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Does the Confederate Flag offend you? http://www.sodahead.com/question/537677/does-the-confederate-flag-offend-you/ I came across this question asked at SodaHead.com that has produced a lively discussion with over 2500 comments. I thought I would post it here at Free Republic and see if it gets a similiar response.

Monday, July 13th, in the year of our Lord 2009, is the 188th birthday of American legend and Southern Hero--Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.

CLEMSON — The ACC has halted its plans to hold its conference baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, citing failure to reach an agreement on the Confederate flag issue. In May, the ACC awarded the event to Myrtle Beach for 2011-13, expressing a willingness to look past the NCAA’s ban of predetermined championship events being contested in the state. On Monday, the league announced it had given the event to Durham, N.C. (for 2011, 2013) and Greensboro, N.C. (for 2012), confirming a report by The State that its plans had changed. Clemson coach Jack Leggett - Mary Ann Chastain /AP Do...

CUMBERLAND, Md. — A dispute has erupted in Cumberland over the distribution of a brochure that purports to explain the history of the Confederate battle flag in Allegany County public schools.

Should the U.S. keep a closer watch on white supremacists? Yes No Poll is in reference to an article about flying the Confederate Flag at taxpayer-funded events.

Civil rights groups on Thursday put city and business leaders here on a 30-day notice that unless they meet a list of demands – including a ban on the display of the Confederate flag at taxpayer-funded events – they will be subjected to protests and boycotts.

HOMESTEAD—The Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP has set its sights on NASCAR, Homestead’s major national attraction, in its fight against the Confederate Flag. The civil rights organization will first reach out to officials with the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, seeking to enlist their help in efforts to ban the controversial symbol from city-sponsored events. If that does not work, however, NAACP officials say they will consider a boycott and protest march at the NASCAR events slated for Nov. 20-22 at the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway. NAACP officials on Wednesday said they are drafting a letter to NASCAR Chairman...

A federal appeals court ruled that a Missouri school district had the right to suspend a student who wore a cap depicting a Confederate flag. The ruling Friday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said schools may restrict First Amendment rights "in certain limited circumstances." It affirms a lower court ruling from 2007. Bryce Archambo was 14 when he was suspended from Farmington High School in September 2006, after wearing a baseball cap depicting the Confederate flag with the words, "C.S.A. Rebel Pride, 1861." The district said the flag was associated with racism and feared...

MARYSVILLE, Wash. - At least three students were suspended from Marysville-Pilchuck High School after displaying the Confederate flag. Ray Hauser, spokesperson for the school district, said one incident occurred in October, and another just last week. The students say the flag is a symbol of culture and heritage, but the school district says it's also a symbol of hatred. Hauser said the students are aware of school policy, and when the administration learned of the displays, the students were called in for a discussion and suspensions occurred immediately. Eighteen-year-old Ethian Allen is a senior at the school. Over the past...

A few weeks ago, as I was walking across the campus of UNC-Wilmington, I heard an old familiar sound. A rap song was blaring from the general vicinity of the university amphitheater. I heard the n-word broadcast loudly (from over 100 yards away) so I decided to walk over to investigate the source of the racial epithet.

The leader of the state NAACP said Monday that the group's boycott of South Carolina over the Confederate flag on statehouse grounds is gaining traction in Hollywood, but Lonnie Randolph declined Monday to name drop, saying an announcement would come in January. Using its offices in Hollywood, Baltimore and South Carolina, leaders of the civil rights group have been aggressively courting actors and film executives since calls for a renewed economic sanction was announced during the NAACP's national convention in July. The new plan calls for asking actors and movie studios to shun the state's efforts to lure film makers....

CLINTON, Tenn. — Likening the case to the racial discord of the mid- to late 1950s in Anderson County, county school officials on Thursday night said this week's U.S. federal court hearing over a student's right to wear the Confederate flag symbol is being funded "by outside sources." "Regardless of what you read there's a lot more to it than our enforcement of our dress code," John Burrell, Anderson County Board of Education chairman, said during the county school board's regular monthly meeting. At the meeting's start, Anderson County school board members spent approximately 20 minutes in an executive session...

