home

Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Sat Jun 04, 2005 at 08:20:44 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

by TChris

Sensitivity be damned. This is a blatant appeal to right wing voters, without regard to the ugly message it sends to those who view the Confederate flag as a symbol of the struggle for white supremacy.

Missouri's governor has ordered that the Confederate flag be flown tomorrow at a state cemetery where former rebel soldiers were buried, a move denounced by black leaders.

Confederate flags had flown daily at the Higginsville site and the Fort Davidson State Historic Site in Pilot Knob until they were ordered down in January 2003 by Democratic Governor Bob Holden's administration. [Gov.] Blunt has supported legislation, which failed to come to a vote this year, that would have allowed the state park board to decide whether the Confederate flag should fly over Missouri's historical gravesites. The bill was opposed by many black lawmakers.

< Religious Intolerance in the Military | Scrushy Jury May Deadlock >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag | 19 comments (19 topical)
    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#1)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Nice, why not don the hoods as well?

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Maybe if you haven't grown up in the South you see the Confederate flag as a symbol of evil and oppression, but having been born and raised in the South, most of us don't really see the big deal or maybe we interpret it differently? While i walked my dogs on the beach today , I counted 12 Confederate flags out of the 16 beach front houses where I live! That's probably astounding to some, but it's a way of life for many here and they aren't looked on as bad or inappropriate. Almost every grade school and high school in this county bears a Confederae flag. I guess maybe we just don't give a damn down here! One thing i have noticed is that the more complaining people do about it, the more Confederate flags there will be!!!

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Racists? In Missouri? No Way! I never would have believed it.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Lived in the South since I was four years old(now add three decades to that and you have my approximate age) and not once have I bought this lame arguement of "Well, if you ain't from the South you won't understand it is our way of celebratin' our heritage" from anyone , and have yet to meet anybody that was born and bred in my state that has a Confederate flag displayed anywhere in their homes, on their property, or on any of their vehicles. But hey, who cares if it offends some black folks, right Suka? I mean why should they have a problem with a bunch of Losers celebrating their shared heritage of bigotry and intolerance.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#5)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    I grew up in Idaho so I suppose I have seen relatively few confederate flags. When I do see them up here it is invariably bigoted white trash. The confederacy was fighting, among other principles more worthy, to preserve the evil practice of slavery. That flag (of a defeated and destroyed country) is forever tainted by the racist legacy. The more flags the better; let the bigots label themselves for easy identification.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Blag agrees with piggle: Every racist and Southern neocon should have the Confederate flag tatooed to their upper RIGHT arm, for all to see... Let's see, the Confederate flag is only "a symbol of the South," eh? O.K. then, you're right...it's a symbol of a people so filled with hate they waged a war that killed 600,000 of each other over the right to enslave other human beings. For those redneck sh#tkickers who want to say "It wasn't about slavery, it was about States' rights..." Yeah, it was about States' rights...and the right they were fighting for was the "right to enslave" other human beings...how honorable... Yup, Missouri just climbed a notch in the "mental retardation" factor. Question: Are there any blacks left in these States, and why?

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#7)
    by DonS on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    I've lived in the south now for 40 years. Regardless of what suka says, it is bigoted white trash that displays the stars and bars. Yeah and dirty tee shirts and bandanas too. And assorted rock groups who want to cultivate some vibe. Why would you want to associate youself?

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    'cause the "South shall rise again!"... and when it does, the North'll open up another can of "Whup-assss" on'em... Book it...

