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Perdue can't allow flag to stain legacy
Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | 3/8/03 | AJC Editorial Staff

Posted on 03/07/2003 9:35:10 PM PST by WhiskeyPapa

When her father was elected governor, Leigh Perdue Brett marveled that her 4-year-old twins would someday read about their grandfather in history class. If Sonny Perdue does not show strong leadership on the Georgia flag, Sunni and Mary Kate might read that their granddad had been the most racially divisive governor of Georgia since Lester Maddox.

The state's reputation, its economy and race relations hang in the balance of Perdue's decision on the flag. This square of fabric will determine whether Georgia is seen as a leader of the New South or a captive to the worst of the Old Dixie.

The flag is Perdue's moment in history, and he ought to think about the generations of schoolchildren who will read about how he responded. If he wants to be remembered as a courageous leader, he must make sure that the Confederate battle symbol never flies over the state Capitol again.

He has that opportunity now with the GOP proposal to limit the flag referendum to a simple yes-or-no vote on a state flag resembling the one that flew before 1956. Outlined by Perdue's own floor leader Glenn Richardson on Thursday, that plan is far less inflammatory than Perdue's own perilous proposal.

Yet, there was a Perdue spokeswoman on Friday demonstrating that Perdue doesn't recognize a life preserver when one hits him on the head. "The governor," said Erin O'Brien, "is standing by his plan to put the 1956 flag on the ballot."

Dividing Georgia was the understood intent of the Legislature when it slapped the Rebel battle emblem on the Georgia flag in 1956. The vote represented an angry backlash to federally mandated desegregation. With their decree, lawmakers embraced the Confederate battle emblem as a symbol of support for segregation and white racial superiority.

At the opening of that racially charged session, Gov. Marvin Griffin announced, "All attempts to mix the races, whether they be in the classrooms, on the playgrounds, in public conveyances, in any other area of close contact, imperil the mores of the South."

The argument that the battle insignia was hoisted to commemorate Southern heritage, rather than segregation, is thoroughly discredited when you look at what else came out of the all-white Legislature in 1956. Its members passed laws making it a felony to teach at an integrated school, and state parks and bus stations became segregated for intrastate passengers. Police officers who refused to enforce segregation laws could lose all their retirement benefits.

As Zell Miller said, "They were prepared to eliminate our public schools and even prohibit our college football teams from competing in bowl games -- in order to maintain segregated schools, segregated public transportation, segregated drinking fountains and segregated recreational facilities."

All of those remnants of Georgia's segregationist past are gone, including the flag. Does Perdue want to be in the history books as the governor who brought back the emblem of slavery and segregation?

Perdue defeated Roy Barnes in part because he tapped into the resentment of rural whites who felt left behind by Georgia's march into the 21st century. He promised disaffected Georgians a vote on the state flag, and they intend to hold him to that misbegotten vow.

The diehard "flaggers" care more about the flag that flies over their children's school than the quality of education occurring inside. They will never be satisfied unless the Confederate battle emblem reigns once more.

An example is the Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter in Mableton, which embarrassed itself and its cause with its infantile and insulting treatment of state Rep. Alisha Thomas (D-Austell). When Thomas, an African-American freshman legislator, attended the Feb. 24 meeting, the members pledged allegiance to the 1956 Georgia flag, saluted Confederate battle flags and hooted and hollered to a member's rendition of "Dixie."

Thomas endured the Old South hootenanny and then stood up to explain that ". . . the symbol that you love is a symbol that for African-Americans is hateful and represents a dark past for our people." She left only after the chapter commander launched into an attack of the NAACP, for which Thomas had worked as a college student.

Clearly, these are not folks open to dialogue or compromise, and Perdue should give up any illusions of placating them. Instead, he should concentrate on the majority of Georgians, reasonable voters who don't want to revive the Confederacy but only want a say-so in the flag that flies over Georgia.

As the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Perdue has already earned a mention in the history books. Surely he doesn't want those texts to associate him with a divisive and racially charged flag flap that set the state back decades.



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TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: georgiaflag
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The confederate battle emblem is toast.
1 posted on 03/07/2003 9:35:10 PM PST by WhiskeyPapa
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To: WhiskeyPapa
Perhaps Purdue should hold to his promise, and hold the election, and come out against reviving the Stars and Bars. Just a thought. That is what I might be inclined to do. Try to put a stake in the heart of the demon.
2 posted on 03/07/2003 9:37:50 PM PST by Torie
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To: WhiskeyPapa
Sonny is toast if he doesn't live up to his promise.
We have about had it with lying carpetbaggers.

More swill for the liberals from the rag of a paper we have here.
3 posted on 03/07/2003 9:37:55 PM PST by tet68 (Jeremiah 51:24 ..."..Before your eyes I will repay Babylon for all the wrong they have done in Zion")
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: WhiskeyPapa
The confederate battle emblem is toast.

No Walt. It is here to stay whether you and others who share in your agenda of PC-censorship like it or not. EVERY politician who has gotten himself involved in an effort to censor the confederate flag has lost on the issue.

