The Confederate flag should be taken down and burned.

And I think if they decide to totally get rid of it, it will create more anger, now I don't really care, we don't fly those flags around here, never have, but if it is a symbol to a great many people who will just get angrier.

a reply to: seagull

South Carolina will, without a doubt, have this discussion over the next few months. As they've done in the past.

Who knows, it might even make it onto the ballot, or the legislature might have the two-thirds votes necessary to remove it.

That's the way it should work. Not just a knee jerk reaction. Do it the right way...

Exactly the way this should be handled. So many things in this country could only change when people became angry enough to make demands

How is asking for that an attack on patriotism? Or a duck blind?

The two were not connected in my mind

Sometimes I know I have a way of short-handing that doesn't always translate

My integrity was just questioned. Freedom of speech is seen by some as a stand in for patriotism

I think some people have a tendency to sit behind a kind of patriotic duck blind. They think they can't be seen

a reply to: Stormdancer777

Let 'em get angry. So long as it, the removal, happens the right way, what grounds do they have to complain?

That's why, for now, the legislature shouldn't do anything... Put it on the next general ballot, and let the chips fall where they may.

There's gonna be hurt feelings no matter how it turns out. Probably about a fifty-fifty split.

A vote is the right way to do it.

I've no dog in this fight, other than wanting it to end being done the right way. The state should decide.

a reply to: Spiramirabilis

That's about what I figured. But it's hard to tell sometimes on the interwebs...

The flag itself only means something to the families of those who fought and died in the Revolution. All other meanings are what people imagine.

To take the flag down off the Capitol buildings will accomplish nothing in regards to racism and only steel the determination of those to whom the Confederate flag has true meaning.

It's time to stop playing with symbols and meet racialism head-on (and I'm not talking about just America).

a reply to: seagull

Is a public redress of grievance not an acceptable way to change things?

originally posted by: Kali74
a reply to: beezzer

Didn't get the hint when no one answered your latest absurd question the 1st time? But I'll nibble... why would anyone want Huckleberry Finn banned?

I believe some people did take issue with it being in school libraries and many others as well.

newsbusters.org...

One parent of students enrolled at Springs Charter School was shocked when she saw which books librarians were taking off the shelves to give away. Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom’s popular “The Hiding Place” was among the books targeted for removal. When the parent asked what was going on, library staff told her that they had been given orders to remove all Christian books, books by Christian authors, and books by Christian publishers. - See more at: newsbusters.org...

a reply to: Asktheanimals

you have a point.

guess what, getting rid of the flag will not stop racism.

a reply to: Kali74

Of course it is. Did I say otherwise?

Voting on it, giving everyone a chance to voice their opinion via the ballot box is a better way. Not the only way. A better way.

a reply to: masqua

To reiterate... that flag does represent an idea or ideal, what else are flags for? That particular flag states a belief in white superiority so strongly that it's creators were willing and did in fact divide themselves from the nation that said they weren't going to be allowed to do it anymore. Now those that flag alleges are inferior are equal in the eyes of the Constitution and therefor by the entire land. Should the elected government of South Carolina be given speech enough to say that some of those who elect it are inferior to others who elect it?

a reply to: yuppa

I love when racists use the whole "Africans sold the slaves" shtick to justify America's role in the trans Atlantic slave trade

I bet if it is put on a ballot for a vote more will turn out over it then elections where the leaders are elected to run the state.

a reply to: masqua

All other meanings are what people imagine.

Exactly. They are symbols of what we imagine

It's time to stop playing with symbols and meet racialism head-on (and I'm not talking about just America).

I think that's what's fixing to happen here. South Carolina is mourning the deaths of black people murdered by an admitted racist that was wearing and flying the Confederate flag in his every day walk around life

That flag flies freely above government buildings - and wasn't lowered to half mast

That flag is now a symbol of too many things for too many different kinds of people. This is exactly the kind of conversation that needs to happen right now - and it has to be about race

a reply to: zazzafrazz

I'm not saying it is equivalent. I do, however, understand the argument that does say that.

that's why so many people attempt to have it banned. Because of what it supposedly represents...

Personally, I think the flag should go. Just not so willy-nilly. It needs to go, but the right way.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

guess what, getting rid of the flag will not stop racism.

Neither did ending slavery

a reply to: supremecommander

How is it racist to point out what actually happened? How does it justify it? Just curious.

a reply to: Kali74

Yes.

The war was over the right to own slaves... a long time ago. This is why I say the flag only has true meaning to those remembering family members who fought and died in the Revolution. Taking it down, however, will solve nothing towards racism. It simply won't matter as long as the division of Americans continues to be attached to skin colour.

The Confederacy done and over with and the only slaves around today are convicts in private for-profit prisons.

People who are racist will always be racist. That's their believe. Other can't force then to change.

All the world can do is set better example so more people do not grow into that belief.

I have asked several black people today there opinion on the Confederate flag. They all agreed it belongs in a museum not the state capitol building as it doesn't represent them in any way that is good. To them its a symbol so many gathered under to fight to keep there ancestors slaves.