It was in the news just recently. White guy shoots up an African-American church and kills some people, and all flags in the state capitol are flown at half mast…except the confederate flag.
Huh. I though everyone had heard about some white dude shooting up a bunch of black folks in a church, and the resulting decisions in SC and AL to lower their Confederate Battle Flags. But yeah, it’s current events again.
ETA: At least, AL is taking theirs down.
I don’t know why anyone is surprised, if tons of people didn’t want those flags there they wouldn’t be there in the first place.
Thanks all …
I knew the basic facts about the shooting. I never heard about the rest of the brouhaha because I explicitly ignore anything involving a media circus.
What the heck will it take before we decide to all just get along?
Really?.. WTF?!
Wait a minute - you’ve got time to become an expert on the Kardashians but you have completely missed the recent news about confederate flags (as related to the recent shootings in Charleston)??
But us you trust. Helluva choice there.
That’s kinda what’s happening here. Getting rid of symbols of hate is part of the process.
It’s very amusing how just last Friday many local and national politicians were saying “let’s not act in the heat of the moment. That flag is a part of the proud heritage of the south.” But, apparently they were given new marching orders over the weekend and are now calling for the flag to be torn down.
I think it’s a good step for the individual states to remove the thing from their official regalia. But it’s unfortunate that private enterprises like WalMart and Amazon are dropping the merchandise. It’s important that people who want to make a statement be allowed every means to do so, even if that statement is unpopular. By making the symbol difficult to obtain and display it can make supporters feel oppressed, and thus justified in pursuing it. Also, making it difficult to obtain and display makes it harder to identify the ignorant twats in our midst.
Thank god none of the Kardashians were hurt! :rolleyes:
From what I understand, the flag was at a Confederate memorial on the capitol grounds and it is physically impossible to lower to half-staff. It’s either up or it’s down, and apparently, only the state legislature could order it taken down.
So I don’t think it was necessarily a sign of disrespect. I think it was more a mishmash of state laws and memorials and oh, crap, we can’t lower it in times of mourning.
Cite.
T/Y, ivylass.
Yes, but you have to ask WHY the flag was mounted in such a way that it couldn’t be easily raised and lowered – that was a deliberate choice. Generally, when you buy a flagpole, it comes with the raised/lowering mechanism. They went out of their way to get one you couldn’t lower without a major effort.
Then, of course, they compounded this by requiring an act of the legislature in order to take the flag down.
This wasn’t by accident – the South Carolina legislators wanted to send the message that The Confederate Flag Stays UP, regardless what happens.
They didn’t foresee the fiasco that occurred when some racial incident that required other flags to go to half-staff couldn’t be implemented on the confederate flag.
There is a South Carolina law, written when the flag was removed from the Capitol that the flag always fly over the Confederate memorial, where it is now.
Unless they thought of it more as a piece of history rather than a standard to fly. In any case, folding it up and putting it in a display case would be fine enough.
Huh. I assumed the opposite. I figured it was a bunch of folks who are glad about the flag being removed and using the song as some sort of “in your face, The South!” gesture.
Whatever. Its a great song.
THAT would be Southern Man.
It’s not a big deal if there is a market there will be people willing to sell it. No one will be denied there rebel flag.
It is a great song. At least when Levon sang it. I can’t stand Joan Baez. The song isn’t exactly anti-confederacy. In fact it portrays the south as a victim if anything. It was written by a Canadian. I believe his motivation was trying to capture a moment rather than take sides.
Levon Helm was the only American in The Band. He was from Arkansas.
He sang it. Robbie Robertson wrote it.