Confederate Flags hanging proudly on side of some Atlanta metro homes (Stone Mountain: transplants, neighborhood)

[KevK]

Originally Posted by mslashondapjohnson

Hey y'all (as we say it in Texas ) lol.. I came to the Atl and stayed for about a week last week and was just going to the various places that I asked so many of you all about i,e Cobb County, Douglas County, etc., etc. well I was a little enraged after what I discovered. I was informed by some Real Estate agents to check Douglassville out off Lee Road(it is growing) . So I do as I'm told.. and as I proceeded to the I assume older parts of Douglassville I saw a total of 3 confederate flags hanging from some residents home. And by no means am I prejudice , I believe for whatever reason everyone is entitled to fill a certain way (of course it's not right) but hey, you know ... anyway, I could not believe that I mean geez! and within 200 yards there was a African residing close by.That is Definitely not a Area I plan on going to not even to visit . Now I did go on another end of Douglassville close by Durlee Lane and it was filled with a mixed culture but nawl I 'll pass.O.k. I'm through just passing on that information.. LOL...

Aww! I see you went by the trailer park on Skyview Road!

[KevK]

Originally Posted by plessthanpointohfive

Probably because in the 1930s black people could get in trouble with the law, off the books, for making an "issue" out of it. Pre-Civil Rights Era and all that....

I'm FROM the south and I don't like seeing the Confederate Battle Flag. I mean, the Battle Flag was not even the official flag of the Confederacy. It was just a battle flag, one of many, and one that the KKK adapted for it's thematic use.

Most of the so called "Confederate fans" don't even know that. They were actually surprised when I told them that the new state flag is AS MUCH a Confederate flag as the one it replaced.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Fuchsia

Yeah, when I first moved to Atlanta from up north, it was shocking to me, to say the least. I used to live in Austell, and traveled along Lee Road often. I think it's becoming more of an issue because more people who were raised up north are moving to the city, and confederate flags are considered highly offensive up there, where down here it can be considered (although I don't agree) as a part of someones heritage.

It used to mean the same thing up north until the racist redneck crowd made it their flag. I remember in the 70s and 80s that you would see the flags in college dorm rooms up north. All it meant then was that whoever occupied that room was from the south. Now it would mean they are a dumb racist redneck.

[MMANN]

Originally Posted by plessthanpointohfive

You can take the bait all you want. Doesn't mean I will say anything else about it.


Of course I'm a lefty. Anyone spending 2 seconds on this blog can see that. I have no problem admitting it. It's not something that ruins your credibility. It's not a profanity...

No, but it is quite annoying to have leftist/socialist policies forced into threads where the topic has nothing to with whatever liberal agenda you are trying to push. No body wants to hear it. If they did, they would be in a political forum.

Its almost like you look for any oppurtunity to insert your liberal agenda.

Anyways, back to the SUBJECT of the thread. The flag is harmless, but the only reason it annoys me is how backwards it makes Georgia look. Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, let them hang it, who cares. But in the state that houses the city of Atlanta? This is supposed to be the "new york of the south" or whatever you want to call it. But there is nothing cosmopolitan about the confederate flag. That is mainly why it annoys me, is because it makes Georgia look like some poe-dunk, redneck state. Although the truth is that if you take atlanta out of georgia all you have is mississippi, we don't need to make the whole nation aware of this. Its along the same lines as the Southern Baptist Governor preaching on the steps of the state capitol "Prayin' for rain". The rest of the nation (outside the south) was like What the hell is the matter with the people in that state??

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Fuchsia

Yeah, when I first moved to Atlanta from up north, it was shocking to me, to say the least. I used to live in Austell, and traveled along Lee Road often. I think it's becoming more of an issue because more people who were raised up north are moving to the city, and confederate flags are considered highly offensive up there, where down here it can be considered (although I don't agree) as a part of someones heritage.

I might point out that Lee Rd is in Lithia Springs (Douglas County) and not Austell (Cobb County) too. There is also a car dealer on Veterans Memorial in Mableton that is surrounded by confederate battle flags.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by neil0311

The rebel flag stands for one thing....rebellion against the USA. Now you can make many arguments for or against staging a rebellion by southern states in 1861, but the fact remains that the flag stood for an illegally conceived rebellion against my country. To boot, the folks conducting the rebellion believed that it was OK to own other people and do violence against them.

It was a time that pitted brother against one another, and from a historical POV, we should not forget it, but anyone who celebrates what the Confederacy stood for is deserving of nothing but disdain. The Confederacy stood for rebellion and slavery and was defeated. 140 years later and time to let it go.

I fully agree with this. If anything, we were lucky the North won, because by all accounts, if the South had won, they probably would have gone a step further and had a mass execution of all men, women, and children of the North as well as burned all of the cities completely to the ground. Today, we'd have rebel flags on every government agency building, and all children regardless of background would be forced to pray in schools, while church attendance would be mandatory.

