Removal of Confederate flags from cemetery sparks controversy [Alabama]

A prominent attorney admits to taking flags from the graves of soldiers, a move that's sparked both positive reaction and calls for him to be arrested and disbarred. He's also received death threats and hate mail.

A bag of small Confederate flags sits at Union Springs City Hall. They were removed from graves at an old Confederate cemetery downtown, behind the Red Door Theater, near the intersection of Highway 82 and North Prairie Street.

Myron Penn pulled up the flags with his family on Mother's Day. Penn, a founding partner at Penn & Seaborn Attorneys at Law in Union Springs, who served as state senator for two terms and as chairman of the Bullock County Commission, says he did it for his 4-year-old son.

“The reason why we picked them up is because the image of the flags in our community, a lot of people feel that they're a symbol of divisiveness and oppression of many people in our community,” Penn said. “Especially with the history that that flag and the connotation and negativism that it brings. I would think that no one in our community would have a problem with this or with my actions at all.”

‘I don't agree with this mans actions. It's trespassing, theft and desecration of a grave. That said, what flag matters to you? The Stars And Stripes or The Stars And Bars? ‘
Actually both. I don't know where you are from and if you have no roots in the South and connection to the War Between the States it may seem outre and pointless. I count something over 20 relatives who were in the CSA in that war including both great grandfathers. In no, repeat no other conflict from the War of Independence including both world wars are there anything like that number of combatants. This was a unique historical event, far more impactful for the South than the north. For that reason the Cross of St Andrew is an iconic symbol of courage undaunted and sacrifice so great as make heroism a commonplace. For this person to do this is for those with Southern roots an offense as great as defacing Hebrew gravestones with the swastika. Maybe that image can impart to you just how vile an act this is.

Why would you even feel the need to ask that! I thought my comment that the Confederated States began and ended with my GGF's generation should have been enough.

I ripped this answer off from an Ask Amazon question:

Historically there has been a strong Southern military tradition, part of the Southern tradition of patriotism.

Many of the states in the southern United States have a large number of Army bases and counties where military bases are located often have a recruitment rate higher disproportionate to their total population.

By extension, many military folks retire near their last base and many children of military members follow in parental footsteps and enlist.

: Southern culture still contains a strong element of honor, wherein exists a high degree of sensitivity to insults and a tendency to respond with violence and aggression. When translated onto a national stage, this means more Southerners join the military to defend the honor of America.

In addition, Southern culture also includes a strong element of religiosity, a feature also of military life, making military life feel like a good and moral choice.

Many areas of the South are rural, with the lack of job diversity and opportunity typical of rural areas. Young people looking for jobs frequently consider the military with its enlistment bonuses, travel possibilities, and educational opportunities.

Poverty is not cited as a reason in any of these studies.

I am most proud of my six years of service to my country. I even have "The Stars and Stripes Forever" on my personal playlist. God Bless the piccolo player!

‘nor was it The Stars And Bars that was raised on Mt. Surabachi in February of 1945 ‘

Actually Johnny Rebs carried the St Andrews flag into every theater US ground forces fought in WW2. Southerns in the USMC were particularly prone to marking captured terrain features with the Confederate Battle Flag. The Japanese could not avoid noticing that red banner those determined fellows in camouflage uniforms kept putting up on the high ground and replacing it every time it was knocked down by Nipponese fire. The same habit was carried into the Korean War and even Viet Nam. Someone , not from Dixie, complained to Lewis Puller (the grandson of a Confederate officer killed in the war) about this habit. Puller kept his temper and calmly noted that a man who wanted to mark his captures with his particular flag was not likely thinking about retreating in the face of the enemy.

73 “With malice toward none, with charity for all, ...let us strive on to finish the work we are in, ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1865
That is the spirit of unity.”

Unfortunately, the “malice” surged exponentially after the War of Northen Aggression and “charity” was left in the dust of invading carpetbaggers. That’s why Southerners cherish their heritage and will always do so.

The black lawyer in Union Springs, AL, was clearly emboldened by the BHO administration. He shouldn't have done it. It was against the law and actions of this kind only encourage more disrespect of the law and accelerates the decline of the republic. Yeah, I know, if you don't like the law, change it.

This lawyer reminds me of Oprah Winfrey in the UK on 11/15/2013 where she said, "there are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die." It cuts both ways, Oprah.

