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.
FOrtunately there was a Yankee blockade to prevent it from being restarted.
Haven't you fella's got other problems to worry about?
"Secession may have been wrong in the abstract, and has been tried and settled by the arbitrament of the sword and bayonet, but I am as firm in my convictions today of the right of secession as I was in 1861. The south is our country, the North is the country of those who live there. We are an agricultural people; they are a manufacturing people. They are the descendent's of the good Puritan Plymouth Rock stock, and we of the South from the proud and aristocratic stock of Cavaliers. We believe in the doctrine of States Rights and they in the doctrine of centralization.
----We only fought for our State rights, they for Union and power.
Sam Watkins, Pvt. CSA 1882
Company Aytch
Or, A Sideshow of the Big Show
by Sam Watkins
Plumb Books
There are those who would disagree.
"Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes." -- George Washington
Awwwwww. Did I hurt you feelings?
"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."
Blah, blah blah baloney.
Its a part of American history and most Confederate soldiers were neither slave-owners, nor fighting to preserve slavery, but fighting to protect their country from illegal invasion by anti-Constitutionalist forces.
There is nothing in the Constitution to prevent a state from seceeding.
Got lots to do and you're right. I am an unreconstructed Southernor and will remain so until my dying day.
Well, you might try looking at OUR point of view. He wasn't OUR President. Jeff Davis was.
Careful Espinola:
I fly the US Flag regularly. On July 4th, I fly BOTH flags at half-staff, to honor the brave men who fell at Gettysburg. BOTH sides. The Confederate Battle flag is an AMERICAN flag.
And there were also many Confederate blockade runners. So, once again, since you accused the South of wanting to start the slavce trade up. Show us a slaver ship, hell show ANY evidence that you have before you make unfounded accusations.
Maybe he missed today's FR Foxhole thread with the Flag
I gladly tip my hat to that "Ragged Ol' Flag", as the late Johnny Cash says.
That picture looks fake to me.
You can fly whatever flag you want to on your own property. But people are going to ask questions. They're going to wonder about what you mean by flying that flag. They may argue with you or be angry or shocked, or roll their eyes or laugh at your gigantic flag. So it cuts both ways. You can't fix what this is going to mean for everyone either. There will be discussion and debate, and no body can say how things will end.
There's a paradox involved here. You could make a good case for flying the Confederate flag over cemeteries, battlefield parks and monuments. It would serve strictly as a tribute to those who fought. But those are often public or semi-public property, and people who oppose the rebel flag have every right to complain and petition for a change. Nobody can stop you from flying the flag on your own property, but there's no compelling or generally accepted reason for flying a giant Confederate flag over I-65.
This giant flag is not a tribute to the fallen in a place where they fell or where they lie. It's making a more general and extreme statement. That statement may be "We're putting up this flag here because we can't put it up elsewhere." I think a lot of people would understand that and even accept it. Unfortunately the statement may also be "This is still the Confederacy" or "They fought for the right cause." A lot of people will object to that and rightly so. While they can't do anything about it directly, keeping the discussion going is a valid way of expressing their disapproval.
One thing Confederate flags symbolize is four years when Americans went to war and killed each other. The losses of that era are something we ought to commemorate, and the SCV may have a good case for flying the flag over cemeteries and battlefields. But I'm not sure it's a good thing to be reminded on every morning commute that the country once fell apart into violence.
Maybe I'm wrong on that. But so one-sided a symbol says a lot more than that. It commemorates one side, rather than the both, and one does have to wonder what the message there is. The message seems to be that Alabama is still Confederate, but what does "Confederate" mean? And what if you or I live in Alabama but aren't particularly Confederate? We can't take the flag down, but we certainly won't be cheering these guys on.
Another thing the CBF symbolizes is opposition to desegregation in the mid-20th century. When some people say that we ought to side with the Confederates in their struggle against federal authority, one has to wonder how far they're willing to go in that struggle. Other people who remember the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s do wonder just what some groups mean by flying that flag.
