Posted on 06/13/2005 4:41:07 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
VERBENA (AP) — A huge Confederate battle flag flying over Interstate 65 north of Montgomery will become a permanent fixture, according to officials with the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The organization bought land on the side of the interstate near Verbena and put up the flag, which has been flying for several months above the tree lines from the top of a large pole, easily visible from the heavily traveled interstate.
Leonard Wilson, commander of the Alabama division of Sons of Confederate Veterans, said the flag will be dedicated in a ceremony at 5 p.m. on June 26.
The flag is located on a little more than half an acre of land just north of where Autauga County 68 crosses over the interstate, about six miles south of the Verbena exit.
"We put the flag up so people could see it," Wilson said. "We are showing off our heritage. The flag is part of our heritage."
Critics of Confederate flag displays say they are reminders of the slavery era and Alabama's racist past, and can damage Alabama's image when flown beside a busy interstate route to Gulf beaches.
Too bad. Maybe you should blame the Yankee bastards that forgot that the States were sovereign.
Most excellent reply. That one is is appropriated for future use!
More specifically, on the ships of New England sea traders, especially from the People's Republic of Massachusetts. Maybe this is the reason for the deep-down self-loathing of their elected reps like Kennedy, Kerry, Frank, Meehan, and most of the rest of 'em with a (D) after their names.
"
I had to put up with years and years of school bussing out of my neighborhood for racial reasons. My local school was a "separate but equal" black school - a piece of junk. My school district bussed me past it to a nice white school every day for 2 years.
So I'm not a big fan of the Confederacy OR its aftermath."
Your discontent is misplaced and would be honset and better spent if you placed the blame on the southern Jim Crow democrats.
honset=honest
The United States banned the international slave trade in 1828. The Confederacy never did get around to it.
That's what happens when you have a civil war. You get people of the same nationality fighting against each other, often because some of them don't want to be part of the same country as the others. But civil wars are generally the bloodiest and bitterest of wars and people rightly want to make sure that they stay in the past.
In Russia today they fly the older Russian flag which was the national banner from the late 19th century to 1917. If more and more people start to fly the Soviet flag, it's a sign that their country is in real trouble and that people have forgotten history, even though strictly speaking the Soviet is a part of their history.
If you start seeing Mexican or La Raza or African nationalist or gay rainbow flags flying instead of United States flags in public places, it would be a real sign that our country is in danger of falling apart. People aren't wrong in seeing something disturbing in giant confederate flags flying in place of the US flag.
For much of the 20th century people didn't have much of a problem with the Confederate flag. It was presumed to be a symbol from the past that simply retained a regional nostalgic appeal. That was pretty atypical of how nations and governments work. French governments or mobs would have gotten nervous or violent at seeing too many royalist flags flying, and Latin American peoples or governments probably wouldn't have put up with many Spanish or United States flags over their soil, but few objected here because Confederate flags were assumed to be uncontroversial symbols from the past.
But those years in the early 20th century were days of Jim Crow. Over time the Confederate flag became a symbol of resistance to desegregation. So you can't just naively fly the flag now, like the Pine Tree flag or the Don't Tread On Me flag. There are questions that Confederate flags raise that those other banners don't. Flying it is very definitely making a statement, though people will disagree about what that statement is.
The fact that Americans fought, died, and killed, under that flag doesn't make it neutral or acceptable to everyone, since people understandably fear that what happened once might happen again. Nor is it a neutral symbol from history, since so many people disagree about just what history that flag represents.
I did some research and found one fact that I did not know. The northern states were hoping for freed slaves to work in their factories. So, it was about money.
Yes, many meanings to different people. Which still doesn't mean that they should take the flag down. just because some people might be offended is no reason to censor it if it is not on public land.
I am extremely offended when I see "Bush is not my President" bumper stickers and the like, but there is nothing I can do. Nor should I. Freedom is a wonderful, and sometime frustrating thing.
I fly the First National sometimes. People around here don't know what that is, either. ;)
IOW, you're flying the real "Stars and Bars" and nobody knows what the hell it is? Irony is delicious, ain't it?
That flag flies in the Alamo too...some smarmy liberal in San Antonio asked me at lunch if NC was the state that had the rebel flag over the state house...I leaned forward at the table...stared at him...and said.."no..that would be South Carolina and you fly a Confederate flag in the Alamo". Leaned back...with a few smirks from other people that took me out to lunch.
Some Northerners, maybe, although I haven't read of anyone owning up to such a desire. The Illinois Constitution of 1848 barred free blacks from entering the state: Article XIV of that document read as follows: "The General Assembly shall, at its first session under the amended constitution, pass such laws as will effectually prohibit free persons of color from immigrating to and settling in this state; and to effectually prevent the owners of slaves from bringing them into this state for the purpose of setting them free."
See also: http://www.mises.org/asc/2003/asc9carden.pdf
Yup. ;)
Then show us a picture of those evil Confederate international slave trading ships.
Isn't the Stars and Stripes to always be flown above any other flag? I can't imagine anyone would fly the Confederate flag above our US flag.
The confederation was founded for the sole purpose of preserving the institution of slavery.
Read it in their own words:
http://americancivilwar.com/documents/williamson_address.html
It is deeply disturbing how many freepers are spouting their "pride" in the confederacy. Honoring a country founded to preserve slavery, and followed by an further hundred years of segregation. Truly something to be proud of.
Right or wrong, it's history now. (I think).
However, it would be an interesting poll question.
MULTIPLE CHOICE:
"The war that the federal government of the United States waged that claimed the lives of over 700,000 American Citizens can most accurately be described as:
(a) The Civil War
(b) The Un-civil War
(c) The War of Northern Aggression
(d) The War of the Federal Government Against the States which claimed the lives of over 700,000 American Citizens.
(e) Other
(f) All of the above.
The purpose of the war was to:
(a) Free the slaves.
(b) Force a post facto, non-ratified penalty into the Constitution for seceding from the Union of States.
(c) Establish that the federal government is the supreme law of the land.
(d) Prove the axiom, 'Might makes right.'
(e) Outlaw second-hand smoke.
(f) Other
(g) All of the above.
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