TAMPA, FLA. - Chip Witte doesn't consider himself a Rebel. He doesn't hang Dixie battle flags in his living room, nor does he wear one on the back of his leather jacket. Yet when the Tampa motorcycle mechanic saw the world's largest Confederate battle flag unfurl above the intersection of I-75 and I-4 in June, he felt a jolt of solidarity with the lost cause and lost rights that he says the battle flag represents. "I think it's great that they're allowed to fly it," says Mr. Witte. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified the highway intersection.]

TEMPLE TERRACE — Bart Siegel, an outspoken advocate for the display of the giant Confederate flag near the intersection of Interstate 4 and I-75, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot in his Temple Terrace home Thursday. Siegel, 50, was a Republican accountant who penned long letters to newspapers and verbally sparred with columnists. In 2000, he announced his desire to "stir things up" by running against then-Hillsborough Clerk of the Circuit Court Richard Ake, a Democrat unopposed since 1986. Siegel lost, but kept stirring things up. In the face of a protest, Siegel professed his love for the...

Chip Witte doesn't consider himself a Rebel. He doesn't hang Dixie battle flags in his living room, nor does he wear one on the back of his leather jacket. Yet when the Tampa motorcycle mechanic saw the world's largest Confederate battle flag unfurl above the intersection of I-10 and I-4 in June, he felt a jolt of solidarity with the lost cause and lost rights that he says the battle flag represents. "I think it's great that they're allowed to fly it," says Mr. Witte. Despite years of boycotts, schoolyard bans, and banishment from capitol domes, the Southern battle colors...

In Minnesota, three government high school seniors were suspended and banned from graduation ceremonies for a prank involving Confederate flags. The principal says they were suspended for violating the school district's anti-discrimination rules. The Bloomington Kennedy High School says that three male students brought the flags onto school property. They were apparently suspended after "carrying and waving" the flags in the parking lot as parents and students arrived at school. Something tells me there is more to this story. Ok, here we have a government school that has suspended some students for bringing a freaking flag on school grounds. There...

At least one of the Bloomington Kennedy High School students suspended Tuesday, June 3, for displaying a Confederate flag had been warned about doing so after an earlier incident. Rick Kaufman, Bloomington Public School's executive director of communications, said three students who participated in the flag display have been suspended and won't be permitted to take part in Kennedy's graduation ceremony tonight, June 4, at Target Center in Minneapolis. At least one of the suspended students had been warned against displaying the flag following a previous incident, said Kaufman. He declined to give details but said the student must have...

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) ― Flying the Confederate flag has long been controversial in Southern states but now it's causing a heated debate at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minn. Three seniors who displayed the flag will not be allowed to attend their graduation ceremony Wednesday evening. "It was sitting like that in the parking lot," said Justin Thompson, as he held a Confederate flag that was hanging from a pole inside a pick-up truck bed. On Tuesday, three seniors, each with a rebel flag on the back of their pick-ups, parked at Kennedy High School. "I'm just a country type...

Three high school seniors have been barred from Bloomington Kennedy High School's graduation ceremony tonight at Target Center because of what the school district is calling a prank involving Confederate flags. Rick Kaufman, a spokesman for the Bloomington School District, said three male students brought the flags onto school property Tuesday morning. He said they were suspended after "carrying and waving" the flags in the parking lot as parents and students arrived at the school. Bloomington Kennedy senior Kellie Rezac is a friend of the three boys and helped organize a protest outside the school earlier today. Rezac said the...

Three seniors at Bloomington Kennedy High School will not be allowed to walk in their graduation ceremony after driving to school with confederate flags flying from their trucks. Seventy-five other students showed up at the school Wednesday morning to protest the action taken by the school against Justin Thompson, Joey Snyder and another student. "I figured, you know, we’re seniors, it’s the last day of school…we didn’t mean any offense by it," Thompson said. Added Snyder: "We didn’t look at it as racist or anything." But school officials feel that flying a confederate flag violates the school’s student conduct policy....

