[HSVbulldawg]

Originally Posted by elston

I realize that. That is the problem.

They didnt change the constitution to allow inter racial couples to marry until 9 years ago....and that vote was 40 to 60% even though the federal laws made such discrimination illegal.

I voted for changing the constitution to allow inter racial marriages. However, the truth is that it was a largely symbolic change, and interracial couples were allowed to get married prior to that change. Alabama has one of the oldest state constitutions in the nation, so there are many outdated laws that have been amended (or need to be amended.)

[HSVbulldawg]

The civil war was a bloody, horrible war. The sentiment that southerners have for the confederate flag and against northerners is largely due to the horrible manner in which the northern soldiers behaved. I am proud to be an American in part because of the way that American soldiers have behaved towards the countries they have fought and won wars against (witness how good relations are with Germany and Japan less than 100 years after our family and friends (rightly) fought and killed their family and friends.) Union soldiers do not have that same right to be proud. The attitudes you see in the south towards the confederate flag are a reaction to the way the Yankee soldiers fought, and not necessarily any evidence of support for racist beliefs.

While I am not one to say that racism is largely gone from the south, I will not ignorantly assign those beliefs to someone before knowing them personally and learning the motivations behind their behavior. Based upon what I have read in several posts here, it is evident that people who are making such strong anti-confederate flag remarks lack that understanding.

Ignorant statements about why the civil war was fought and what values people are standing for when they fly the confederate flag only serve to divide our country, which is actually not very American, is it?

[Okie7597]

Originally Posted by HSVbulldawg

The civil war was a bloody, horrible war. The sentiment that southerners have for the confederate flag and against northerners is largely due to the horrible manner in which the northern soldiers behaved. I am proud to be an American in part because of the way that American soldiers have behaved towards the countries they have fought and won wars against (witness how good relations are with Germany and Japan less than 100 years after our family and friends (rightly) fought and killed their family and friends.) Union soldiers do not have that same right to be proud. The attitudes you see in the south towards the confederate flag are a reaction to the way the Yankee soldiers fought, and not necessarily any evidence of support for racist beliefs.

While I am not one to say that racism is largely gone from the south, I will not ignorantly assign those beliefs to someone before knowing them personally and learning the motivations behind their behavior. Based upon what I have read in several posts here, it is evident that people who are making such strong anti-confederate flag remarks lack that understanding.

Ignorant statements about why the civil war was fought and what values people are standing for when they fly the confederate flag only serve to divide our country, which is actually not very American, is it?

Incredibly good post -- you definitely get rep points from me!!!!!

[iluvcj]

That flag to me represents lynchings, hangings and slavery. I feel like if you are not a direct decendant of someone who was enslaved you cannot tell them how to feel about any type of racism or flag.

[mimpdaddy]

Originally Posted by iluvcj

That flag to me represents lynchings, hangings and slavery. I feel like if you are not a direct descendant of someone who was enslaved you cannot tell them how to feel about any type of racism or flag.

It doesn't bother me and i'm a direct descendant of slavery. Born and raised in Alabama.My family from Camden Al-Wilcox County.I don't believe everything out of the public school history books.I think slavery ending had much to do with the industrial revolution than anything. Not because people in the north thought slavery was wrong.

[Okie7597]

Originally Posted by mimpdaddy

It doesn't bother me and i'm a direct descendant of slavery. Born and raised in Alabama.My family from Camden Al-Wilcox County.I don't believe everything out of the public school history books.I think slavery ending had much to do with the industrial revolution than anything. Not because people in the north thought slavery was wrong.

You get rep points too!!

[2goldens]

Hey! You know promoting rep point(s) threads are deleted.

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by XXclimberX

Thats like saying WW2 was not fought over jews. .

Uhhh..... It wasn't.


As a Northerner and an American I respect the right of Southerners to fly the Confederate flag and to honor their war dead by placing that flag on graves. It's extremely tacky of this guy to pluck them off the graves and I hope you Southerners are able to continue to celebrate your distinct heritage and culture without getting bothered by people like this.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Um, you're in Canada, I don't think you need to be worrying about what goes on in Alabama.

Exactly right, SNL. It is both amusing and nauseating to watch as a certain bunch from outside the South always seem to be righteously lecturing us on our history and heritage while being blissfully ignorant of their own. They need to clean their own houses before coming into someone elses.

BTW -- for the historically challenged clowns who compare the Confederacy to Nazi Germany? Here are a few facts (at least as I see them):

1. The Nazi policy of genocide for those races/groups deemed "sub-human." This is the most appalling and revolting of any aspect. And nothing remotely was comparable in Southern history.

2. At the time of the WBTS, slavery still existed in the Western world. And it was being struggled with in the same, as a moral question (in the American South as well). Whereas? Those enslaved in Nazi Germany were at a time when it had disappeared from said Western Civilization for almost a century...and then was brought back.

Too? Those enslaved by the nazi's were literally starved, beaten, and worked to death. Not even the severest critic of slavery as it existed in America alleges such inhumanity was commonplace. Sure, there were sadistic slaveowners, but there were still laws in the Southern states against deliberate mistreatment and slaveowners were obligated by law and common humanitarian/Christian ethics to take care of the sick, injured and old.

3. The Confederate States of America was a constitutional republic like the United States. Nazi Germany was a dictatorship. Free speech, religion, assembly, bearing arms, etc. did not exist in the latter, and in fact, could be punishable by death if deemed to be harmful to the state.

4. Nazi Germany pursued a militaristic and agressive foriegn policy with the intention of world domination. The Confederacy only wanted to be left alone and peacefully pursue its own destiny.

5. The political principles the South fought for were deeply rooted in those set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (which itself had largely been written by Southerners).

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by iluvcj

That flag to me represents lynchings, hangings and slavery. I feel like if you are not a direct decendant of someone who was enslaved you cannot tell them how to feel about any type of racism or flag.

I've heard more complaining about that flag from northern whites than I ever have from southern blacks.