Southerners...silly question.

No, this changed probably right around 2002.  I was actualy interning for the state senate during the debate on whether or not to change the flag.  In 1956 as a response to the desegragation of schools, Ga decided that it would be a nice f you to the federal gov to add the confedearte flag to the state flag.  Around 2000-2002 Gov Barnes changed the flag from the confederate flag then lost the very next election.  Gov Perdue ran on a platform to restore the 56' flag and won.  He has yet to restore the flag which has made a lot of rual Georgians very upset.

I remember somethjing about this a few years ago... She is talking about "the" confererate flag flying below the American flag on the capital. I believe the ACLU got involved and made them take it down.

I saw a Tank Commander on a exercise at 29 palms get chewed out for flying a small confederate flag from a US tank. He was charged with flying a flag of an enemy of the United States on a gov vehicle... You dont have to be in the South to find ignorant people.

ah, nevermind.

I grew up in MS.  Let's just leave it at that.

There is nothing inherantly wrong with the confederate flag.  It's the perception that people hold of it.  Some perceive it as a symbol of slavery, some as a symbol of pride. 

I say, let it fly!!! and get the nit picky, "that offends me, change it" type of people to shut their pie hole, and, like a RETROSEXUAL MAN......DEAL WITH IT!!!!

 Amen!!

The flag depicted was not the flag of the Confederacy but rather the Confederate Battle flag. The flag of the Confederacy was a large white background with a small insignia in the corner. Many felt it would be mistakenly percieved as a flag of surrender. So the battle flag with it's red field with the crossed "stars and bars" was used for all military maneuvers and battles. I know this because me and Strom Thurmond were there.

And "Dixie" was written by a gent from Ohio.

I agree that any signifier is only about what it signifies. Otherwise, it's just a meaningless object.  But, that being said, and as a lifetime southerner (save a couple of years in California), I just really don't see what is symbolizes *other* that ingnorance and backwardness.

You say pride, but pride in what? Pride in the idea of state's rights, sure, but the catalizing state's rights issue the flag stands for is the Union's opposition to slavery. And therefore, the flag symbolizes the confederacy's "right" to allow slave ownership.

So in this day and time (e.g. not the 19th century), who wants to stand behind that? Not this southerner.

I love you, puppy.

Actualy Stars and bars was not the confederate battle flag, but (I think) the first confedearate flag which had a white backgraound with red stripes and a star for each confedearte state.  The Confederates went through several flags before they finaly settled on one they liked.  What is commonly reffered to as stars and bars was the battle flag and not the actual confederate flag. 

 As far as what the flag means now, I can tell you that as a Life time southerner except Ohio for a little while, the flag is a racist symbol.  I went to school with plenty of people who had the confederate battle flag on their trucks and didn't have a clue about states rights, all they knew was that it made them part of a club that had a colletive tendency to hate black people.  Just my experiance though. 

Tyler, the Stars and Bars was the battle flag of choice for the confederacy of which there were several. There were at least 3 National flags of which the white one was widely accepted.

I belong to SCV just because I'm one. 

Precisely.

Well, I don't think it's out of bounds to suggest that the flag is the symbol of a 'country' that supported slavery( cause it is), and as such that symbol invokes the racism associated with slavery. Yeah, state's rights were about a lot of things, but I don't think you can really claim that slavery wasn't one of them. The north had and has plenty of racism involved in it, but I think the difference is that I don't see the north waving flags that say "Look at us! Once upon a time we owned slaves!!!" .

There are plenty of things to be proud of in the southern way of life. Why wave a flag that signifies one of the things that we shouldn't be proud of? 

In my mind it's the same as putting a swastika on a flag and claiming that I'm celebrating the ancient Greeks (um, or Egyptians. I actually can't remember but go with my point anyway) that first used that symbol, and ignore the fact that it's a symbol of hatred and terror to almost all people. If I wanted to wave that flag, that's certainly my right. But it would still make me kind of an asshole. 

Well my young but wise friend. As an old southern , SCV belongin', former reenactor,

Confederate Memorial day celebratin', slow triatlete just let me say........Well said and Amen.

EXCELLENT!

I find it ironic that 19th century Southerners had such great pride in "Southern Hospitality." This reputation for hospitality was borne on the backs of slaves - humans who were sold into bondage, whose children were sold like a chair or bushel of corn might be sold. I could be Uber-Hospitable if I had a small army of humans who served my every need, too. Try being the Hospitality Queen when your graces are borne on your own back with your own sweat. So, when I hear about the tradition of Southern Hospitality, I'm only reminded of Southern Villainy.

Yep, absolutely, racism abounded everywhere in this country but slavery did not. Slave owners were despicable human beings. One of our greatest Americans who wrote so eloquently about freedom and inalienable rights was a slave-owner - what an ironic blight on our national mythology.

We do best when we recognize our paradoxes and hypocrisies, rather than when we paint a white-washed version of our national past. Saying the Confederate flag is a reflection of southern pride begs the question: Pride in what? Pride in being villains? Pride in being treasonous? Pig-headed? Enemies of the United States?

We might be talking about the samew thing, but Stars and Bars was the first confederate flag which resembled the American flag (red and white stripes with six of seven stars in the top corner ina blue square field.  In fact it resembled it so much that they retiered it and adopted a white flag with the souther cross in the top corner.  The Southern Cross is what is widley and incorectly refered to as stars and bars.  The white flag with the southern cross (the emblenm adorning the top of the Duke boy's General Lee) was mistaken for a white flag and thus the confederate flag was again replaced.

I had to do a lot of the research when I worked for the GA senate at the time of the flag debate.  They actualy have a stars and bars flag hanging in display on the bottom floor of the capital. 

To stir the pot a little more..... Why is it exceptable to have black histroy month but not white history month?  Why can their be a Negro College fund but not a Caucsian or White College fund?  In no way am I suggesting I am against or for these things, these are just questions.  Even Morgan Freeman thinks black history month is silly (see story http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10482634/ . 

If of the three sports that make up triathlon, you need to improve your running the most, what sort of training do you perform?  Balanced equally across all three?  Or do you apply *more* training time to running, to raise your performance in that area?

"Black" education and history has been subpar for a long time.  The way to raise it up to the level that "white" education and history is at is through focusing attention on it.

-Chris