TAMPA, Fla. -- A giant Confederate battle flag -- believed to be the world's largest -- may soon be flying near a Tampa highway intersection. A Confederate heritage group called the Sons of Confederate Veterans plans to fly the flag that measures 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide. The group said it expects to have its flag in place by 2009. "I'm surprised that they would allow something like this to go on in Hillsborough County," county NAACP President Curtis Stokes told the St. Petersburg Times. The group has building permits but still needs $30,000 to complete the project,...

TAMPA — Next year, a giant Confederate flag may tower above the tree line near the junction of Interstate 75 and Interstate 4. The Sons of Confederate Veterans wants drivers in the Tampa area to see the massive flag — 30 feet high and 50 feet long — atop a 139-foot pole, the highest the Federal Aviation Authority would allow. It would be lit at night. With the pole already in the ground and building permits in hand, the group is on its way to having what it calls the "world's largest" Confederate flag in place by mid 2009. The...

Does the Confederate battle flag represent heritage or hatred? The answer is yes. It represents a heritage that included hatred.

They will tell you the Civil War was not about slavery. Remind them that the president and vice president of the so-called "Confederate States of America" both said it was. They will tell you that great-great grandpa Zeke fought for the South, and he never owned any slaves. Remind them that it is political leaders - not grunts - who decide whether and why a war is waged. They will tell you the flag just celebrates heritage. Remind them that "heritage" is not a synonym for "good." After all, Nazis have a heritage, too.

The controversial stars and bars of the Confederate Flag could soon find their way to Florida license plates. State Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, has worked with the Sons of Confederate Veterans to sponsor a bill that would allow the group to create a non-profit license plate that bears the Dixie flag. The tag would cost roughly $25 from the Department of Motor Vehicles. SCV Executive Director Ben Sewell said his organization has been successful in the past at getting the license plates in numerous states and feels they’ve met the requirements in the state of Florida to acquire the...

Ringgold City Council is facing potential legal action based on its 2005 decision to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the Ringgold Depot Civil War Memorial. The Southern Legal Resource Center notified the city Feb. 11 by letter from SLRC chief trial counsel Kirk D. Lyons that it will face legal action unless it replaces the battle flag within 10 days. According to Roger McCredie, Southern Legal Resource Center executive director, the letter puts the city on notice that its clients, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and its local Joseph McConnell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp...

Have you noticed there are questions liberals are seldom asked that conservatives always are, and vice versa? Democrats are very seldom grilled about their abortion views, while Republicans are required to defend them. And it would appear every four years, Republican presidential candidates are called upon to answer for that South Carolina "solidarity" flag which includes the brand of the confederacy.

The Rev. Al Sharpton released a statement Friday chastising one “John Huckabee” for saying South Carolina should be able to decide whether it wants to fly the Confederate flag. Of course he meant Mike Huckabee — the GOP candidate who on the campaign trail Thursday said outsiders should not tell South Carolina what to do when it comes to that flag. Either way, as the controversy of race settles on the Democratic side, Sharpton said Republican Huckabee is now offending the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. “In the midst of a national celebration of the life and teachings of...

In its anti-McCain ad, an announcer states: "Mitt Romney is trying, but when it comes to bashing the Confederate flag he can't hold a candle to John McCain. McCain's been doing it - calling the flag a racist symbol - for years." Both minute-long spots go on to applaud Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, saying he is more in tune with Southern values.

Some students want the school administration to ban the Confederate battle flag outright, even if its presence is mainly limited at this point to small decals, belt buckles or cell phone screens kept by a small number of students... Senior Megan Allen said she's gotten about 300 of the school's roughly 1,500 students and about 20 teachers to sign her petition calling for school officials to ban the flag on campus,

The Republican presidential candidates on Thursday moved to appeal to different types of conservative voters before the South Carolina primary, with Mike Huckabee using colorful language to declare the Confederate flag a states’ rights issue and Senator John McCain embracing a supply-side tax cut proposal. “You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, told supporters in Myrtle Beach, according to The Associated Press. “In fact,” he said, “if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d...

