The Death of Dixie.

Whoa!

An English newspaper whistling death to Dixie...

The Guardian view on the Confederate flag: tear down this red rag

If this is not an obvious case of scapegoating a whole culture for one crazy action by a kid then I'll whistle Dixie!

I have great respect for the southern folk, for the amazing music, country and blues that came from this culture. Now they are trying to amputate yet another limb from American identity. Soon you guys are gonna be a sham superficial shadow of what you were. The U.S is being trampled with notions of self shame. There is so much to be proud of in American culture. I'm not American and here is me worshipping my Gibson guitar singing American blues and country music, both black and white inspired.

The South gets accused of racism yet it was the South who first started mingling together with guys like Hank Williams and Elvis picking up on the black music and learning from it. The confederate flag is as much part of U.S identity as Elvis and Hank and that is a huge slice of the American Pie!

Sing it Joan and Elvis!





Keep your red coat nose out Guardian!

I bought a confederate flag years ago because Florida was looking to ban the sale and display of it... Many others did as well.

It's an ugly part of our history, banning it doesn't fix the issue, it should be discussed so the history of what it represents is known and the knowledge will take away the power of those that thrive on fear of that flag.

Least that my opinion.

originally posted by: irishhaf
It's an ugly part of our history, banning it doesn't fix the issue, it should be discussed so the history of what it represents is known and the knowledge will take away the power of those that thrive on fear of that flag.

I wonder if you feel the same way about the Nazi Swastika flag?

OP, there were some cool technological advancements that came out of Germany during the 30s and 40s, should we also celebrate the nazi flag?

Ask the blacks who were lynched in the late 19th early 20th about the racism of southern America, or those that couldn't even drink from the same water fountains as Elvis could due to Jim crow if the racism of the south is a mere accusation. You are telling us that we should celebrate some of the ugliest aspects of our country just because you like some damn music. Seriously?

I've lived in the south and have seen black guys driving with confederate flag bumper stickers. I've asked and been told it's about southern pride. The whole flag thing is a northern liberal agenda, the people in the south think it's a heritage issue. Go ahead and ban it, the race problem on both sides, black and white racism (yes blacks can and are racist also) won't change at all.

Side note, personally I refuse to divide us any further by labels like African Americans, if your born here there's no Africa. Another feel good liberal tag, like banning flags.

originally posted by: Kryties

originally posted by: irishhaf
It's an ugly part of our history, banning it doesn't fix the issue, it should be discussed so the history of what it represents is known and the knowledge will take away the power of those that thrive on fear of that flag.

I wonder if you feel the same way about the Nazi Swastika flag?

The Swastika doesn't belong to the Nazi's.

Anyway, I live in Scotland, when I see the confederate flag I know its the south, I don't automatically tie it to slavery.

a reply to: Kryties

Apples and oranges...

But I'll play, I haven't lived in germany for even a year and I've already had a run in with swastika wearing skin heads.

So how is that banning and forbidding discussion working out in europe?

a reply to: supremecommander

How many Indians died under the goddamned United States flag that the media protects like it was made of freaking solid gold? Governments screw people over, often killing them or enslaving them while flying their little flags all over the world. Either get over it or scream for all flags to be burned and banished. You cannot have it both ways.

We're talking about slavery that ended 150 years ago and yet here we sit 2 weeks before our annual praise and worship fest of a flag that has come to represent wage slavery, tax slavery, and imperialism...

Perspective, it's what is sorely needed.

a reply to: Revolution9


All things considered it should be removed. I will confess however of putting a small rebel flag on a relatives grave. He died in a northern civil war prison and was interred on the grounds with several thousand that also died in custody. I went to a ceremony there a few years back on memorial day. Men dressed in southern civil war era uniforms did a 21 gun salute. This was in Ohio. He was captured as he rode with a unit of WVA cavalry.

This man had a nephew or cousin that died fighting for the north, riding himself with a unit of Virginia cavalry fighting for the North, with the North. He left about 6 children. Haven't been to his grave yet as it is out of state.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: supremecommander

How many Indians died under the goddamned United States flag that the media protects like it was made of freaking solid gold? Governments screw people over, often killing them or enslaving them while flying their little flags all over the world. Either get over it or scream for all flags to be burned and banished. You cannot have it both ways.

We're talking about slavery that ended 150 years ago and yet here we sit 2 weeks before our annual praise and worship fest of a flag that has come to represent wage slavery, tax slavery, and imperialism...

Perspective, it's what is sorely needed.

Agreed.

a reply to: irishhaf


The harder libs in this country have however attached a good deal of BS to this issue. Like saying the 2nd amendment had to do with states rights and thus its most notorious expression the civil war. Thus the 2nd is an extension of racism. I have heard this convolution with my own ears. However the north did exercise the 2nd during the war during Morgan's raid for one example. Gots to keep an eye on these libs.

a reply to: Kryties

Honestly, yes. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

You can ban it, but that won't change the underlying issues that cause it. Just because no one can see or speak about the things that led to the Nazis or the American Civil War (which, btw, were in no way analogous if you study history which, of course, no one does anymore because we're all too busy trying to ban anyone from doing it) does not mean you have stopped the human ugliness that were their cause.

In fact, someone who has studied both sees alarming parallels in our world today that foreshadow potential trouble on the horizon.

originally posted by: Logarock
a reply to: Revolution9


All things considered it should be removed. I will confess however of putting a small rebel flag on a relatives grave. He died in a northern civil war prison and was interred on the grounds with several thousand that also died in custody. I went to a ceremony there a few years back on memorial day. Men dressed in southern civil war era uniforms did a 21 gun salute. This was in Ohio. He was captured as he rode with a unit of WVA cavalry.