The flag may also be a symbol of Southern regionalism -- or nationalism. That's not always a benign thing. If we all flew regional or ethnic or racial or religious flags in place of our national flag, it would be a sign that we'd entered a more dangerous epoch of national dissolution. Having seen how long-standing ethnic conflicts have torn apart other societies we'd be fools to encourage them here.
One of the concepts associated with the more radical neo-confederates is "kinism," the idea that you look after your own "kin" first -- and perhaps last as well. At first glance it may look pleasant enough, but it can be a very dangerous ideology in a country with a population as varied as our own. If I drive past a flag that explicitly excludes me every day, it can be a real cause for concern for me at least.
The phrase "over 1-65" is merely journalistc license.
It would be physically impossible to build have a large enough flagpole on property adjacent to the highway with a long enough and light enough flag to literally fly "over I-65".
Even if it were, the death an destruction that would ensue when the wind died down and such a monster flag draped over I-65 would make such a project totally out of the question.
This is a privately owned flag flying over private property. The property just happens to be view property "adjacent to" I-65.
It is, in effect, the functional equivalent of a billboard and billboards seldom have "compelling or generally accepted reasons" for being where they are.
That being said, I have never been a fan of giant flags, even giant Old Glories, being used as the functional equivalents of billboards.......I immediately associate such flags with used car lots and I do not believe that flags should be used as promotional gimmicks.
I do not believe that many Southerners advocate flying a regional flag "in place" of the national flag.
Regionalism and regional pride are firmly established in the history of the United States. So much so that, prior to World War One, it was the norm to fight not only under the national flag but also under the state flag and even ethnic flags.
The current problem is that Southerners are now the only group in America that is being told that they must only have a generic national heritage and should put aside all notions of regional heritage.
Even Mexicans who have been in this country for three days have a big party thrown for their group all across America, come Cinco de Mayo, to celebrate a battle fought by Mexicans angainst Frenchmen on Mexican soil. By contrast, a Southerner, whose ancestors have been here since Colonial times must never show any interest in his regional heritage lest he be deemed Politically Incorrect.
If you want to get pedantic (and apparently you do), to say that the flag is on private property implies that it doesn't fly directly above the roadway. Nevertheless, in common usage, if the flag is big enough, high enough, and close enough to be seen as a large object by drivers, we can say that it flies "over" the highway.
The current problem is that Southerners are now the only group in America that is being told that they must only have a generic national heritage and should put aside all notions of regional heritage.
Nonsense. Nobody is stopping you from commemorating or celebrating Jamestown or Williamsburg, Washington or Jefferson, Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett, Blues or Zydeco, William Faulkner or Truman Capote, Hank Williams or Johnny Cash, NASCAR or Faith Hill. Nor does anybody say you can't feel deeply about Gettysburg or Antietam. But it is bizarre and unsettling for many that some people want to make the four years that Americans fought each other the centerpiece of their regional identity.
The Mexican example is a good one, though you misuse it. No one objects to Cinco de Mayo if it's like St. Patrick's Day or Steuben or Pulaski Day. Plenty of people would join in any celebration of a victory over the French. But if May 5, becomes a holiday of anti-American feeling or a celebration of Mexicanness over Americanness, people will object. That explains what many of us found so disturbing about the recent neoconfederate phenomenon.
For some people this is a left-right thing. "They" have their Mexicans, so "we" can celebrate the Confederacy. And for leftists, the right has its Confederates so the left can have it's multiculturalism. But for most Americans its not a question of right vs. left. It's a question of degree. We don't object to commemorating the Mexican-American or the Southern experience, so long as it doesn't become an anti-American phenomenon.
I know you fly the American flag, but some of these neo-confederates never fly the American flag and look for any excuse to continue on with their own agenda in deliberate attempts to stir up additional problems. Like we need more headaches in this country.
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