In what was an apparent attempt to woo conservative votes in South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee began speaking today about the state's flag. At an event in Myrtle Beach on Thursday Huckabee told supporters gathered in an airplane hangar, "You don't want anyone from out of state comin' down and telling you what to do with your flag. In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag we'd tell them where to put the pole." The comment seemed to refer to the fact that for years the Confederate flag flew over...

-- And Hitting McCain A pro-Confederate Flag third-party group is running new radio ads in South Carolina praising Mike Huckabee's pro-state's-rights stance on the flag issue -- and slamming John McCain over his repeated criticism of the controversial symbol. "Mike Huckabee's stand is a breath of fresh air," say the ads, which are paid for by the Americans for the Preservation of American Culture. "Gov. Huckabee understands that all the average guy with a Confederate Flag on his pickup truck is saying is: He's proud to be a Southerner." McCain has been dogged by the flag issue in South Carolina...

MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN) – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told South Carolina voters Thursday that the government had no business making decisions over the Confederate flag.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee criticized the Confederate flag, which happens to be hoisted on the Statehouse grounds in the early primary state of South Carolina. [snip] Both candidates are front-runners in South Carolina. Both may have to answer questions about those comments next time they hit the state. [end]

COCOA BEACH, Fla. -- Students at Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School are waging a war on peace. Recently, sophomore Skylar Stains decided to hold Peace Shirt Thursdays at the school. Skylar and her friend, Lauren Lorraine, started wearing peace shirts and soon recruited more friends to wear them. Now, the "Peace Shirt Coalition" as they call themselves, has close to 30 students from all grades. "We've worn handmade peace shirts every Thursday since the first week of school, without fail," Skylar said. But what started out as a light-hearted gesture soon started to be taken out of context. Students started...

COLUMBIA, S.C. --Outspoken barbecue baron Maurice Bessinger - known as much for his support of the Confederate flag as his food- is providing some variety for his customers, but this change has nothing to do with his famous mustard-based sauce. At about half of his dozen restaurants, Bessinger has replaced the better-known Confederate battle flag with its red background, blue cross and white stars with the less recognized and perhaps less controversial first flag of the Confederacy - a banner with two red stripes, a white stripe and a blue square with a circle of white stars. The new flag,...

Administrators at York County School of Technology diverted a student's plan to have several students wear or display the Confederate battle flag at school. A student was trying to rally other students to wear the symbol -- which has recently been the source of controversy at two area schools -- on Thursday as a statement of his heritage, said school executive director James Kraft. But after school administrators intercepted a rumor, they found the "ringleader" Wednesday and, after a discussion with the school's police officer, the student agreed to read a statement to the student body that afternoon over the...

More than seven years ago, the subject of the Confederate flag came up at Central York High School. A student originally from Georgia had apparently worn clothing bearing the battle flag of the Confederacy to school, causing problems with some other students who objected. So in March 2000, the school banned Confederate flag from the school, reasoning that its display had a disruptive effect on the education process. There was no legal challenge to the ban. Had there been, it's likely it would have failed. (snip) The ban was imposed after a disturbance in the Susquehannock High School parking lot...

The Confederate battle flag used to hang in the old House chamber...next to the speaker's chair with the flags of Virginia, the United States... The battle flag is also a symbol of hatred and racism...Racism and slavery now are inextricably interwoven into the battle flag's fabric...The flag also symbolizes rebellion, insurrection and even treason.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The Confederate flag shouldn't fly at the Statehouse, South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier said Saturday after the Gamecocks' annual spring game. Spurrier's comments came in response to questions about something he said Friday night when he received an award from a volunteer organization. According to people at that event, Spurrier said the flag should come down. "My opinion is we don't need the Confederate flag at our Capitol," Spurrier said Saturday. "I don't really know anybody that wants it there, but I guess there are a lot of South Carolinians that do want it there."