This man had a nephew or cousin that died fighting for the north, riding himself with a unit of Virginia cavalry fighting for the North, with the North. He left about 6 children. Haven't been to his grave yet as it is out of state.

The Civil War is a horrific period in history.

We treated each other abominably on both sides. We were not one country having a disagreement, but we were having a very real and very barbaric war. There is very good reason why the South tends to resent the North to this day and vice versa, and slavery is the least of it.

a reply to: Logarock

Keep a close eye on us..we may do something DANGEROUS.....like help others, treat people as humans and fight for equality. You know, evil stuff.

Progressives banning history? NO WAY?! We never saw that coming.............oh wait......

The agenda has always been to change history, re-write, or forget......

There have been lots of groups of people through out history who have done this......

Theyve started in schools, now sometimes you cant even fly the US flag on your own property without having issues.....

You think they are going to stop at the confederate flag? Nope......

It will just be another tool to label people if you have a Confederate flag.......

You know, all in the name of "tolerance"

Such hypocritical BS

WAKE UP AMERICA

Dixie will not die as long as I live.

I believe in loving and helping your neighbor, protecting what's yours, having a good time with friends, the freedom to speak out against what you believe is wrong, hard work and harder play finished off with a cold beer, clean air, fishing, kindness to strangers, good music, God, and everything else that goes along with it. I am Dixie. On my little side of this mountain, Dixie lives.

Both my kids love Dixie too. Perhaps they will carry those same beliefs and that same way of life to their children. I hope, buit I can only speak for myself.

You can burn my flag, outlaw my flag, desecrate my ancestors' graves and monuments, take my home, drive me out of society, shame me, label me, beat me, torture me... but I will still be the same redneck. You can not defeat me.

And I don't think I am alone.

I am sure that there are others who don't have the same self-control I have. We see them on the news; we saw one on the news a week ago. He was insane, admittedly. But he was also angry... angry enough to shoot up a church of innocent victims. How many more angry young men are out there, feeling persecuted, feeling helpless and hopeless in the face of this new Northern Aggression? How many more are sitting in their homes watching this story of tragedy play out with actions that mean nothing to those hurt in this travesty but everything to them?

How many more times will this scene of horror need to be repeated?

Some will say that not proceeding with the willful and systematic destruction of a culture would be pandering to those who are the enemy. I say it is preventing them from becoming the enemy. When you see a dog on the street, bothering no one, do you start kicking and beating it until it bites you, then complain about being bitten? Apparently, most people in the US do just that.

Dylann Roof is gone. He will die in prison. To date, despite living in the Deep South where the Confederate Battlejack still flies proud and country musioc is still king, I have heard no one.... NO ONE... defend him. I don't expect to; what he did was horrific. But anyone can be made an enemy, if you treat them as such. Last week, it was one unstable guy who attacked... next week will it be two? A year from now, will it be twenty? Fifty? Ten thousand? Everyone has that line in their mnd that is uncrossable, where the only option becomes retaiation. A few, like Roof's victims' families, have moved that line so far out that they can forgive the unforgivable, and that is noble and good. But how many others are pressed up against that line?

What is the goal here? It most certainly is not peace... peace demands equality and abhors belittlement and condemnation for simply being. Could it be war? The actions of the American people certainly seem to suggest such.

Well, go ahead. I don't care to play that game. I will not participate in your war, for I know what war is. Go ahead and start the next Civil War. Go ahead and hate and destroy. When you're through, an even older redneck will walk out of the mountain carrying his tattered Battlejack, cut a fishing pole out of a cane, make a hook out of your discarded weapons, and mosey on down to the river to fish a while and hum a little tune.

"Way down yonder in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away! Look away!
Look away! Dixieland..."

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

You are the same person that found "some truth" to the psychotic ramblings of his manifesto.

a reply to: TheRedneck

My feeling is that most people are fine with taking the flag down from govt. and places of authority, but I really fear too many not native to the South, with families stretching back to the civil war, with ancestors that fought and died in it are trying to dictate FEELINGS. If it is taken too far, IE calls to remove monuments now - it's going to be very counterproductive.
It might be quietly corrosive, but old wounds will reopen for many, and hate often comes of pain.

I can see it, but I can't stop it.

a reply to: supremecommander

I don't know what sections he was talking about, but there can be a bit of truth in anything that overall is insane and hateful.
Ted Kazinski, one could argue, was right about technology taking a lot of jobs in his crazy psycho manifesto. That doesn't mean anyone with that same argument is psychotic and wants to blow up people.

originally posted by: Kryties

originally posted by: irishhaf
It's an ugly part of our history, banning it doesn't fix the issue, it should be discussed so the history of what it represents is known and the knowledge will take away the power of those that thrive on fear of that flag.

I wonder if you feel the same way about the Nazi Swastika flag?

I do! I can get a swastika flag if I want and fly it if I want. I can put a sticker on my bumper or wear a shirt with either. And I should be "allowed" to. Freedom of speech demands it. If someone decides it means something...that is their issue, not mine. Just because something offends another person isn't my problem. People today decide to be offended simply to close down symbols, etc. Too bad if you're offended. Get over it. You're not the only person in this world and likely not even in the top ten. If it offends you...turn away.