Posted on 07/02/2015 12:51:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
TV personality Mike Rowe has expressed his thoughts on social media about the ongoing Confederate flag controversy which became a national issue after the horrific Charleston shooting.
Mike Rowe has more than once used his Facebook platform to respond to fans’ questions about current issues from a non-ideological, non-partisan perspective. In this instance, a fan asked him about his feelings about the confederate flag.
The former Dirty Jobs host on Discovery, Mike Rowe is currently starring in a similar reality show on CNN called Somebody’s Gotta Do It. You may have also recently seen him on TV as a pitchman for Ford trucks.
Despite the blue-collar emphasis of his TV work, Rowe used to sing with the Baltimore Opera as well as appear as an on-air host for QVC.
In a prior Facebook exchange, Mike Rowe rejected a poster’s premise that he is engaging in so-called right-wing propaganda by “harping on” the importance of a work ethic and falsely claiming that many jobless individuals actually don’t want to work.
Rowe has long campaigned for job seekers to enter the skilled trades rather than going into student-loan hock for a four-year university degree that provides no hands-on training for actual good-paying work. He started the mikeroweWorks Foundation that, among other things, awards scholarships to men and women who seek training at trade schools across the country. Rowe is on record as saying that “Many of the best opportunities that exist today require a skill, not a diploma.”
With that in mind, he previously declared on Facebook that it’s fundamentally unnecessary for a viable candidate for elective office, such as GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, to possess a college degree.
Although Donald Trump is the controversy du jour, Mike Rowe responded earlier this week to user Jason about his feelings concerning the Confederate flag by noting that both the Confederate battle flag and the Nazi swastika make him angry to the extent that both symbols make him want to locate a time-travel device and then beat the KKK Grand Wizard and Hitler to death with a golf club.
He continued that his feelings about the Confederate flag are mostly unimportant. As the Blaze observed, however, “his ‘thoughts’ on the matter are far more complicated and nuanced.”
“I think we need to be very careful about congratulating ourselves too enthusiastically for removing a piece of cloth from the public square — even if it’s removal is long overdue. I also think we need to stop calling people racist, just because they see the flag as something other than a symbol of hate. This is what happens when we put a premium on our feelings. We assume everyone who disagrees with us is not merely wrong, but dangerous. I know many good Southerners who abhor racism, but view this flag as an important connection to their ancestors — the vast majority of whom never owned slaves. This doesn’t mean the flag should be allowed to fly on public property — not for a minute. But it’s a mistake in my view, to equate the removal of a symbol, with the removal of the evil it’s come to symbolize. And that’s exactly what a lot of people are doing. We’re conflating cause and effect…”
The TV host underscored that removing an offensive symbol will do little to solve any underlying societal problems. “By all means — lets take the flag down. It’s long past time. But let’s not fool ourselves. Racism and terrorism and all the other hate-filled ‘-isms’ that plague the species will never be eliminated by banning flags, burning books, limiting speech, or outlawing white sheets and pointy little hats.”
Do you agree or disagree with the Mike Rowe Facebook essay about the Confederate flag?
No i do not agree with Rowe.
Agree.
I think the Charleston shootings should have spurred a national referendum on red light cameras.
It has just a much of a connection to the shootings as the Confederate battle flag.
In any case that flag is a thumb in the eye to liberals and therefore is a target for censorship by the tyranny of "right-thinking" people that need to control speech.
Any tyranny must control language in order to hide what everyone clearly sees.
[Union gatekeeper] officials voiced concern...
Big surprise there! Any alternatives which threaten the entrenched & corrupt power structure they've nurtured over the decades, of course, represents an existential threat to the "real" teachers. Thus, such "cavalier" notions are automatically unacceptable.
Excellent instincts by Walker.
Well put.
I agree.
No. Let's hold ourselves accountable for how students ARE treated.
Do you agree or disagree with the Mike Rowe Facebook essay about the Confederate flag?
Hey Mike...it is flying at a CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL and was placed there with the APPROVAL of Rep Pickney (killed in Charleston), he voted FOR this placement of the flag at the MEMORIAL...rather than having it fly at the capital dome. This makes sense for everybody and even Pickney recognized that. Taking the flag down from a CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL is a whole different argument.
The curriculum was left-leaning then.
I shudder to think what it is like today.
We need the Confederate battle flag us use as “the canary in the cage” to sense and warn of poisonous liberal gas.
Through all of these years it has stood, protecting us from liberal gas and now, after all of these years it did not fail to warn us of the presence of said gas.
The attack on the flag is screaming out, warning us that we are in serious danger of losing our rights and liberties. If the Confederate flag is outlawed, then America is outlawed and will cease to exist.
We need the Confederate battle flag us use as “the canary in the cage” to sense and warn of poisonous liberal gas.
Through all of these years it has stood, protecting us from liberal gas and now, after all of these years it did not fail to warn us of the presence of said gas.
The attack on the flag is screaming out, warning us that we are in serious danger of losing our rights and liberties. If the Confederate flag is outlawed, then America is outlawed and will cease to exist.
He joined the school of drama to meet girls, and is currently residing with a woman.
Rowe would have done himself a favor and kept quiet. Maybe left speak is a part of a CNN contract.
Wondering just where you saw anything of him being queer?
Everyone we disagree with is not necessarily a homo.
I always liked his shows. Too bad that CNN will probably reflexively fire him. As we know, they are big on feelings, not so much on thinking.
Look for the left to attack the Gadsden flag as well as it stands for American independence. My feeling is that the Gadsden and Confederate flags should be flown together, representing American independence (currently under attack) and state’s rights, which have almost been eliminated by courts despite the Bill of Rights.
As a side note, Mike Rowe and anyone else who views the Confederate flag with anger has a very jaundiced view of its’ meaning. I grew up in the South. The Confederate flag represented bravery in opposing oppressive government and standing against overwhelming odds. It was also a symbol of suffering, both during and especially after the war. It was a symbol of hope, that the South would indeed rise again, not necessarily to fight but to regain economic prominence. If you assign racism and evil acts to the Confederate flag, you should remember that these same traits can be assigned to the American flag as well. It’s like dealing with guns, the evil act is attributed to an object, not the person in control of it. We can thank our lawyers and society for attempting to remove personal responsibility from bad events, but in the end it is what matters.
The Blight House didn’t worry about offending people when it turned on their “rainbow color” lights on the building in celebrating perversion.
You can only be offended when they approve of it.
The Conferderate Flag, representing Robert E. Lee and the Southern states.......not accepted
This is the vile, unGodly world we are in.
I was born and raised in a northern state and yet find myself in total agreement with you. There was a grace to the old south which still exists in manner and speech.
I tip my hat to all the "southern bells" and "good 'ol boys"... God bless and keep you all.
Regards,
GtG
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