Yes, you have every right to have visions of whips, chains, slave ships and human auctions when you see that flag, but if it impells you to further the hate and bigotry you loath about "The South", why would you?

It's not about hating the south. That's totally missing the point. It's about hating a symbol of hate, which I find offensive. It's about the symbol, and the people who refuse to acknowledge its symbology.

I'll maybe concede that all people who display this flag are not racists, maybe. But, they sure are in LaLa Land. It's an offensive symbol, plain and simple.

OK.... but again I stress the point that you have to be more tolerant of fellow bloggers. You know absolutely nothing about DrMiller, yet you have us believe he is an awful person, full of hate. I don't agree with much of what he says, but that does not make him a Jew hater or a racist.
Ease up...you'll get more credibility that way.

It's not about hating the south. That's totally missing the point. It's about hating a symbol of hate, which I find offensive. It's about the symbol, and the people who refuse to acknowledge its symbology.

I agreed from the beginning that the symbol means racism to some... but if a person automatically assumes the person displaying the flag is a racist, aren't they being at least a little prejudice in their assumptions?

The flag to many might represent a south that "could have been", not necessarilly the south that was.

And that's my point. To deny the controversy is denying that it actually does represent a "south that was."

I am so sick of racism. I mean really, really sick of it. I am vocal about it whenever I encounter it. Lots of people are really clueless, and don't know that their racism is insidious and hurtful. They think they're just so wonderfully tolerant. It amazes me how many times I've heard the express, "Jewish fire", and the speaker had no idea that it came from the notion that Jews are rich and selfish and usurors. It's racist. Whenever I hear it, I always back up the person and point it out. I make the same comparison with the confederate flag. It's a symbol of hanging onto a southern heritage that honors southern white bells and gentlemen, plantations, and hate. It is completely devoid of the notion that those wonderful things harbored slaves and fought to keep them. It's a symbol, at the very, very least of LaLa Land, a south that could have been to some people, but was taken way by a bloody war that prevented the grisly perpetuation of slavery.

I also find it very hard to imagine that anyone who would display this flag would do so without being aware of full symbology of it. That's why I tend to be so condemning. If it really is like my comparison above to the Jewish fire, then I stand corrected. But, I doubt it.

I also find it very hard to imagine that anyone who would display this flag would do so without being aware of full symbology of it. That's why I tend to be so condemning. If it really is like my comparison above to the Jewish fire, then I stand corrected. But, I doubt it.

Dabe... I know you are a good person with a good heart. Believe it or not we are both on the same side...but in our fight against wars, racism and every other inhumanity against man, we must try to get as many allies to our side as is humanly possible.
Constantly attacking anyone who disagrees with us leads only to alienation. You have too many good things to say Dabe...don't lose that audience. If you do, we all suffer.

"I am so sick of racism."

I am so sick of people who see racism everywhere they look, unless it is someone they agree with, and then they are oblivious to it. Why not take some of this ire over to Reiki House's blog and deal with the assertion that concentration camps weren't all that bad, and that Hitler didn't really hate Jews, and that 9-11 was a zionist plot. You post on that waste's blog and just overlook racial hate.

Your choice of outrage is pretty transparent. This is about people you hate, not a symbol of hate.

I love the pot calling the kettle black with no inkling of what the kettle is!  As you point your racist bigotted finger at those who you do not understand or even try to, you point 3 back at yourself as the purveyor of hate and intolerance.

I dont hate you.  I pity you.  One so lost in their hate and bigotry that they cannot see that the pot is as black as the kettle.

Pathetic.

I think that you're right to be concerned about racism. We all should be.

BUT...the cause of racism isn't a silly piece of orange cloth with blue stripes with stars in them. The cause of racism is ignorance. And instead of pointing fingers about who's got what packed in a box somewhere, because really, who gives a damn?, why don't you write something a little more constructive--like how we can be more considerate towards those who would normally be treated unfairly, etc.?