Ok - now that I have THAT out of my system (ahem - sorry)...

The "flag flap" here a few years ago is what caused a lot of those people to put rebel flags on poles in their yards. There weren't that many before then. The old Governor (Barnes) signed for a change in the flag to change it to something that didn't have the confederate "bars" in the design. Immediately, bumper stickers saying "Boot Barnes!" popped up all over the place, and people in some burbs started putting up flag poles with the old state flag as well as the traditional rebel flag on it. The natives went NUTS. That's all they cared about. For weeks, there was even a group called the "Sons of Confederate Veterans" who would dress up in old South Confederate uniforms and march around the Capital building demanding that Barnes be immediately removed from office for what he did.

When Perdue ran for Governor, he promised them he'd change their flag back if elected. Again, with that being the ONLY concern among local voters in the state, they voted Barnes out of office so Perdue could get in. Oh, and once Perdue got in? He promptly FORGOT completely about that flag, left it as-is (the new one), and also forgot about a pay raise he had promised to the teachers in order to get their votes as well. Ahhhhh... good Old South politics.

Oh, for the record, Georgia's "heritage" includes something like FIVE flags since it became a state - the one they were fussing about was barely 45 years old. The ones before it were of different designs. A local news channel took some posterboard and put all of the old designs on it in random order, and went up to protesters to ask them to put them in order from 1st to newest - most of them could not. So much for knowing your heritate. LOL

Anyway - that's the very basic short of it. For the record, Barnes was working on plans to build more water reservoirs in metro Atlanta, as well as a commuter rail system, during a second term if he stayed in office. Had he been allowed to serve that second term, most likely we'd not have the water issues we have today, and you'd probably be able to catch a train into the city from Alpharetta or Cartersville instead of sitting in traffic. Oh, but no - the flag was so much more important.

Well, fiddle dee-dee. Welcome to the South.

[Vampgrrl]

Originally Posted by neil0311

OK...I'm going take the bait here and try to keep it dispassionate, so I hope no one gets bent out of shape.

The rebel flag stands for one thing....rebellion against the USA. Now you can make many arguments for or against staging a rebellion by southern states in 1861, but the fact remains that the flag stood for an illegally conceived rebellion against my country. To boot, the folks conducting the rebellion believed that it was OK to own other people and do violence against them.

It was a time that pitted brother against one another, and from a historical POV, we should not forget it, but anyone who celebrates what the Confederacy stood for is deserving of nothing but disdain. The Confederacy stood for rebellion and slavery and was defeated. 140 years later and time to let it go.

Let me nitpick here.
The state legislatures voted to leave the Union. It was legal and should still be legal, not much different in context from the "rebellion" of the American colonies from England.

That said, the KKK and whatnot have co-oped that flag and twisted it to the point of absurdity. It isn't a fight I want to take part in to reclaim a symbol when we have very real problems right now.
That said I have many Confederate soldiers and politicians in my family's history, and I don't feel the least bit bad about it. My great grandmother was full Cherokee and she felt much worse about President Jackson ignoring SCOTUS and removing the Cherokee illegally to Oklahoma.

Anyhow, wayyyy off target here. Let's clean up our cities, rebuild infrastructure and make history NOW. No sense on blithering on about way back when, when we can put ourselves in the history books now.

[Dignan]

Maybe the folks who are currently flying the rebel flag are doing it as a means of protecting their homes.


I mean, it's been said that flying the confederate flag is the best possible means of home security, because if a burglar sees a confederate flag on a house, they know that the person inside the house owns at least one gun, and they're most likely drunk.

[Frankie117]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

I fully agree with this. If anything, we were lucky the North won, because by all accounts, if the South had won, they probably would have gone a step further and had a mass execution of all men, women, and children of the North as well as burned all of the cities completely to the ground. Today, we'd have rebel flags on every government agency building, and all children regardless of background would be forced to pray in schools, while church attendance would be mandatory.

What's ironic, is that the North executed Southern civilians and burned as many cities as possible once the War of Attrition began (a sign of desperation by the North, mind you). The South didn't hate the North in the way you seem to think, as the South remained on the defensive. The only time an attack was launched on the North was when supplies were needed (Gettsburg). Most of Lee's army defected when they heard they were invading the North, which just goes to show that your statement is horribly misconstrued, and I think you should do more researching before saying such things. Also, if the South had one, of course there would be Confederate flags on government building, thats a no brainer! What are we supposed to fly the flag of the nation we just go our Independence from? No one was ever forced to pray in schools, you don't have to participate if you don't want to. And finally, Church is a social event more so than a religious one, if you can't get a grasp on that, please do not comment with false statements.

It is nothing personal atlantagreg30127, I always respected you on this site for helping people, but when comments like this come out, it really makes me wonder.

[plessthanpointohfive]

It's all the socialist liberal agenda!!!!!!! Run and hide!!!!!