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Posted on 08/22/2002 12:18:01 PM PDT by PJeffQ
SCANA officials are clarifying their position on the Confederate flag, even as Maurice Bessinger fires another volley against the company's policies.
A press released issued by SCANA Wednesday says the company has never banned the Confederate flag, or issued a ruling telling employees not to eat at certain restaurants.
CEO Bill Timmerman says the company's Code of Conduct tries to prevent divisive symbols which may harass other employees. Timmerman says as long as it's meant as heritage it would be okay for an employee to display a Confederate emblem while at work.
He also says employees can eat at Maurice Bessinger restaurants--just not in a company vehicle. He says it's in response to Bessinger's pro-slavery views.
In response, Bessinger released a press release Wednesday saying all SCE&G employees, the energy company that's a subsidiary of SCANA, could eat for free at his stores if they showed up in a company vehicle. If they bring their company identification, they can eat at half price.
Senator wants Legislature to punish SCANA for Confederate flag rule
He also says employees can eat at Maurice Bessinger restaurants--just not in a company vehicle.
Posted on Tue, Aug. 20, 2002
Dining dilemma a shock to our system
SCANA's recent decision to bar employees from driving its company vehicles onto the property of Maurice Bessinger's barbecue restaurants, all of which prominently display the Confederate flag, is a controversial one.
The SCANA directive draws a line in the sand by citing Bessinger's divisiveness as a public figure. (No word yet, however, on whether Bessinger has decided to retaliate by banning his employees from using electricity.)
Now while we don't have a huge problem with this policy, we do have some concerns about its having a wider ripple effect, as other major corporations begin to examine where they're going to allow their employees to grab a spot of lunch.
Don't think this could happen? Well, we got a memo Monday from Talk About Town Inc., our parent company in Bismarck, N.D., that outlines exactly where we'll no longer be able to drive the company-owned Talkmobile for a bite of chow.
The list, not surprisingly, includes Maurice's Barbecue, but not for his flying of the flag. The reason cited by the memo was TAT Inc.'s "staunch opposition to mustard-based barbecue."
OK, fair enough. The flavor of barbecue sauces really can excite passions. But what really bothered Talk was the reasoning behind banning us from parking at a string of other eating establishments around town. Some of it was extremely hard to swallow. (Get it? Hard to swallow?)
For instance, we can't dine at Burger King, because the home office "has profound objections to flame-broiling burgers."
But we also can't take a trip to McDonald's, since the memo cited its worry that "Ronald McDonald wears way too much makeup."
We can't go to Lizard's Thicket either, because company policy now strictly forbids us from frequenting "any restaurant that features the name of a reptile with an elongated, scaly body, four legs and tapering tail."
We can't go to Gilligan's, because corporate honchos refuse to let us visit places that "conjure up images of goofy sitcom characters who wear lame hats."
The list really goes on and on, with the following explanations from the TAT CEO:
Yesterdays: "No sad Beatles songs."
Mr. Friendly's: "Too friendly-sounding."
Willy's: "A guy named Willy once picked on us in third grade."
Mangia Mangia: "No foreign language names."
Fuddruckers: "Too easy to mispronounce in a rude way."
The toughest part about sorting through this directive is figuring out where we can eat. But being a good company man, we will abide by the edict. After all, they do own the Talkmobile.
You're not going to see us overreact like state Sen. Glenn McConnell, the Charleston Republican, who's ready to pull the plug on South Carolina's electricity over SCANA's decision. (Plus it strikes us that McConnell's proposed bill to require all SCE&G linemen to eat lunch every day at Piggie Park probably doesn't stand a very good chance of passing next year.)
Today when we go to lunch, we'll just have to play it safe. By the way, can you drive?
Call Talk at (803) 771-8643 or e-mail ntwhite@thestate.com.
If that's the case then the company must allow the employees to return ON COMPANY TIME to their place of employment to swap vehicles, then take their normal lunch in their personal vehicle, then return to their place of employment to swap vehicles a second time, and then back ON COMPANY TIME to the job site.
Of course these employees would observe all posted speed limits on those EXTRA trips.
If SCANA refuses the employees should contact their local police department/District Attorney - the discrimination against the Confederate flag is illegal under South Carolina statute 16-17-220 (Desecration or mutilation of United States, Confederate or State flags). It's iilegal in Georgia as well.
****************************************************
From: "CUSTOMER REPLIES: WM Stores & Sam's Clubs" <cstreply@wal-mart.com> | Block address
To: "'stainlessbanner@stainlessbanner.com
Subject: Response from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Ref #000000001234856)
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 10:29:24 -0500
Add Addresses
Thank you for your message.Thank you for contacting us regarding our decision to discontinue
selling Maurice's barbecue sauce.Our decision has nothing to do with the Confederate flag or the
product.
