The Confederate flag (Columbia, Union: transfer, military, move)

[carolinajack]

Geechie, as a fellow geechie i hear you--but thats the problem. weak kneed politicians and those who will sell history down the tubes for a few dollars. Our history is what sells, all of it-not just the pretty kind. we just so happen to have people who have no integrity who want yankee dollars over doing whats right.

name calling of people you dont agree with is the real problem too. I dont have to like the oppression of the racist people to know that two wrongs dont make a right. I am proud of my state-right or wrong. changing it means to meet people where they are at and understand that they are first humans like i am. to deny them humanity is to deny your own. If they havent a conscience i am pretty sure that the other side has a lack of one as well, since no one is God and thus all are sinners. I have the unenviable position of being a black south carolinian, great great grandson of slaves from a plantation that is around the corner from where my home is in Mt Pleasant SC. I know the family who owns it and my grandmother was born on it. I am proud to say that forgiveness is the best tool against hate and oppression. I know the family and reached out to start dialog with them and they reached right back and we talk today and meet in the middle to find real common ground(we didnt start it but we can work to move forward). I can see his side, i can feel what the oppressor may have felt, as i know what we who were oppressed felt. But I have the power to end the hate and i choose to do that. Not by worshipping what he has or envying his position or trying to tear him down or ask him to pay for what his ancestors did. No, i choose to love him and forgive his forebears and he chooses to get to know me as a Person, equal and real.

I dont want him to tear down his mansions or forget his history, i want him to remember it, to see it for what it is and seek to change his heart NOT his flag or his heritage. Sins happen on both side(blacks are not immuned from it, and whites did not create sin) we are all quilty. Revision is forgetting the things that happened on both shores, to people caught in the conflict and the passions of the moment. The battle flag stands for liberty and freedom and it stands for oppression and segregation and oppression, it stand for victory and fighting to end oppression by the yankee aggressors and it stand for oppression of the blacks who had to unjustly shrink in fear.

Taking it down might seem like a victory to some, but it wont end the hatred, violence, fear or oppression--because it doesnt do what it portends to do--change the hearts of men. that comes from Jesus Christ, the savior and one who is to bring Peace to all men.

oooh too preachy but im not a son of a missionary for nothing, or a student of history of the south.

[Geechie North]

You do know that the are no teachers unions in SC? And please show me the municipality that pays for Rainbow Coalition flags, please.

Anyway,

Studies show that symbols do matter, as they are archetypes for what we as a people represent.

So before we look to change "the inner heart of man", perhaps we should just get the symbol of slavery off public land and back in a museum, or tatooed on the rump of some sweet young thing serving brewskys at Bike Week in Daytona, where it truly belongs.

[carolinajack]

Philadelphia Pa pays to put up the Rainbow Flags in downtown where i live right now.

you can tatoo it where you like, but it belongs where it is until there is a vote of the majority of the people.

the NEA-my mother being one member, has members in all 50 states and they have power, sadly

[pvjd]

Carolina Jack, you had me until you said that the rainbow flag is hateful. Gay people fighting for equal rights is a good thing, in my book. Especially if we are going to pretend to be talking about opening our hearts, equality for all, accepting all of God's creatures, etc. My family is not threatened by that, and anyone who is is pretty paranoid, in my opinion. I find the irony in how so many religious people can be so hurtful to their fellow humans. That, however, is another topic. I think I will hang up my political hat for something more lighthearted, like fishing. That, I will do with you any time. We'll just bring plenty of doughnuts and not talk about the flag or gay people.

[RiWrites]

I am a Christian and it amazes me how people forget that one verse from the Bible about not judging others. God is the only judge period. But like pvjd said that is another topic.

Just 40 some years ago people acted this way towards African Americans. That they were less than human etc. Imagine if the person you loved was hospitalized and you couldn't find out what was going on or they died and some family member came and took everything you two had together. This happens to gay people all the time. I am a Christian woman who couldn't careless what people do in their private lives. That is between them and God.

It amazes me how people can complain about how they and their race have been treated yet will be prejudice about another group and think it is all right. Tolerance works both ways. Until this happens this country won't change.

[mcevoy34]

This is about the flag. F-L-A-G....... AND IT HAS BEEN VERY INTERESTING..... till now.

[BostonMedic]

Originally Posted by mcevoy34

This is about the flag. F-L-A-G....... AND IT HAS BEEN VERY INTERESTING..... till now.

Yep, A F-L-A-G ......nothing more and nothing less. A piece of fabric.......Its a symbol, kinda like the FLAG of the nazi political party in the 1930's and 40's. It doesnt represent how or what people do,it's a symbol.....Its just a flag, nothing more and nothing less.

[RiWrites]

Unfortunately some people have made it much more than a piece of fabric.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by mcevoy34

Those boys fought and died under that flag. What are they guilty of? Loyalty to their state? They rallied around that flag. Showed bravery that I would challenge anyone to match. With out that flag, they died for nothing, their loyalty to South Carolina means nothing. That flag is their witness. That flag tells their story.

Don't you think the CAUSE for what someone is fighting for is the important thing? Hell, extremist Islamic fundamentalists have no problems blowing up a bunch of people, including themselves, for their cause. Let's celebrate their bravery too, because I doubt that you or I could ever be as valiant as they.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by BostonMedic

Yep, A F-L-A-G ......nothing more and nothing less. A piece of fabric.......Its a symbol, kinda like the FLAG of the nazi political party in the 1930's and 40's. It doesnt represent how or what people do,it's a symbol.....Its just a flag, nothing more and nothing less.

You CAN'T be serious. I don't care what side of the debate you're on, there's no way you can honestly and intelligently say that the flag doesn't mean anything and is nothing more than a piece of cloth with three colors and a pattern on it. Is that how you feel about the U.S. flag as well? It doesn't represent what we Americans believe and stand for as a people, that it's nothing more than a cheap piece of cloth?