David Beasley messed with it in South Carolina. They booted him out of office.

His successor Jim Hodges messed with it in South Carolina. They booted him out of office.

Roy Barnes messed with it in Georgia. They booted him out of office.

The leftists in Mississippi tried to remove it by referendum. Their effort went down in flames at the ballot box.

The simple fact that each and every one of these cases demonstrates, Walt, is that people don't like it when leftist PC nazis such as yourself come down to their states and communities and tell them that they cannot fly their flag because it may "offend" somebody, or because it isn't "politically correct" to do so. That is why you lose on the flag issue over and over and over again at the ballot box. Now it appears that Gov. Purdue, who I have no doubt you campaigned against, is simply making due on his promise to let the people vote again at the ballot box. That obviously has you up in arms because you know the political reality of the flag issue - when the people vote on it, they tend to vote for the flag. Every single case in recent times has shown this to be so. It is the political reality, Walt - Don't mess with Dixie.

5 posted on 03/07/2003 10:22:52 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
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To: WhiskeyPapa
"Flaggers"??? Haha...more like flaggots. Do these people have nothing better to do that worry about a piece of cloth? Do they not realize that they have about $300 a MONTH taken from them in the form of Social Security and that most of the ones under 45-50 will never see that money again? I guess not...they're more worried about what kind of flag has what kind of emblem and where it flies. Give it up!

Fly whatever flags you want to on your personal property, but for goodness sakes, there are more important battles to be fought here in Georgia.

6 posted on 03/07/2003 10:23:25 PM PST by xrp
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To: GOPcapitalist
cheers the demise of the confederate flag.

A couple of notes of interest:

You do know that the South lost the War of Northern Aggression, right?

You do know that the Georgia legislature adopted the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag as a snub to the federal government's mandates to integrate things in the South and treat blacks as equal human beings, right?

How do you think blacks feel about that? While I agree they should have more important things to worry about (like the anti-achievement mentality of the youth and the HIGH percentage of fatherless families) the same can be said for the pro-Confederate battle emblem crowd.

Don't you think there are more important things to worry about such as the 6% state income tax, a state budget that has more than doubled in a decade, the horrible traffic problems in Atlanta and the lack of a decent public transportation system because MARTA stinks?!?!

7 posted on 03/07/2003 10:28:14 PM PST by xrp
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To: Torie
That's the way to do it... either way, the Stars/Bars is toast.
8 posted on 03/07/2003 10:46:15 PM PST by ambrose
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To: GOPcapitalist; WhiskeyPapa
At least you should flag the man when you attack him. I respect WP because he is expert in his field, as are you, and your pugilistic exercises fascinate us bystanders, even though of course you represent the dark prince, and Walt, Sir Lancelot. That being said, although not relevant to the matter of the obvious need to send the Confederacy, and the primary focus of its misguided and discredited energy, to the ash heap of history, and to deglamorize its evil goals, perhaps Walt would like to elaborate on where he fits into the ideological spectrum on larger matters just for fun. I would find comfort in finding someone who is to the Left of myself who is a regular on this forum.
9 posted on 03/07/2003 10:57:11 PM PST by Torie
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To: xrp
You do know that the South lost the War of Northern Aggression, right?

Right, but what relevance that bears to a politically correct left wing attempt to censor confederate historical items, I do not know.

You do know that the Georgia legislature adopted the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag as a snub to the federal government's mandates to integrate things in the South and treat blacks as equal human beings, right?

Wrong, and in fact that assertion has actually been the issue of much scholarship. While what you said is arguably true of the South Carolina statehouse flag that Fritz Hollings put up there, no evidence exists that the same occurred with the Georgia flag change. I believe it was even the ACJ that researched the issue and went back into the old records of the legislature when they changed the flag. They found virtually nothing related to resisting desegregation etc. Instead, it was put forth to commemorate the centenial of the war itself.

How do you think blacks feel about that?

Any sane ones should have no more problems with it than the United States flag. That was apparently the case in many regions of Mississippi as several majority-black counties voted in favor of keeping the confederate image in their flag last year. As for those few in the Jesse Jackson crowd of race hustlers out there who believe they have a "right" to offend the rest of us with racially motivated propaganda in order that they themselves may escape a profession of the very same over a piece of cloth, I could care less how they feel.

While I agree they should have more important things to worry about (like the anti-achievement mentality of the youth and the HIGH percentage of fatherless families) the same can be said for the pro-Confederate battle emblem crowd.

In some ways I suppose it could if indeed the flag were the only issue. It is not though. It is simply the latest target in an ongoing left wing assault on American culture, history, and anything that does not fit into their goal of remodelling this country as politically correct socialist diversitopia of big government.

10 posted on 03/07/2003 10:58:21 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
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To: ambrose
Instead, he should concentrate on the majority of Georgians, reasonable voters who don't want to revive the Confederacy but only want a say-so in the flag that flies over Georgia.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the real fear (which is being conceited already by the left), that if and when there is a referendum, the majority is going to go with the stars and bars?

