Perdue can't allow flag to stain legacy

Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | 3/8/03 | AJC Editorial Staff

[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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[Paul C. Jesup]

Your problem is that I do read your posts

Now I have caught you in a lie. In post #285 of this thread you admit to skimming my posts.

[=Intervention=]

You lie. The War of Northern Agression is what the South called the Civil War. Get a clue.

[justshutupandtakeit]

False. Every stupid word is read often repeatedly since it is incredible that a poster on the most intelligent website in the world could be posting such an ignorant falsehood as that there is such a thing as a "Southern" race or a "Scottish" race.

Your misunderstanding must lie in the fact that to read something you post is the same as skimming it since there is no depth-like other thin slices of baloney. Thus, one must be satisfied with skimming such ill-conceived, assinine, absurdities for looking for depth would be in vain.

You are out of your league as clearly indicted by the quibbling, nitpicking whining attempts to change the subject from your falsehoods to me. It won't work.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Now you lie about YOUR VERY OWN POSTS! That is pathitic.

[Non-Sequitur]

You can call Jeff Davis's War whatever you want. That doesn't mean I have to agree with you.

[justshutupandtakeit]

You don't read very well do you? Perhaps that is one of your problems. My post does not say what you claim. WHAT A SHOCK.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I read fine, it is you who REFUSES to read.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Illogical, irrelevent, ungrammatical, ignorant carping, petty nitpicking and outright lying seem to be all the virtues of your writing.

Where can I pick up a copy of the Jesup Dictionary of English Language MisUsage?

Obviously you do NOT read fine (nor write finely) since you either could not grasp what was said in the post you highlighted as me saying I didn't read your comments. Either that or you deliberately lie about what I said. Inability to comprehend or Lie which is it?

[Paul C. Jesup]

This is getting ridiculous. You're being like a child who refuses to admit when he is wrong. Just grow-up.

[justshutupandtakeit]

When someone lies about what I said and just makes up words
to fit their ridiculous statements they have to take the heat.

It isn't "getting" ridiculous it became ridiculous when you started trying to float the absurdity of the Southern "race."

Jesup's definition of grow up- acceptance of false and absurd definitions as proposed by Jesup.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Nope, my definition of grow-up is for you to stop acting like an immature brat.

[justshutupandtakeit]

So there are mature "brats?" Your inability to understand simple English becomes more obvious with each post. Your are out of your league.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I said 'immature' brat, and the fact you don't know the difference shows your ignorance.

[Paul C. Jesup]

It is not just what you say, but how you say it. And the fact that you do not understand this merely shows how immature you really are.

[justshutupandtakeit]

I know what you said. Apparently among the many things you are clueless about is the fact that a "brat" is immature thus calling a brat immature is redundant. You know what redundant is don't you?

Clueless to the end.

[justshutupandtakeit]

What gives you the impression I would treat one so involved in nit-wittery as I would a serious person?

Who takes anyone believing in a Southern "race" seriously?

The fact you are wasting time trying to justify idiocy when there are far more important issues amply demonstrates that you are clueless AND out of your league.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I pity you. You are so rapped up in yourself, that you fall to realize that we stopped talking about the South about two dozen posts ago.

You have actually dragged me into a mine/your's-yes/no arguement. The fact that YOU DON'T realize this is a sad fact indeed.

Also, your posts are becoming more and more childish to the point absurdity.

You're no longer talking about the original point to this thread, but you are merely supporting you own stupidity. And by throwing baseless insults at me, you are merely embarrassing yourself and showing everyone here on FR how childish you really are.

You actions and statements to this point are funny in a sad sort of way.

You wish to continue being a troll, I will no longer respond to you. But if you wish to change you stance and post your opinions in a sane manner, with rational examples to back up your opinions. I will only then reply to you.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I pity you. You are so rapped up in yourself, that you fall to realize that we stopped talking about the South about two dozen posts ago.

You have actually dragged me into a mine/your's-yes/no arguement. The fact that YOU DON'T realize this is a sad fact indeed.

Also, your posts are becoming more and more childish to the point absurdity.

You're no longer talking about the original point to this thread, but you are merely supporting you own stupidity. And by throwing baseless insults at me, you are merely embarrassing yourself and showing everyone here on FR how childish you really are.

Your actions and statements to this point are funny in a sad sort of way.

If you wish to continue being a troll, I will no longer respond to you. But if you wish to change you stance and post your opinions in a sane manner, with rational examples to back up your opinions. I will only then reply to you.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Posting one of your screeds twice merely shows twice the stupidity.

Of course, the LIE you started this whole thing with has never been retracted just more shiite shoveled trying to disguise it. But it is still a LIE.

Go back and study the dictionary for a few decades then perhaps you won't be so terribly out of your league.