Posted on 05/06/2003 12:53:57 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
The Georgia State Legislature has approved what it thinks will be an acceptable compromise between what new Gov. Sonny Perdue so often promised and what the NAACP opposes in its absurd Confederate flag-banning crusade.
The newly proposed flag is claimed to be a new version of the Stars and Bars. This was the Confederacy's first national flag and in no way resembles the Confederate Battle Flag.
But this is not what Gov. Perdue promised. He promised that all voters would have a chance to decide on which state flag they prefer. And this latest in new state flags is already in trouble, because it has the wording "IN GOD WE TRUST."
That led Democrat Representative Thomas Bordeaux to declare: "The Church is the place to advertise God, not the government."
Hence, this newest Georgia state flag will engender opposition not only from the Georgia atheists, agnostics and ACLU-ers ; but also from the black militant ban-the-flaggers.
Michael Bond, son of the NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, told the Associated Press in Atlanta: "This is a heinous proposal. It's still a Confederate flag. It's completely objectionable."
The AP also reported that "Civil-rights leaders promised an economic boycott if the [flag] bill was not changed to remove any chance that the Confederate emblem might be approved by referendum. They may still call for a boycott. The temporary flag also has Confederate roots, they said."
The NAACP has been boycotting the entire state of South Carolina since January of 2000. This boycott has had about as much effect as the feminist boycott of Georgia's Augusta National Golf Club's Masters Classic, because the club does not allow women as members.
The voters of Mississippi recently voted overwhelmingly to retain their state flag, with the Confederate Battle Flag in the Canton or upper left one-quarter. Even in some Mississippi counties where the majority voters are black, the Confederate flag-banners were voted down.
Will Democratic presidential candidates ; all nine of them ; boycott Mississippi and stay away, as they have surely not obeyed the NAACP boycott of South Carolina, which has the nation's second presidential primary?
Even more hilariously hypocritical is one of the newest of this Lightweight Nine.
The State, which is the daily newspaper for South Carolina's capitol city of Columbia, reported on Saturday that U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham of Florida issued the following statement with regard to the Confederate Battle Flag:
At this time that our nation is under threat, we should be rallying around symbols that tie us together and not tear us apart," he said. "The Southern Cross that flew as the Confederate Battle Flag has become a symbol of hatred to many Americans and should not be prominently displayed at the South Carolina capitol.
When Graham was governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987, a Confederate national flag flew outside the Florida state house. But Graham said that was different.
Graham said that the "Stainless Banner" Confederate flag that was on display does not carry the same connotations as South Carolina's battle flag. "In Florida we flew the Spanish, French and British flags along with the Confederate national flag ; not the battle flag ; in a historical procession of previous governments of our state."
Other democratic presidential candidates have made their stances known.
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York have said they support the NAACP's boycott. Sharpton has indicated he will honor the economic sanctions.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman have said that they oppose the flag flying in front of the state house (in the state's Confederate war memorial).
Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri has said the flag shouldn't fly "anytime, anywhere," but that doesn't apply to flags on private property.
Carol Mosley-Braun, former Ambassador to New Zealand and former U.S. senator from Illinois, has said the flag is a divisive symbol that belongs in a historical setting.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry has said he respects the compromise by the South Carolina legislature three years ago that led to the flag changing positions. But he said he would rather see it in a museum.
South Carolina's Feb. 3, 2004, presidential primary is the first in the South.
But how can all these democratic candidates support the NAACP boycott of South Carolina ; unless they bring in box lunches and suppers, gasoline supply trucks and equipment to camp out?
As for Sen. Graham's concern about "a flag that has become symbol of hatred for many Americans": For 89 years, the Star Spangled Banner was the flag of a slave nation. And many Americans ; in places like San Francisco ; regard it as so much of a symbol of hatred that they publicly burn it, and even urinate on it, as mobs cheer.
By striking contrast on Sunday afternoon, April 27, 2003, at Frederick, Maryland's Mt. Olivet Cemetery, there was an observance of Confederate Decoration Day.
It began in a very beautiful Francis Scott Key Memorial Chapel, erected to honor Maryland's author of our national anthem.
After a chapel service the participants who filled the chapel to standing room only, marched to the site where a large statue marks the section of this cemetery where hundreds of known and unknown Confederate soldiers are buried.
Among those placing two dozen memorial wreaths were the Sons of Union Veterans. When we went to a ceremony remembering their honored dead, one of their leaders, noting that a Confederate battle flag was on a flag pole, told us: "If anyone ever tries to get your battle flag removed, we'll be right behind you."
Why can't the Georgia legislature and the NAACP be as tolerant and considerate of history, ancestry and courage as the Maryland Sons of Union Veterans?
The "Stainless Banner" is as black as sin.
Walt
Poor choice of words Walt. Freudian slip, maybe?
Ok, so what group is going to grow so fast (and how are they going to do it?) that another deity can be inserted? Furthermore, if said group does gain such prominence and power why would they care about whether or not there is "Seperation of church and state?"
Tell us more about ol' Sal why don't you? Tell us what he became next, if you dare, and the two decisions made at his new job during the second half of the 1860s. Tell us also what Sal was like at the beginning of the war, his advice to the tyrant, and his reason for it.
Please tell us, we're all hear to worship the god of the Republican /Whig /Mercantilist party aren't we? I've almost felt sorry for lincoln in the past, almost. But Salmon P. Chase? Never
Sorry stainless, I see Perdue, while presenting a better flag, still sold out
Zamn Stainless,,,you must be clairvoyant. lol!!!
It seems like that is what politicians do best.
i HOPE the DIMocRATS keep this up, as they will become the PERMANENT minority party in the southland;that's a GOOD THING!
W/O the southland they will NEVER again elect a POTUS! NEVER!
FRee dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
NOW they are a handfull of money-hungry racebaiters, PC-idiots, creeps & LIBs, leading the dumbest of the dumb.
FRee dixie,sw
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.