The VAST majority of people do not even associate the confederate flag with racism and hate. They associate it with the "South". My guess is that even black people, and probably several million of them, own a confederate flag and display it at their home or maybe even have it packed away in a box somewhere, not to be racist against themselves, but to remind themselves or their Southern heritiage and so that they, and others, including "white supremecist scumbags" what has happened in the past, and what's happening now, and that we need to remember and continue to work hard so that something like that NEVER happens again.

we need to remember and continue to work hard so that something like that NEVER happens again

Right-On Sister!!

And I see that you're very passionate about things, and that's great and all, but if I said something and you took it as being a "racist" comment, jumping down my throat like a maniac isn't going to help me realize the err of my ways. No. I'm not going to hear a damn word you have to say because you're so forceful and freakish about it. Just a little something to consider when you're standing up for every minority out there.

'll maybe concede that all people who display this flag are not racists

---You guys heard it here...! J/K dabe...

Dabe... I know you are a good person with a good heart. Believe it or not we are both on the same side...but in our fight against wars, racism and every other inhumanity against man, we must try to get as many allies to our side as is humanly possible. Constantly attacking anyone who disagrees with us leads only to alienation. You have too many good things to say Dabe...don't lose that audience. If you do, we all suffer.

--To fight unjustices you must be free of them yourself. (essentially means what manopeace said...)

--Dabe, I too (though i might not act like it, {just the rep. coming outta me, } want to rid the world of injustices,etc... but you've got to take it slowly, the world isn't exactly rational...or logical at times....

Well, actually, the Nazis did invent the swastika, or at least the 45 degrees rotated version of it. So this symbol is rightfully considered evil, because it is evil.

Reply #13 By: Citizen Manopeace - 5/16/2005 12:47:30 AM

--Well, i don't consider IT Evil, only those who used it,NAZI's . Its a symbol, it ,didn't kill countless jews,etc...

'll maybe concede that all people who display this flag are not racists

---You guys heard it here...! J/K dabe...

Dabe... I know you are a good person with a good heart. Believe it or not we are both on the same side...but in our fight against wars, racism and every other inhumanity against man, we must try to get as many allies to our side as is humanly possible. Constantly attacking anyone who disagrees with us leads only to alienation. You have too many good things to say Dabe...don't lose that audience. If you do, we all suffer.

--To fight unjustices you must be free of them yourself. (essentially means what manopeace said...)

--Dabe, I too (though i might not act like it, {just the rep. coming outta me, } want to rid the world of injustices,etc... but you've got to take it slowly, the world isn't exactly rational...or logical at times....

Well, actually, the Nazis did invent the swastika, or at least the 45 degrees rotated version of it. So this symbol is rightfully considered evil, because it is evil.

Reply #13 By: Citizen Manopeace - 5/16/2005 12:47:30 AM

--Well, i don't consider IT Evil, only those who used it,NAZI's . Its a symbol, it ,didn't kill countless jews,etc...

My guess is that even black people, and probably several million of them, own a confederate flag and display it at their home

Actually this is quite true. I personally know several who either have one at home or on their car. They, like most of the rest of us, see it as being about the South, not about hatred. But then, people see what they WANT to see.

I know it's difficult for northerners to understand, but a lot of southerners of all races have a lot of pride in southern heritage.

I have a friend who moved from "down here" up to New York. After a couple of years she returned and said that she was very happy to be back down south as the people "up there" had been far more openly bigoted and treated her far worse than anyone in the south ever had.

In spite of what many PC fascists would like to believe, the south isn't about racism and hasn't been for a long time.

apologize for the double post, their was a internal error with the computer...

In spite of what many PC fascists would like to believe, the south isn't about racism and hasn't been for a long time.

You do not have to go far to remember that in 1974, it was South Boston MASS that rioted and burned neighborhoods because of Bussing.

My, my, my, how the north do hold so many bigots!