11 posted on 03/07/2003 10:59:26 PM PST by Sonny M (If you want to get rid of more wellstones, just loosen the bolts, not that I did that or anything.)
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To: Torie
At least you should flag the man when you attack him.

He knows his own words and I've made it perfectly clear to him many times before that they have been noticed. His usual response is to assert yet again that he stands by everything he has said. Accordingly my interest is only in making other unsuspecting bystanders aware of what lurks behind his posts in threads such as these. FR, as you probably know, is a generally conservative forum and tends to quickly weed out posters from the left when they state things not unlike what Walt has spoken here. Therefore it is often assumed by many, if not most, that the people they are responding to generally come from the same side of the political spectrum as they do, though the degree differs. That cannot be said of Walt, who is an avowed and active liberal Democrat with ideological persuasions on the left including those indicated in his quotes. For reasons unknown to myself and the rest of us, he is nevertheless allowed to post here freely. That being said, do not mistake my position as one desiring that he be bumped from the forum as a disrupter. He provides a good laugh to watch.

12 posted on 03/07/2003 11:05:55 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
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To: Sonny M
They did in Mississippi. Whether you are for the flag or against, the man made a campaign promise to hold a referendum and leave it in the hands of the people. What the paper advocates is he break his promise to let the people of the state choose their own flag.

More liberal mindset of "We know what's good for you". The Georgia flag doesn't affect me one way or the other. But liberal newspapers lecturing the people that they are too stupid to make their own decisions because they might be "insensitive" do.

13 posted on 03/07/2003 11:07:01 PM PST by I still care
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To: Sonny M
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the real fear (which is being conceited already by the left), that if and when there is a referendum, the majority is going to go with the stars and bars?

Correct. That is what happened in Mississippi when they had a referendum with two competing designs - a confederate one and a non-confederate one. Unless they are certain that the public will rubber stamp their position, the left wants the public as far away from the issue as is physically possible. Remember, to them big government knows what is best for us - far more than we could ever know ourselves.

14 posted on 03/07/2003 11:09:56 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
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To: Sonny M
The article contradicts itself: if the vast majority of Georgians don't want the Confederate flag, let them vote for or against it and put the issue to rest. The truth is, the Dems want this as an ongoing issue to flog the GOP with, so they do NOT want a up or down vote on it.
My opinion, by the way, is the Confederate flag should not be the state flag. It represents a failed attempt at secession and dividing the Union. The war was lost and shouldn't be refought - do we run a totem pole up as our state symbol. No - why? Because the Injuns lost. So did the secessionists, whether they still feel they were right or not. Fly the Rebel flag all you want on your private property.
15 posted on 03/07/2003 11:19:42 PM PST by over3Owithabrain
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To: WhiskeyPapa
If Sonny Perdue does not show strong leadership on the Georgia flag, Sunni and Mary Kate might read that their granddad had been the most racially divisive governor of Georgia since Lester Maddox.

Translation: if whites don't bow and scrape and kow-tow to every black whim and demand, then an issue becomes racially divisive.

That equality and freedom stuff was just for PR don't ya know. The only true way to get a colorblind society is for all whites everywhere to grant every black demand, give blacks preferential access to schools, jobs, government assistance, and stay silent as they are 10 times more likely to be murdered by blacks than vice versa.

16 posted on 03/07/2003 11:26:00 PM PST by Godel
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To: GOPcapitalist
I've got news for you.

You are in the minority on this forum. Most of us disagree with you. Your intellectual dishonesty, your hatred of President Lincoln (and I suspect of the USA), and your belligerence are becoming more obvious with each passing day.

Your problem with WhiskeyPapa is that he puts you (and the other neo-reb fringers like you) in your place on a regulr basis. Having failed to silence him with reasoned argument, of which you posess very little, you have resorted to personal attacks on his character.

Now you've been reduced to "cutting and pasting" his out of context remarks from other threads and forums, in some lame attempt to justify your own hostility.

I'm reminded of Captain Ahab.

17 posted on 03/08/2003 9:57:04 AM PST by mac_truck (Ut sementem feceris ita metes)
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To: xrp
You do know that the South lost the War of Northern Aggression, right?

No, the south lost the Civil War, the War between the States, the War of the Southern Rebellion, or Jeff Davis' War. There was no War of Northern Agression.

18 posted on 03/08/2003 10:01:02 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: WhiskeyPapa
As a person born and raised in Georgia, I can say with conviction that the only thing that is a bigger waste of time than a discussion of the layout of the Georgia flag, is another South-hating Wlat thread.

Perdue should change the flag to the pre-56 design and then tell everyone to shut up about it.

19 posted on 03/08/2003 10:15:05 AM PST by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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To: Non-Sequitur
No, the south lost the Civil War, the War between the States, the War of the Southern Rebellion, or Jeff Davis' War. There was no War of Northern Agression.

To my knowledge, the Northern armies are the ones that initially invaded the South. If you and I are neighbors and you say I'm ugly but I come across the property line and start beating you up -- who do you think will be viewed as the aggressor?

20 posted on 03/08/2003 1:55:15 PM PST by xrp
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