I am the offspring of a Maine Yankee and an Alabama Rebel. A great-great grandfather served in the CSA Army. One of our family lineages lost all 6 sons in the CSA Army. I was a child during the Centennial of the CW and am entering geezerhood at the end of the Sesquicentennial of the CW. Have seen, read, and learned a lot.

Both sides of my grandparents welcomed their new SIL/DIL with open arms and no reservations when my parents married during the early 1950s.

On 1 of our family road trips during my youth (age 16) to Maine from the deep south, we stopped at Gettysburg. Got to see the Cyclorama there. I remember seeing the photos on the walls of all the carnage and it occurred to me that "they were all dead Americans."

In my college years at the Unv. of Georgia, the "Dixie" Red Coat Marching band jammed for half an hour after every game. The student body ate it up. The band always finished their post-game set with "Tara's Theme" from "GWTW". At that time in my youth, it was fun.

That said, I have grown tired of seeing "the Lost Cause" celebrated. I heard a member of the League of the South deliver a speech on Confederate Memorial Day on the capitol ground of Montgomery a few years back. He said that at the time of the CW, the "South was practicing the purest form of Christianity in the nation." I can't stomach that bile.

The 1860 Census statistics showed that ~35% of southern states households held slaves. As with any statistic, it breaks down further with most of those households owning <20 slaves. Only a very small minority held >100 slaves. My point being, the majority of white households in the south were drug into the CW by the large planters and bankers. Most of the illiterate farmers in the south fought because the "Union was there" in their frontyard.

The CW was an immense tragedy, and with human nature being what it is, unavoidable. With TJ's stirring line in the DoI, "all men are created equal", all of the Founders must have known that a reckoning day was coming. Alexis de Tocqueville sure did in 1840. And ~700,000 white soldiers perished over 4 years during the fight to end slavery - which we know was not the original goal of POTUS #16 AL.

We hear how the German people have worked hard to confront the history of the Nazis and have moved on. Good on them. The Japanese have yet to do so. While I still retain my interest in the CW, I no longer care to identify with the CSA. For those who want to decorate veteran cemeteries, that's fine by me. It will be a good day for the nation when the few southern states that still officially recognize Confederate Memorial Day decide to strike that observance from the books.

While I continue to cherish the "Stars and Stripes", I now identify more closely with ...

There is a huge difference between todays Democrats and the Dixiecrats (Democrats) of yore. Read your history

V.D. how about living through history for a better recollection of the facts!

Of the 20 Southern Democrats that voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965, only one switched parties, Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Sen. Strom Thurmond did move to the Republican Party in 1964 but that was because he was angry at the Democrat leadership for not supporting his apartheid views and not because the Republican Party suddenly embraced his racism.

In every vote in both legislative chambers, a larger percentage of Republicans voted YEA, than Democrats. All of those Southern Democrats stayed Democrats until they retired or were voted out and they made sure to bring up the next generation with their racist Democrat views such as Al Gore Sr. with Al Gore Jr. and Senator Fulbright with President Bill Clinton. (From 1964 to 1967 Clinton was an intern and then a clerk in the office of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright)

So much for your ideology shift between parties! It never happened. Democrat apologists and revisionists lie!

My hero was, and is, Senator Barry Goldwater, who I met and admired.

Until he went soft in his later years, Barry Goldwater was indeed the Conscience of a Conservative. My first vote cast for president was for Goldwater in 1964. And since this thread is about the South, by far the most Conservative part of America, Dixie led the way in that election with five great states of the Deep South repudiating liberalism and voting for a pro-American Patriot:

And to this day, the South remains the land of freedom as shown by its support of Right to Work laws, throwing off the tyranny of Big Labor slavemasters. Nowadays, it's the north (or at least much of it) where liberty is rejected by kowtowing to union fascism.

I was speaking of a time long before the era you mentioned.

I never thought to accuse you of being a Democrat. I was attempting to point out that the Democrat has not changed from Andrew Jackson's time to this day. Democrats surreptitiously repress Blacks and other groups while giving them the old pat on the back and meaningless lip service in public.

The very opinion of the Democrat liberal that a Black individual needs government help because he can't possibly achieve a valid life through his own ability is the ultimate condescension.

The Racial Riots in Democrat controlled cities of the Sixties onward, the Boston busing desegregation violence of the Seventies and Eighties up to the problems in Democrat controlled Baltimore of today tell us all we need to know about the ugly bigoted hearts of Democrats.

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Blacks cant [sic] comprehend white society or the morales [sic]. M. Sanger had that right. [!!!] A people devoid of leadership qualities.