Rick J. Kaufman, APR
Executive Director of Community Relations
Educational Services Center
1350 W. 106th Street
Bloomington, Minnesota 55431
Telephone: 952/681-6403
Fax: 952/681-6406
Mincing?
APR?
Posted on 06/05/2008 12:09:34 PM PDT by XR7
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) ― Flying the Confederate flag has long been controversial in Southern states but now it's causing a heated debate at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minn. Three seniors who displayed the flag will not be allowed to attend their graduation ceremony Wednesday evening.
"It was sitting like that in the parking lot," said Justin Thompson, as he held a Confederate flag that was hanging from a pole inside a pick-up truck bed.
On Tuesday, three seniors, each with a rebel flag on the back of their pick-ups, parked at Kennedy High School.
"I'm just a country type of person, country music, big trucks and everything, that's basically all it means to me," said Thompson.
"And then I found out later that day that it had been taken off when I got called down to the office," said Dan Fredin, who displayed the flag.
They were suspended and the suspension means they're barred from all school activities including their own graduation ceremony...
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.tv ...
It was an enemy of the half of the United States of which it itself was not composed.
Because conservatives see the Confederacy as the last attempt of the states to resist the all-powerful federal juggernaut. We aren't allowed to consider the war as about anything but slavery, but in fact it was about who got to decide the question (and, as it worked out, all subsequent questions.)
Do I really need to put on my own flameproof shorts now...?
I absoutlely agree that it’s protected free speech. I also agree that it can be banned on private property. I raised the point in my earlier post that public schools occupy a strange grey area; they’re public in a sense, but they’re also owned by the school district, arguably giving the school district the authority to ban it. I know this area, having grown up one town away, and I’m willing to bet these kids were trying to start trouble. This makes me less sympathetic, but I’m still not sure if the school really had the right to do this. It’s a tricky issue.
“...just a good ol’ boys, never meanin’ no harm...”
It may have been a harsh punishment, especially since they’ve now embarrased themselves by making asses of themselves on TV. I defintely agree with the second part of your post.
It was about more - you’re right about that. However, slavery was a big factor, as Federal government pressure to end slavery was one of the things that the Confederate states were resisting.
Where the S***t did the 1st Amendment go?
Not when Children are forced by truency laws (and their parents forced to pay) for “public facilities” including public schools, and the so called education which goes with them: the students 1st Amendment rights take precedent to some bureaucrats notion of what is correct or not. Bottom line unless these students were threating the life or propert of another student or adminstrator (teacher) then they had the perfect right to have the Confederate Battle flag on any school property (as long as the flag wasn’t endorsed by a teacher or school activity)!
It’s not such a black and white issue. As for the truancy laws, parents have a right to put their kids in private school or homeschool them, so they can avoid the public schools if they want. Also, while the schools are funded by taxpayer money, the taxpayers also get to vote for their school board members. If they don’t like the policies coming out the schools, they have the power to instill new leadership.
He mentioned the flag being a symbol of hatred and bigotry, implying hate speech. "Hate Speech" should be referenced as the notorious spark in the disintegration of free speech.
Rick J. Kaufman, APR
Executive Director of Community Relations
Educational Services Center
1350 W. 106th Street
Bloomington, Minnesota 55431
Telephone: 952/681-6403
Fax: 952/681-6406
Mincing?
APR?
I'd say all three need to join the service, get deployed and return as young men who fought for their country in uniform. They'll no doubt have the added benefit of not running into anybody like the effeminate Mr. Kaufman while they are on active duty.
While the Republican party had a growing Abolitionist element, the party platform itself, which Lincoln supported, was only to prevent the expansion of slavery into the territories, not to abolish it. People in the South naturally considered this restriction a step on the road to Abolition. After all, the British Empire didn't abolish slavery all at once either.
It was going to come down eventually to either two nations, one slave and one free, or no slavery at all. The war just forced the decision. Sometimes, that's just what it takes. Reminds me of the Protest Warriors' banner "War Has Never Solved Anything (except for ending slavery, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism!)
But, as some have observed, every solution breeds new problems; so it was with this one. The federal government emerged from the conflict with new power which it gradually began using over the next several generations to give us the world we live in today, a world where a gaggle of liberals in DC can tell us how much water our toilets can flush because somebody at the dinner table brought a fork across the state line.
People who wave the Confederate flag are reminding us of the last time the states stood up against the federal government. The one thing they certainly are not doing is agitating to bring back chattel slavery; rather, they are protesting against the slavery that now exists.
The best definition of what’s going on with the CBF I’ve seen!
As a southerner with more than my own share of regional pride, I may point out that concern about overreaching Federal power is a major constituent of same.
Not that I am a Confederate flag waver. I have never owned one. And what it may or may not signify to people from other regions or cultures is their own business.
This is laughable.
Glad to have put a little mirth in your day.
While it's not advisable to try to speak for any large demographic group, I can tell you that for many southern people, this is exactly the case.
I can also make a good case that southerners understand American history more deeply than notherners. I've lived in Massachusetts, where I met a good deal of ignorant, racist and frankly, historically miseducated people. I've also spent time in Seattle, where the libs blather on about racism, and guess what, there aren't any black people there!
So think before you judge what we mean by displaying our history.
These days, Southern states are the ones that benefit the most from an overreaching Federal power. With the exceptions of Texas and Florida (barely), every state in the South is a net drain on the Federal budget:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html
Not by my vote.
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