DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
At 61, I am not a Southerner. In fact, I grew up in Springfield, Illinois, Land of Lincoln. I have never owned one of these flags, nor had I ever bothered to learn it's history.
ReplyDeleteNow, with it's history brought out in the open after a huge controversy began, I have one on order and it's coming in the mail.
It can't get here soon enough!
I'm not a Southerner, but I also have one on order.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, fly it proudly as a badge of ignorance.
ReplyDelete10:15 get back on the Obama bus for another round of Kool-aide you moron.
ReplyDelete10:15 I've got one flying right now.
ReplyDeletecome take it down, i double dog dare you.
ReplyDeleteHere's the deal. Americans as a group, dating to our early colonial days, did not relish being told what to do. That spirit fueled the Revolution.
Slavery is/was/will be immoral but was and continues to be practiced at various locations on the planet.
Most Southerners at the time of the Civil War did not own slaves; same for those in the Confederate army. The question about slavery became attached to the question of whether a state would have the decision left to them about abolition, or would have to comply with a Federal law or edict.
These issues of States' Rights are still alive today in many, many topics where states don't see eye to eye with DC. The Constitution grants a limited number of rights and duties to the Federal government; all, repeat all, others are reserved to and remain with the states.
I don't know of anyone advocating a return to slavery, or to creation of another confederacy. But that American spirit, noted above, that is resistant to too much government, wasteful taxes and the slippage of local control may see the the rebel flag as a symbol of people who stood up for their beliefs (whether or not they understood the greater question at that time).
An interesting question: Absent the Civil War, when and in what fashion would slavery actually have ended in the US? The Emancipation Proclamation only covered slaves in rebel states.
Never had one of the flags, and don't plan to get one; just looking at it from an historical view.
Anon 1:19 is correct in his/her assessment. The Rebel flag was about the states rights of succession and not about slavery. Had there not been the Civil War slavery would have gone away on its own very shortly after that time due to the invention of the machinery that made the owning of slaves unprofitable. Another correct statement was that a very small percentage of southerners actually owned slaves (around 4% from what I've read) and that there were "black" slave owners as well as "white" slaves.
ReplyDeleteAll of this hoopla over the "stars and bars" is really just that, hoopla. Soon enough the dust will settle, after the government gets done doing whatever it is that it doesn't want to bring attention to, and folks will move on with their lives. That is until the next race-hater with a rebel flag does something nefarious and we'll all be right back at it again.
I could be wrong but it's my 2 cents.
I've never had a confederate flag and I probably won't get one either. For those that do have one, or about to get one, I have no problem with that either. I don't put much stock in flags to begin with but others do. I'm fine with that too. I try to treat people in a nice and civil manner and hope they do likewise. If someone treats me nice, I treat them nice. If not, I avoid them.
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy is that 9 people were killed. No flag killed them. I don't think any flag had anything to do with it. But that's all we have been hearing and reading about. Somebody or bodies are trying to make this out to be something it is not. A flag nor a gun killed anyone, it was a person with a gun that killed people. The focus should be on that and kept on that.
If someone kills someone with a vehicle we don't blame the vehicle or the manufacturer. We blame it on the driver as it should be, and in this case as well.
Fly a flag or don't fly a flag. Does not bother me. That is your CHOICE. It will not hurt a single soul either way. What does hurt is someone whining abut they are offended and try to take away another's freedom of choice.
The last time I checked, anyone can do anything as long as it is not hurting someone else or stepping on their rights. I really don't see that happening in this hoopla.