....
i've even complimented a couple of these guys on their tats , saying to them that i'm glad they are reviving the historical meaning of "good fortune" instead of adopted the crazy bull**** Hitler and white supremacist brought upon us.
it wasn't true...these cats probably didn't even know the Swastika existed long before Nazis... but i was just doing my part to remove the negative power of that symbol by exerting a positive message on it.
That's a great way to deal with the issue in my view, and I respect it. And I've never whined or otherwise complained if someone around here, and there are many, wear a Confederate shirt of fly the flag off their pickup or Harley. It's their business if they want to announce to the world they're a racist or an idiot. I don't care that Walmart sold that stuff.
The problem in this discussion, or most of it, is we're talking about the State approving that symbol. It's different if some biker has a Swastika tat versus the Commonwealth of Virginia producing vanity Nazi license plates with a Swastika in the middle.
The State of SC (and others) unfurled the Confederate Flag atop their capital building at a time when they were fighting AGAINST equal rights for blacks, and that flag remained for nearly 40 years. A decent group of elected officials is embarrassed about those acts in the 1960s, repudiates them, and promises those days are long past. Part of that process, IMO, should be the same rejection/repudiation of the symbol under which the STATE fought against equal rights.
Instead the elected officials took a different path and told us we should be proud of our "Southern Heritage" but obviously not the racist part of that heritage when enslaved blacks, and afterward when we denied blacks the vote, watched without protest as they were lynched and murdered, etc. and the way they show they repudiated that racist past is to embrace the banner under which the elected racist
leaders of the state fought to maintain the Jim Crow era.
Sorry, but those acts don't really compute.
free speech/expression is for everyone...that's exactly why I think public campaigns, like the one we are seeing, to make certain expressions/speech go away is misguided.
I actually agree with that in a way. But part of the whole "embrace our Southern Heritage" and the Confederate flag as a symbol of that is a whitewash of history (no pun intended) and an attempt to sweep away and never really confront the centuries of oppression of blacks that are an integral part of that "heritage" all the way through the 1960s.
I'm proud of where I live, the people are I think some of the best in the country. But if I choose to celebrate that history, then as a matter of decency and common courtesy, I think I owe it to the black population that was systematically oppressed in my state for centuries to choose a symbol other than one that the oppressors used while fighting to keep them second class citizens. Not because someone told me to, but because it is the decent thing to do as a sign of good will and respect. And if I'd do it, the dang elected officials sure as hell ought to because they are elected to in part REPRESENT those folks in government.
the folks who hate this flag cannot say they respect free speech/expression... not when their end game is to silence that speech/expression.... that's just a fact.
when you actively seek a conflict, you're going to get one... conflicts leads to defensiveness, rash decisions, animosity, and whole host of negatives.
Sure they can. Protest of anything is a vital part of free speech - the whole point of the First Amendment is to protect that kind of speech. In the second part above, you object to the subject of protest or the tactics, but if you respect free speech, you can't condemn people for engaging in it, although you can disagree with what they say or when they say it.
well, i don't buy that any of you think anyone has the right to fly the flag... I believe, at best, that's a partial lie.
y'all are talking about the government respecting your free speech rights...but nothing beyond that... respecting free speech, to me, goes beyond simply saying the government shouldn't sanction you.
But speech in opposition, protest, disagreement, debate, argument, etc. are all virtuous, a necessary part of a decent society. I'm really not at all clear what you expect.