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#9)
    by Rational on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Why anyone would fly a rag that symbolizes treasonous, racist losers is beyond me and simply shows the intellectual dishonesty, moral bankruptcy and ethical defecientcy of those that do. The fact that the south names public structures and roads after knuckle dragging idiots like lee, stuart , jackson and forrest just shows what a failure that the educational and moral institutions are in that area. The fact that the us military names bases, weapons and other equipoment just goes to show how they have become nothing but hired thugs and murderers honoring other thugs and murderes.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#10)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    I have lived in the south for quite a while now. The "Stars and Bars" are only flown by people missing many teeth, in rural areas.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#11)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    The more flags the better; let the bigots label themselves for easy identification But hey, who cares if it offends some black folks, right Suka? I mean why should they have a problem with a bunch of Losers celebrating their shared heritage of bigotry and intolerance. So true.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#12)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Great wedge issue. Republicans will keep pulling stunts like this in the coming year to keep the po' white folk in the fold while they continue screwing them harder and harder with less and less lube.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#13)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Suka, I spent the first 18 years of my life in Louisiana and the last two in Georgia. I know what that flag means. I live 20 minutes from David Duke. Now, my parents are transplanted yankees, so I'm not exactly a country boy, but no successful person in St. Tammany (a conservative bastion if there ever was one) would dare put that flag up. I went to school with a kid whose daddy had numerous rebel flags on his pickup, and I still remember all the racist things he said. I don't think it's a coincidence. Driving through the Carolinas, I began to notice a correlation between the dumpiness of the shacks the hillbillies lived in and the size of the rebel flag on their doorstep. You just don't see that in the more affluent areas. Maybe I'm an elitist, but it doesn't seem they have much to celebrate. I guarantee you I know more about my "southern heritage", too. Maybe there are people who fly the kindler, gentler stars and bars, but I've yet to see one.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    Sensitivity? Confederate swastikas remind me of Dick Cheney's "Staff 2001" beanie at AUSCHWITZ. Now THERE'S sensitivity. Masquerading as Auschwitz Staff takes some real malice toward humanity. Dick's rightwing racist (Nazi) buddies laughed until their evil bellies bounced like an innocent human being hanged on a long rope by snickering racists. 'Welcome to Indian Territory -- No Non-whites Allowed'

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:41 PM EST
    I'm a Southerner, too, and I really don't like that battle flag. Unfortunately, you don't just see it on rusty pick-em-up trucks and broken down shacks. I've seen it driving through some middle-class neighborhoods, too. That being said, as bad as the flag is, it provides an opportunity for black parents to explain to their children what that flag really means. It symbolizes a nation that wanted to enslave them as a means to keep its economy intact, regardless of whether the slaveowners were white or black (and there were a few). Black children probably don't here much about the flag now, but it should be required training. They've grown up without having to face the same level of racism and intolerance that I faced, or even my parents before me. They need to understand that there are still people out there with a 19th-Century mentality toward black people.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#16)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:42 PM EST
    A caveat, I am certainly not a civil war buff or any kind of flag authority; I’m curious exactly what flag they are going to fly. There were three national flags of the confederate states that I know of, the first being the widely recognized 'stars and bars' with a theme very much like the current Texas state flag. The second, sometimes called ‘the stainless banner’, with the red and blue crossed stars popular with white trash; and the third not much different than the second. The flag I see most often referred to as the confederate flag is the one similar to the various battle flags used by southern armies, for example the army of Tennessee’s last battle flag; the prototypical starred blue cross on a red field. What most in my generation would recognize as the one painted on the top of the Dukes’ of Hazard General Lee.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:42 PM EST
    The "stainless banner" belongs on the same trash heap with the Hammer and Sickle and the German Swastika. They all represent the same thing, tyranny.

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:42 PM EST
    I counted 12 Confederate flags out of the 16 beach front houses where I live! Beach front houses, eh? How appealing. I usually associate the Confederate flag with crappy-looking trailers. (I was born and raised in the South, too, and I'm embarrassed for people who fly that flag).

    Re: Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:49 PM EST
    OK, folks, this discussion has exceeded my rhetoric tolerance limit. For the record, I was born and raised in CT. First, the Stars and Bars is not the Confederate Battle Flag (the symbol used by hate groups, starting with the KKK). It was the national flag of the Confederacy. Look at the recently adopted Georgia State Flag for a reasonable approximation. Now, if the Missouri governor wants to honor his state veterans, who, however we judge them in 2005, fought and died for what they believed to be their duty to their state (remember, very few of them were actual slaveholders), he can fly their national flag and honor them, without associating his state with the racists and hatemongers who use the battle flag.

    Missouri Gov't Flies Confederate Flag | 19 comments (19 topical)