Why is it everytime some Southerner gets in an argument over flying the Confederate flag they always say “I was doing it to honor my heritage”? I love it if just once one of them said “I’m doing it to show my support for the principle of armed rebellion against the United States”.
Wait just one cotton-pickin’ second there, Missy! I see your leather trim and raise you gold-embroidered cuffs, scarlet piping, and OSTRICH PLUMES! The Nazis may win in the B&D catagories but for outright snazziness not even Goering himself could beat a dress uniform of any 19th Century army, except the US Army’s. It was a pathetic showing from our side and not even Custer could make it work. But those Rebels looked GREAT!
Ah but the original quote was** hlanelee** “I can’t find my copy, but I’m sure in the September 2001 issue of National Geographic, there was an article called “21st Century Slaves” that stated that there were probably more people in America living in slavery today than at any time in the in the 1850’s. I believe that a US State department document supporting this was cited.” And 20,000 is FAR less than the number of slaves living in the late 1800’s.
Plus, it’s illegal now. In Atlanta about ten years ago they caught some white slavers whith a couple of hundred Asian women forced into prostitution. Result: slaves were freed, slavers went to jail. In the CSA Atlanta, slavers were part of the civil establishment – if you were a slave and you escaped, you ran FROM the authorities, not TO them.
I apologize for that totally unfair statement, neglecting, as I did, the sartorial contributions of the many Zouave units.
- The dress is hideous
- The symbol is offensive to a large majority of people who suffered under the implications of the confederate flag
- The girl is an idiot
- The school had no right to forbid her to wear the dress. She wasn’t breaking any laws (an arbitrary decision to forbid her wearing it is assinine and probably illegal).
I defend her right to be a poorly dressed racist idiot. If only people with brains and taste were allowed to walk the streets, I’d probably go out more…but it sure as hell wouldn’t be America.
Sounds a hell of a lot like false imprisonment to me. Getting out of her car isn’t going into the dance. Are they saying just that she couldn’t go into the dance OR that she was both barred from the dance AND being on school grounds? IF their position was that she was barred from the public property that is the school grounds – than it really doesn’t matter who is paying for the dance itself anymore — since the issue extends now to all school property —
Given what the South’s history and heritage entails, pissing on it is a bit too respectful for my tastes.
I think that dress is positively hideous. But it doesn’t look like a Confederate flag. It could be a British “flag” as far as I know. It just looks like a gaudy red sequined thing with a unattractively positioned sash. Would anyone see it and immediately think Confederate flag if she hadn’t told them that’s what inspired her design? I don’t know; I am not from the South. I think “Support Our Troops” car magnet more than “flag.”
I like that: “The Confederacy: a heritage worth pissing on!”
I’m assuming all the “It’s OK with me if she wears the dress to the dance though I despise the CSA and all it stood for” group are completely cool with me bringing out a line of Confederate battle flag urinal splash guards. Our motto: “We’re not just whistling Dixie!”
i guess now we know what to do with that bucket of piss.
If the South was so absolutely, 100%, reprehensible, why didn’t the citizens of the North rise up in righteous anger and free all the slaves? (Including the ones who lived in the North)
Why, once the war began, was it necessary for the Union to institute a draft in order to raise troops to fight that war?
Why were several Union cities, notably New York, terribly damaged by the rioting of people who opposed the draft?
Why were Northern citizens of means allowed to buy their way out of the draft for the sum of $100.00? (IIRC, something over 100,000 citizens availed themselves of this option.)
Finally, if the South is populated by ignorant, racists, white-trash, scum do so many Damn Yankees move down here at their earliest opportunity? If you hate the South, stay the hell home.
For anyone who cares:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5652966#post5652966
Wasn’t the Civil War, nasty as it was, nasty enough to suit you?
What does this question have to do with what I posted? I asked five questions, and you choose to reply with a question that has no relevance to any of those that I asked. I don’t understand.
What answer do you want? The Northern States were hypocrites…? The Northern States didn’t really care about the Slaves, they just didn’t want the South to seceed…? Some of the worst race riots have occured in North…?
You’re absolutely right.
What does that have to do with the fact that the stated purpose of the CSA was to create a nation where the Chattle Slavery of the African-American would be forever protected?
The United States of America had made many, many mistakes; absolutely…but none of them compare to creating a nation whose SOLE reason for existing was to protect, encourage and if they could expand Chattle Slavery.
Why didn’t the citizens of the North rise up and free all the slaves?
Sooner than they did, you mean? Well, up until the Confederacy formed and started shooting, slavery was being slowly strangled by legal, peaceful means. That’s why the Confederacy was formed. Before the war started, there were some violent abolitionist movements, John Brown’s being the most famous.
Why did the North have to institute a draft? Why were there draft riots and why could people purchase exemption from the draft?
Well, there wasn’t a draft at first. Volunteers were plentiful. But the war was awfully wasteful of men, and not everyone was going to freely sign up to get shot at, especially once the dead and wounded start piling up. The Confederacy turned to conscription early on as well, including the very old and very young, even as they illegally (by the rules of war) used slave labor for quasi-military purposes.
Why do Yankees move down here if they hate the South?
I don’t know any Yankees who hate the South. I don’t even know any who hate Southerners as a group. I haven’t seen any proof that the proportion of bigoted, benightedly ignorant scum is higher in the South than anywhere else (local conditions may vary). But the Confederate battle flag is widespread down here, used either thoughtlessly by people who somehow never analyzed it beyond “Southern flag equals Southern pride” or thoughtfully by those who actually think the Confederate insurrection was something of which to be proud.
All human beings have in their pasts things to be proud of and things of which to be ashamed. I’m just surprised those who plaster the Confederate battle flag on themselves aren’t more choosy about which is which.
In a large part because until the Industrial Revolution really got underway in the North, the population balance was such that had the US Civil War been fought in 1820, or again in 1840, when the issue of slave states vs. free states nearly broke the union twice, it is likely that the Confederacy would have won its freedom. One of the ironies of the Constitution (IIRC) is that it was the Northern states who insisted on a house in the legislature that wasn’t tied to population for power.
It wasn’t until about 1850 or so, I believe, that the balance of economic power shifted from the South to the North. Given just how important the industry of the North was to actually winning the US Civil War, I doubt that any armed conflict between the states could have been won by the North before about 1860.
Though it looks like this vein of the thread has been resolved, I thought I’d add a bit of evidence.
The Supremes found that the establishment clause kept a student from reading a prayer at a high school football game, which is in many ways analogous to a high school prom. Thus, there is good evidence that the First Amendment protections of free speech would also apply at the prom.
Since the dress itself is not disruptive except for the symbolism behind it, banning images of the flag are a clear case of content discrimination. She should be allowed to wear the dress.
Umm, in fact- that’s exactly what they did. I know that in the South they have some strange “revisionist” ways of teaching “the War of Northern Agression”, but…:rolleyes:
We had a draft in WWII also- and that certainly was a War against Evil. Some dudes care only for themselves.
And- here in CA we have scads of you Southerners moving here, with your nasty Confederate flags and all. I don’t mind anyone moving anywhere- but leave the racism- and symbols thereof- behind, OK?