Posted on 01/19/2005 2:26:49 PM PST by Robe
Controversial Confederate flag is missing
City has studied whether to remove Confederate banner
MICHELLE CROUCH
Staff Writer Charlotte Observer
The Confederate battle flag that flies over the graves of Confederate soldiers at city-owned Elmwood Cemetery has been stolen, its owners said.
The theft comes as a city committee weighs whether to recommend removing the flag after several months of discussion and debate. The committee is expected to make a decision Friday.
"We hate that this happened," said Rich Woods, commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans unit that owns the flag. "You have to wonder about the timing."
The flag's disappearance was discovered over the weekend by Mark Palmer, an outspoken advocate of the cemetery in the northwestern part of uptown. Palmer said more than 50 smaller Confederate and U.S. flags at individual graves were also stolen.
"I'm outraged," said Palmer. "This dishonors the men buried here, their memory and their beliefs."
Palmer said Woods initially told him a Sons of Confederate Veterans member had removed the flag because he feared the city would take it down on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Tuesday, Woods said Palmer must have misunderstood him.
"No one took the flag down that I know of," Woods said.
Woods said he probably wouldn't file a police report because it would be a waste of police resources. "Anybody and their brother can go in there," he said. "There's no telling who did it."
He and other cemetery supporters said the city should install surveillance cameras and other security measures at Elmwood. Cemetery supervisor Mike Shroyer said police patrol the area regularly and security has not been a problem in the past.
The city's Community Relations Committee has been studying the flag issue since July, when Charlotte City Council member Warren Turner said he wanted the banner lowered from its high staff at the cemetery. He worries people could get the impression the city endorses the flag.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans and other flag supporters say it honors Southern heritage and should be left alone. Critics say it's a symbol of hate.
The committee held a hearing, solicited opinions in a Web survey and studied how other cities handle the issue. Its draft recommendations call for placing the flag in a glass-enclosed case and allowing it to fly only on designated days, such as Flag Day. A second suggestion: replacing it with another Confederate flag, such as the N.C. State Flag of 1861.
After a vote Friday, the committee will send its recommendations to Charlotte City Manager Pam Syfert, who has the final say unless the council decides to take up the issue.
Meanwhile, the Sons of Confederate Veterans is getting a new flag to fly over the graves, Woods said, even though Syfert may ultimately order its removal.
PING
Lemme guess, the custodian removed the flag, and the city is trying to claim that it was 'stolen'?
The South won. Take a look at Washington.
You got it... what a bunch of spineless ba$tards..
But then again they're all "RATS
What do ya expect
You got it... what a bunch of spineless ba$tards..
But then again they're all "RATS
What do ya expect
Charlotte, now there's a good example. Back in the 80s it had a really nice pre Civil War down town. I swear, the only thing that is left is one church and it's bone yard.
Gosh darn it... I hate it when I get so MAD I start to STUDDER
Yikes.
Tickles something in my memory, but it isn't quite coming out of the fog in the back of my head.
Don't worry about it.
This poor guy (truth49) got a triple post at the same time you got a double post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1324182/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1324183/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1324184/posts
All at 5:35 by my time, same time as the double post in this thread.
Happens sometimes due to system burp at the servers.
?
!
:o
;^D
>>>The Confederate battle flag that flies over the graves of Confederate soldiers....a city committee weighs whether to recommend removing the flag after several months of discussion and debate. The committee is expected to make a decision Friday.
Seems to me that a simple solution is to post the NC flag that existed during the Civil War, since these soldiers fought defending states' rights. The soldiers get their flag and those opposed to the Confederate battle flag won't have anything to complain about.
This behavior really twists my short. And I'm a 'damn yankee' living in NC.
We fly the stars and stripes on our back deck, and none of the locals have torn it down. All this PC baloney is pathetic. The people living in this country in 1860 were Americans. I never understood the basis of the Civil War, some of my ancestors were Southerners, and others were Yankees. I guess that's why I'm just plain ignorant. And, I took all the history classes in school. I disagreed with the premise of the war. BUT, I never protested, nor denigrated either the North or the South.
More Americans need to focus on the bastards trying to fly planes into our buildings and murder Americans while we are trying to bring civilization and democracy to the planet.
Either we will succeed or my children will be speaking Arabic.
dixieping
So when the Mooselims start taking down the US flag in veteran cemetary, everyone is going to roll over that too? This has never been about race, hate or slavery. Anyone too brain dead to realize that will lose their heritage as well...and soon.
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