MONTGOMERY, Ala., April 10 — Answering a question that has become a litmus test of sorts for Republicans campaigning in the South, Rudolph W. Giuliani said Tuesday that he would leave the decision about whether to fly the Confederate battle flag over the State Capitol here to the people of Alabama. “One of the great beauties of the kind of government we have, which is a national/federal government, is that we can make — on a broad range of issues — we can make different decisions in different parts of the country,” Mr. Giuliani said. “We have different sensitivities, and...

Political considerations color the divergent views of presidential candidates on whether the Confederate flag should be moved from the State House grounds. For Republicans competing in the Feb. 2, 2008, GOP primary, where white voters will hold sway, the flag is a state issue that the candidates are not eager to discuss. On the Democratic side, where half or more of the voters in the Jan. 29, 2008, primary will be black residents, candidates have no qualms about calling for the flag’s removal. “Each side is playing to its basic constituency,” said Blease Graham, a political science professor at USC....

Texas students sue to carry purses decorated with Confederate flag By Martha DellerMcClatchy Newspapers(MCT)DALLAS - Two Burleson High School students filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the Burleson school district over a year-old incident in which school officials denied them the right to carry Confederate battle flag purses to school.Attorneys for the Southern Legal Resource Center prepared the lawsuit on behalf of Aubrie Michelle McAllum and Ashley Paige Thomas, who contend their constitutional rights were violated in January 2006 when school officials prevented them from carrying their new purses to school.The teens were not punished for carrying the purses,...

AUSTIN - Rocker Ted Nugent said Monday that Gov. Rick Perry wants him to deliver this blunt message to anyone who didn’t like the Confederate flag T-shirt the performer wore at the Republican inaugural ball in Austin last week: “Drop dead.” Perry aides gave a slightly different account, but agreed the two talked and said the governor defended Nugent’s right to wave the Confederate flag and to be controversial. In an extended interview with the Star-Telegram, Nugent said Perry called him over the weekend to express his support for the guitarist and the Confederate symbol that was emblazoned on his...

Any attempt to judge our history by today’s standards — out of the context from which it occurred — is at best problematic and at worst dishonest. For example, consider the following quotes: “So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished.” “ ... there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.” By today’s standards, the person who made the first statement, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, would be considered enlightened....

COLUMBIA, S.C. - An NCAA committee decided Tuesday it will not expand its ban on postseason championships in South Carolina and Mississippi, where Confederate emblems are displayed on Statehouse grounds. The Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee said the NCAA should continue its moratorium on bringing predetermined events, such as NCAA basketball regionals, to the two states. The ban will not be expanded, however, to sites awarded on merit, such as baseball tournament regionals or football playoff games.

October 9, 2006 2:58 am EDTRed flagBy Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! SportsSide-by-side at Talladega. (Getty Images) TALLADEGA, Ala. – Over the rolling Alabama hills, the soft autumn breeze still whistles through Dixie, finding a legendary track on race week and a sea of flags to push and pull – American flags, driver flags and the flag that remains the third rail of NASCAR, the Confederate. In America, a NASCAR race is the last major sporting event where the Stars and Bars is still so prevalent, still so prominent, and while the debate over whether the flag's presence is appropriate isn't...

The Sons of Confederate Veterans are demanding that Sen. George Allen apologize for apologizing. Allen has tried to mend fences with minorities over his use of the word "macaca," a racially-charged word, in part by saying he has regretted his infatuation with the Confederate flag. That touched off an angry response Thursday from two leaders of the 4,000-member Confederate group, who said Allen has turned his back on them. "We feel he's using our flag to wipe the muck from his shoes that he's now stepped in," said Frank Earnest of Virginia Beach, state division commander of the group.

The group Sons of Confederate Veterans met at Orlando's Lake Eola Park to show off their proposed personalized tag late Friday morning. They said it's simply a matter of time before the plate becomes one of the many you can purchase as a specialty license plate. The group said the plate honors Florida's heritage by showing all five flags of the confederate army, including their battle flag. But it's a heritage some say simply represents hate. Standing below the memorial for confederate soldiers, a small but vocal group made their point Friday. They want Floridians to learn that the Civil...