After researching Mr. Bessinger's history and present day business
practices, Wal-Mart and SAM'S Club found that Mr. Bessinger's company is distributing materials that are contrary to one of our core principles, respect for the individual.In fact, the following is a direct excerpt from "Biblical View of
Slavery," a message by Pastor John Weaver that is distributed by Maurice Bessinger in some of his restaurants:"I am going to show you not only biblically, but historically how especially many of those African slaves blessed the Lord for allowing them to be enslaved and sent to America. Because what they had over here was far better than what they had over there."
We hope this clarifies our position on this matter and that you will
continue to shop with us.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
For futher correspondence regarding this issue, please reply to this
email.
----Your Original Comments Were----
Why have you discontinued carrying Maurice's BBQ at Wal-Mart & Sam's
Club locations?
It seems you have no trouble carrying products made from components in
China or other foreign countries, but you discontinue a patriotic American's
products because of the flag he flies?
I would like to hear a response from Wal-Mart executives on this issue.
Thank You.
< stainlessbanner >
Thanks to the controversy, I started buying his sauce and supporting Maurice!
I ordered some the last time Maurice was in the news, just for spite because someone had the nerve to try and decide for me what I could purchase and from whom.
I KNEW there were more reasons to like you!
Obviously, or so many wouldn't be in bed with Jesse Jackson and Co.
What barf. Walmart won't respond to questions about China and its core principles. And they sure do more busness with the commies than Maurice.
The same week WalMart banned Maurice's, Chinese social workers through a pregnant Chinese woman out a second story window to her death, because she refused to get an abortion.
The policy makers at Walmart are greedy PC, commie, pinko scum.
When the original furor over Bessinger broke out the Lexington County Sheriff's Dept. got a complaint of a deputy's car in the lot while he ate there, the Sheriff blew it off.
I agree. My family's business had a policy that no company trucks were to be parked out in front of titty bars...so everyone parked in back...LOL...me included many years ago.
The company's right is not the issue....it's their motivation and kneeling at the foot of the PC monster that aggravates most of us here.
I purchase his sauces via the internet!
Only if they know what the Confederacy stood for.
Those SAME vehicles would park there to repair power lines, restore service etc.
I haven't talked to you in ages. How goes the battle?
I KNEW there were more reasons to like you!
LOL, awwww, you know me, getting told what to do and where I can do it always get's my feather's ruffled.
Bone of contention if I ever saw one...lol. I'm here to rail against the PC juggernaut today...not refight the war.
Regards....where's the rest of your posse?
The US tolerated slavery for a long time but eventually abolished it, whereas the Confederacy was dedicated to preserving in perpetuity and propagating the institution of slavery.
Slavery was still legal in the border states in 1861 but threatened with impending abolition by the rising Radical Republican tide. That's why almost all of the slaveholders in the border states supported the Confederacy.
Slavery as an institution was still legal under Lincoln and the gov't in Washington, D.C. for two more years in the United States (Northern States) than in the Confederacy.
Or if you maintain that slavery was legal under Confederate law then you must acknowledge the legitimacy of the Confederacy ! Can't have it both ways.
SCANA reverses flag policy
By JOHN MONK
Staff Writer
SCANA reversed itself Tuesday and said workers can display Confederate flag bumper stickers on personal cars in company parking lots.
Announcement of the policy change came after a week of statewide controversy that began last week when a SCANA spokesperson told The State newspaper SCANA workers could no longer display Confederate flag bumper stickers on personal cars in its parking lots.
SCANA, a Fortune 500 company with 5,480 employees, also banned company vehicles from parking lots of Maurice Bessinger's barbecue restaurants.
That brought an angry response from Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.
And two pro-flag state senators - Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, and Arthur Ravenel, R-Charleston - told the Public Service Commission they would protest SCANA's flag ban at a November rate hike hearing. SCANA subsidiary SCE&G is seeking an 8.7 percent rate increase.
Across the state, hundreds of citizens protested to SCANA and media outlets.
In its statement released late Tuesday, SCANA made clear that bumper stickers on private vehicles, "heritage symbols such as the Confederate flag ‘.‘.‘. are not contrary to our Code of Conduct."
But SCANA said it reserved the right to deal with Confederate flag displays "on a case-by-case" basis if there is an "intent to harass, intimidate or provoke other individuals in the workplace."
The controversy began last week after The State newspaper received complaints from workers and Southern heritage proponents about the company's Confederate flag policy. The State queried SCANA.
In response, SCANA spokeswoman Cathy Love said in an Aug. 14 e-mail to The State, "Both the Confederate flag and Maurice Bessinger's restaurants are divisive issues that have dominated news over the past several years."
She wrote that SCANA's code of conduct prohibits "flags, symbols and statements that are divisive, disruptive and inflammatory from having an influence on the productivity in our workplace."
As such, she said, SCANA was banning Confederate flag bumper stickers on personal cars parked in company parking lots.
The resulting State story triggered a statewide outcry from Southern heritage groups and applause from blacks.
Tuesday, SCANA spokesperson Robin Montgomery said the company could have "done a better job" communicating its policy.
He said SCANA employees had so many questions about company policy that officials felt more clarification was needed - inside and outside the company.
"It became obvious to us that maybe we weren't being as clear as we could," Montgomery said.
