEST of the unionist coven on FR; the ONLY one with both a brain & an EDUCATION.
this gentleman is N-S, the Damnyankee Minister of Propaganda & charter member in goodstanding of the "St. Lincoln Worshipers Club".
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
The guy in question needs to be on here.
free dixie,sw
Well since it states he was "holding a carbine", I would assume he was SHOOTING IT.....Geez, how difficult can it be!? to figure it out!
I do notice that Mr. EspinHOLA didn't bother to answer the charges of what his own people did during the NY Draft riots......
But the account that you posted from doesn't mention a single shot except for the one that fatally wounded Booth. Maybe he couldn't pull the trigger without a brandy bottle for support?
Noni:
The bottom line here is that John Wilkes Booth was NO coward. He is an assassin to you and some Northern types, a HERO to Southerners, but a coward, NO.
Just admit it, or show proof otherwise.
He shot one man in the back of the head. That's cowardly in my book. As cowardly as it gets.
He took on a load of brandy, snuck up on a man, and shot him in the back in front of his wife. The fact that a man like that is a hero to someone like you is not surprising.
you will also note that he avoided talking about the FACT that his state (of confusion)=ny is the home of the LARGEST group of KLAN-IDIOTS in the whole country,
that the klan HQ is home-based in OH (a yankee state)
AND that damnyankeeland has MANY more racially segregated schools NOW than the south EVER did.
obviously, they wanted southern schools DEsegregated but NOT theirs.
damnyankee thy name is HYPOCRITE!
free dixie,sw
Re: Booth "a HERO to Southerners"
Please don't include me in that statement.
spreading ANTI-southron PROPAGANDA & attacking dixie is his mission in life.
SADLY, he is good at it. underestimate him at your/the southland's peril.
free dixie NOW,sw
I've been to ground zero numerous times. It's a place of rememberance,introspection and grace. (do you know what these words even mean?). People don't make these absurd comments like you claim......you speak total nonsense here.
I've also had dinners in enough Manhattan restaurants to know people don't make fun of those who say grace or prayers before dining. Again I ask, what galaxy are you visiting from?
Oh and before you talk about my "public school edumakatchun" pick something different......we've already gone down that road before and you don't need to make a bigger fool out of yourself than you already have.
I've vistited enough to know that I really do love the modern American south. It's really different from the northeast. I like the people, the way of life and its' traditions and customs. Every now and then though, I encounter people such as yourself.
That has a tendency to wreck the experience, you know?
To shoot him any other way would have been STUPID!
He MEANT to assasinate him.....
Neither is your stupidity in calling him a coward......
Whatever....
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