Quote:
Originally Posted by ClemVegas
I rarely have seen a Confederate flag in SC. I see US flags everywhere.
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Usually I fly a Texas flag from my flagpole but I occasionally switch it out with an American flag, which is flying now (I usually keep an American flag up from Memorial Day through Labor Day).
In spite of having ancestry who fought for the Confederacy, I personally have never cared for the display of the Confederate flag. It's divisive, and I can understand why it would bother some people, and it stood for a cause for many people that I don't and would never have supported (I would have been an abolitionist for SURE back in the day), so I don't much care for it.
That being said, I DO really groove on the fact that Texas was it's own nation for awhile. And it didn't have to secede from the United States to do it, either. There's some cool stuff in the contract with the US when The Republic of Texas agreed to annexation.
Anyway, first and foremost I'm grateful to be an American, but I'm also grateful to be a Texan living in the United States of America.
I have a funny story about a Confederate flag so here goes:
As many people here know, my four kids are biracial. My oldest son has always been provocative and a bit socially inappropriate (and I usually get a kick out of those traits, but not always!). Anyway, we were getting ready for church one Sunday and I noticed that he had a HUGE (and very ugly) ring on that was a big, honking Confederate flag. I said, "Son. Why on earth are you wearing that and where did you get it?" He just looked abashed and said, "I got it from some guy at school." I said, "You're a teenager so I don't want to micromanage your clothing choices, but I do reserve the right to say what you can and cannot wear to church, and I say you cannot wear that ring to church, so go take it off and frankly, I want you to give it back to whoever you got it from in the first place." "Yes, m'am," he said sheepishly and wandered back to his room.
An hour or so later, I notice him fidgeting around in church, and I see to my dismay that he's still wearing that ring - but that he's twisting it around and trying "on the downlow" apparently to slip it off his finger - and it's not budging. He looked over at me and when I raised my eyebrow (only one) and looked pointedly at his hand, he shrugged his shoulders and mouthed, "I'm sorry, Mom," and held up his hand - his finger was all swollen around that stupid ring and he clearly couldn't get it off. I whispered, "Just stop messing with it."
As soon as we got in the car, I said, "Ok so when we get home, let's get online and find out the best way to get a ring off a finger." So first, we tried soaking his hand in ice water to get the swelling down, but as soon as we'd try to get the ring off, his finger would swell up again. We tried running fishing line under the ring. We tried oil, vaseline, you name it. The finger was now looking BAD. Finally I said, "I hate to do this, but we have to get you to the emergency room."
OMG.
You should have seen the looks on those peoples' faces when I showed up at the ER with a boy who is clearly at least half African American, with a Confederate Flag ring stuck on his finger! Long story short, they tried to get it off too, and finally had to call the MAINTENANCE GUY who had to use some sort of tool to cut that stupid ring off my son's finger! Meanwhile, all sorts of people kept coming into the room and saying, "Let me take a look at that finger," and then they'd start to laugh and just say, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." and I'd say, "No, please. Laugh away. I want this kid to be embarrassed!"
When it was off, they tried to give it to me and I said, "Please. Throw it away." So I guess they did.
$200 is what this stupid fiasco cost me, and I made my son work to pay me back part of that. We were just laughing about this the other day in fact. He's 32 now and clearly sees that his judgment in that situation was pretty terrible, but 18 years later it's a pretty funny family story.
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