Two reasons, I think.
1.) That flag, a 36” square Army of Northern Virginia battle flag reproduction, is flying BEHIND a monument to the Confederate dead of South Carolina. The ANV was where the vast majority of South Carolinian soldiers fought in the WBTS. It is a soldiers’ flag, flying at a soldiers’ monument. Yes, it is on the Statehouse grounds, on one edge. There’s also a lot of other monuments on the Statehouse grounds, including ones to Strom Thurmond and (gag) Jesse Jackson. Do we blow those up too? That flag is not in anyone’s face. Hell, I know the exact spot where that monument is, I drove by it every day for six years. You have to look very hard to see it, especially on windless days.
2.) As somebody who lived through the initial flag flap in SC circa 1999, and who supported taking it off the Statehouse roof and putting it where it is now, I can tell you for a straight-up fact that this will do exactly NOTHING to satisfy the leftist racists in the NAACP and their ilk. Not one thing. Haley will get no credit, the news media will see to that. All that will happen is that the flag will be taken down and then the NAACP, in the manner of extortionists everywhere, will say, “that’s nice, now remove the monument to the Confederate dead or the protests continue.”
I am sick of constantly backing up. I am sick of being Southern (Virginia native, lived in the Southeast my entire life) and being automatically assumed to be a racist redneck. I am sick of the heritage of my ancestors being shat on by people who extend 2015 sensibilities into an 1860 world. I am sick of leftists who see all things Confederate as evil, full stop. And I’m sick of leftists who have taken crass advantage of a horrific tragedy and the sick puppy who caused it, before the victims are even in the ground.
These people do not deserve dialogue. They do not deserve compromise. They deserve nothing but contempt.
}:-)4
I am sick of being Southern (Virginia native, lived in the Southeast my entire life) and being automatically assumed to be a racist redneck. I am sick of the heritage of my ancestors being shat on by people who extend 2015 sensibilities into an 1860 world.While we still may be at odds about this particular matter concerning the flag, for what it's worth, I agree 100% the sentiments you expressed above. Although I was conceived in Texas, when life begins, circumstances were such in the early 1940s that I was born in Yankeeland (like Hank Hill in the "King of the Hill" cartoon) but moved back to Dixie by choice after I became of age. So, I always considered this home in spite of what the official record of birth says. :)
The South has always appealed to me and even as youngster growing up north of the Mason-Dixon line, I had a longing to return to the land where my life began. Virtually everything about Southern culture and values appeals to my sensibilities. And on those rare occasions where I venture up north, I too am sick of the mockery that this region and I take. There truly are those (especially in liberal New England) who have an irrational seething hatred for this region and its people.
And I'll close by posting one image that I frequently use here on Free Republic:
The "Solid South" does indeed exist nowadays. The states of the Confederacy are now ironically those that most oppose slavery, the yoke of Big Labor's union thugs. The South is now the foremost region when it comes to individual freedom and genuine economic liberty. The region once known for its abolitionists are now shackled by the liberal tyranny of forced unionism. There's no need to wait for the South to rise again. The map vividly shows that indeed it already had!
Ping to a few other FReepers on this thread to make my thoughts clear and to show that in spite of what may perceived by my other posts, I'm by no means anti-Southern but absolutely love it here! Thanks to all for interesting and civil dialog in this thread. That's what I've come to expect from FR even when our views vary a bit.