Posted on 09/25/2002 9:05:07 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
Edited on 05/07/2004 6:04:03 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The Confederate battle flag has generated controversy elsewhere in Florida, with officials frequently deciding to remove the flag and courts siding with school administrators who ban it.
Last year in Florida, the Confederate flag that had flown at state Capitol since 1978 was removed at the request of Gov. Jeb Bush. The flag was retired quietly and with no announcement on Feb. 2 -- in stark contrast to the uproar in other southern states over the Confederate battle flag. Some say the flag symbolizes Southern valor but others contend it represents slavery.
(Excerpt) Read more at floridatoday.com ...
Put that flag back up!
i wonder what would happen if Jeb took down the CUBAN flags????
free dixie,sw
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 17, 2001
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TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush wanted to avoid the mess other Southern states ran into over Confederate flags, so he quietly removed a banner from the Capitol and sent it to a state museum.
Now he's hearing complaints from those who insist the flag should have stayed where it was.
"These flags were not intended to be anything other than a historical display from the word go, and as such I think they should have been treated with a lot more respect than they have been," said John W. Adams, the Sons of Confederate Veterans Florida division commander.
The "Stainless Banner," a battle flag featuring the Confederate emblem at the top inside corner of a field of white, had flown at the Capitol since 1978. It was removed along with flags commemorating the French, Spanish and British governments that once ruled the state. The flags have been moved to a temporary location at the Museum of Florida History, where a permanent exhibit featuring about a dozen historical flags is under construction.
Bush defended his decision Friday, saying he hoped to avert the problems encountered by other states flying rebel banners.
"We've handled it the right way, defused something that clearly was going to become a major issue," Bush said.
"The fact is, for the Sons of the Confederacy and other groups that sincerely want us to cherish our heritage, that we can continue to do so. There's nothing that I've done that diminishes that at all."
Adams, whose organization has about 1,800 members in Florida, called Bush's decision an insult to the Southern culture represented by the flag, which he said has not been adopted by any racist or hate groups.
But Joseph Wright, a Tallahassee pastor who initiated a campaign to take down the flag in 1995, called it a divisive symbol of racism for many blacks.
"The flag needed to come down. Put the flag up that represents America, not a segment of the population or a race of people," Wright said.
The rebel flag has flown alongside controversy of late in a number of states, including Florida. The Columbia County chapter of the NAACP is threatening to sue Lake City over a Confederate battle flag in the city's logo.
Georgia replaced its state flag last month to remove the dominant Confederate symbol. In July, South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from atop the Capitol after pressure from a boycott led by the NAACP. In April, Mississippi voters will choose between the current 1894 flag and a design that replaces the Confederate emblem with a circle of 20 stars to signify Mississippi's admission as the 20th state.
A remodeling project at the Florida Capitol this month required the temporary removal of the Confederate flag and the three other flags. Bush used the opportunity to remove them permanently.
Adams, whose group began a letter-writing campaign after the flag's removal Feb. 2, said he asked Bush to meet with him.
"He believed he saved himself a headache and he's created a bigger one, because the fact that he brought the flag down didn't win him a single vote, but the fact that he brought it down . . . could potentially cost him votes," Adams said.
Bush said he was not going to change his mind.
"As it relates to flags flying over our Capitol, I kind of like the American flag, the Florida flag and by law we have the POW flag, and that's fine enough for me," Bush said.
This is what gets me - he not only removed the Stainlessbanner (I know, I'm mad about it, too!), but he took down all the other flags of a historical display.
"The undoubted freedom to advocate unpopular and controversial views in schools and classrooms must be balanced against society's countervailing interest in teaching students the boundaries of socially appropriate behavior."
I notice that the freedom to "advocate unpopular and controversial views" does not have to be "balanced" when those views meet the politically correct speech codes.
Translate: socially appropriate behavior = politically correct behavior.
That'll never happen because Cubans represent a major voting bloc.
It appears that Jeb is just another lackey who would rather be liked than stand up for what is right.
Translation: "I handled in a way which I felt would keep me from losing whatever Black support I have, while at the same time hoping I don't alienate too many White voters."
HA!!!
Well, considering that blacks make up only 11% of Florida voters, he may have well shot himself in the foot with the white voters in capitulating to their desires.
HaHaHa. 'Course there's one bloc of Florida voters that always vote for Buchanon by mistake.
To suggest that pride in an honorable heritage is ever not "socially appropriate behavior," is outrageous. It is this sort of decision that breeds contempt for the Federal Judiciary. It sounds like something the late, and certainly not lamented, Earl Warren might have written.
One of the really sad things, in this contrived controversy, is that the NAACP and other hate groups, in claiming to be representing the Souths' long settled Negro population, is actually betraying their interests. For the culture of the Old South is their culture also. In creating this absurd antagonism, it is denying those they pretend to be seeking to benefit, the benefit of heritage, the benefit of constructive pride in one's history.
This would be like telling the descendants of the Anglo Saxons who fought under the banner of the Black Prince, in France, in the 14th Century, or with Henry V, the following Century at Agincourt, that they should not honor those struggles, because they had been Norman vassals. The fact of slavery does not change the honorable history that the various peoples in the Old South shared. And this Communist-like spreading of hatred on the basis of former class distinctions serves no interest but that of those who want to deconstruct the present for their own devious purposes.
It should be resisted at every turn. We do not need doctrinaire Leftists or political or academic dysrons, reorienting our thinking for a Collectivist future.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
'Course the Left wants everyone to be an underclass.
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