On Tuesday, SCANA also made clear its vehicles no longer could go to Bessinger restaurants unless the utility was responding to a service call:
"Our position does not target the Confederate flag, but instead is in response to Mr. Bessinger's views - which he has made very public - concerning slavery."
Bessinger, who flies large Confederate flags at his Columbia-area restaurants, is known for distributing literature that says God wanted blacks to be slaves, and that blacks were glad to be slaves.
In a letter last week to SCANA chief executive officer Bill Timmerman, Sen. McConnell told Timmerman he was outraged at SCANA's bumper sticker ban and its ban on company vehicles at Bessinger's for lunch.
McConnell did not mention the slavery issue. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Timmerman, who could not be reached Tuesday, wrote McConnell a three-page letter about SCANA's policies, saying, "I hope this letter has helped clarify the issues at hand."
In his letter, dated Monday, Timmerman blamed The State newspaper for creating the controversy. State executive editor Mark Lett said there was nothing in Timmerman's letter that changed the facts in The State's stories.
After Timmerman's letter became public, persons on both sides of the issue criticized it for not being clear enough.
Don Gordon, commander of the 250-member Columbia-area post of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, called Timmerman's letter "double talk" because it wasn't clear on the bumper sticker issue. Gordon could not be reached late Tuesday for comment.
Carl Solomon, a Columbia lawyer who represents 13 black workers suing SCANA for an alleged racially hostile work environment, applauded the utility's strong position on Bessinger.
But Solomon said while many who display Confederate flag bumper stickers do so for heritage reasons, others use it as a form of "covert racism" to harass black people.
The flag has a long history of being used by people who denied blacks their civil rights, and - since it is impossible to know the minds of those who display the flag - it is better to keep it out of the workplace, Solomon said.
"If you can't determine the use of a Confederate flag, why should you let it come into your place of work?" Solomon asked.
SCANA denies allegations it has a racially hostile environment.
Yeah , I also heard that Gore's people tried to mooch some free Springstein concert tickets for the whole staff. Prince Albert got turned down !
Got a phone call from someone in downtown Columbia today that the downtown restaurant was packed with people lined up out the door to the street. People were having to park two blocks away and walk to the restaurant. There are five locations around Columbia that had similar activity.
If SCANA has the gonads to fire several hundred employees at once, then more power to them. Even they aren't too stupid to figure out they would shut themselves down by doing so.
Oh yea, and several hundred fired employees would equal several hundred plaintiffs.
Go one better, put the cross on a real live brown bear and let it loose on Berkeley campus. Have some pinkos for lunch.
Lincoln believed (with good reason) that his Consitutional authority to emancipate slaves was limited to areas under rebel control.
All of the above are the words of Abraham Lincoln...
The public letter to Horace Greeley that you quoted stated Lincoln's position as of the date it was written (July 1862). At that time a large majority of Americans did not want to see the war transformed into a crusade for abolition, but note that Lincoln was still indicating in that letter that he was contemplating some sort of emancipation order.
In order to hold the Union together in 1862, Lincoln needed the support of conservative Republicans and War Democrats as well as Radical Republicans. Lincoln eventually moved very close to the position of the Radical Republicans on abolition and negro suffrage, and in fact it was the speech Lincoln gave in April of 1865 -- wherein he became the first President to advocate negro suffrage -- that so enraged John Wilkes Booth that he assassinated Lincoln.
I travel to Charleston several times a year from Tennessee, and I ALWAYS make a point to stop at Maurice's on the way down AND on the way back for their delicious chicken fingers...best on the planet! (Several bottles of his B-B-Q sauce in the cupboard, as we "speak".)
Is he half-hearted? What about a free lunch?
That is very poor reasoning and ignores facts too numerous to mention. As I noted above, the EP was so limited because Lincoln felt that his Constitutional authority was so limited. The Confederates were not advocating "states' rights", they were advocating slavery. They protested the exercise of state power by Northern states to limit the ill effects of the Fugitive Slave Law, they seceded with declarations which made it very clear that their position was "thoroughly identitfied with the institution of slavery", and they adopted a Confederate Constitution which forbade any Confederate state from abolishing slavery.
Slavery as an institution was still legal under Lincoln and the gov't in Washington, D.C. for two more years in the United States (Northern States) than in the Confederacy.
Slavery was legal during the entire existence of the Confederacy, while in the U.S. it was abolished as soon as the Republicans could overcome the Democrats. The 13th Amendment was passed by Congress as soon as the Republicans gained firm control (i.e. the necessary 2/3) of Congress during the 1864 election, and the only thing holding up ratification by 3/4 of the states was reconstruction of enough Southern states to do so.
Or if you maintain that slavery was legal under Confederate law then you must acknowledge the legitimacy of the Confederacy !
The Confederates had de facto control of the "Confederate States", so they enforced their laws and preserved slavery as long as they maintained control of those areas -- regardless of their "legitimacy".
"I think Maurice Bessinger is a cruel man. It is not fair for blacks to be in slavery and whites not."
Public schools.
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