Flag politics (Georgians boycott Coke over Dixie Flag)

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/coke/0105/20flaggers.html

And you thought the battle over the state flag was finished.

But the Rev. Bill Swann and a group of fellow thinkers are still out there, fighting for a return of the old flag and its long-controversial Confederate symbol.

Swann's pet project in the effort is an ongoing boycott of Coca-Cola, a company he believes was partial to opponents of the old flag. He's been avoiding Coke drinks since 2002.

One lawmaker, state Rep. Timothy Bearden (R-Villa Rica), has even decided to take up the issue, despite slim chances for success.

A former cop who now runs a business that makes awards and trophies, Bearden is new to the statehouse. During his campaign in 2004, Bearden said he found many voters who still talked about the flag issue and wanted a chance to vote on the 1956 banner.

He has introduced a bill to stage an "advisory referendum" that would offer the 1956 flag as an option. Flaggers are still rankled that last year's referendum left out the controversial '56 flag

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. This one

for those who don't know

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. What year does the "old flag" date to?

1963?

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. 1956...

adopted by the bigots in the state legislature to protest Brown v Board of Education...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. Exactly why it should stay in mothballs

or better yet, be burned.

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. Right you are.

Fucking redneck swine. Bah. They ought to go join Alabama and leave the sane people Atlanta and Savannah.

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. I'm so glad to see the idiots under the gold dome are really

focusing on something important this year.

It's a power play to lay the foundation for some Republican to challenge our idiot governor in their Republican primary. Even his own people think he's a dumbass. Bring up the stupid flag issue now to get people good and riled up for next year. Remind people that current bozo promised them that they could vote on the issue (we did, but the old Confederate one wasn't one of the choices when the voting came round).

I AM SICK TO GODDAMNED DEATH OF THIS! You wanna see flag burning?? If they bring this crap back and try to ram that piece of shit cloth down our throats again, I'll be on the capital steps with my Zippo.

Sonsabitches. :mad: :grr: :nuke: :thumbsdown:

That is how I feel about that.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Well, you know, the NEW flag is NOT what you'd call an improvement, really

It's just a DIFFERENT Confederate flag, with the Georgia state seal instead of stars representing the Confederate states in the blue canton.

[Hosnon]

13. Well yea but didn't someone say that a sign of a good compromise

is when no party is happy?

[Hoyt]

25. Leave the dang flag dead.

Please No.

Lived in Atlanta most of my life -- the best thing our legislature has done is get rid of that symbol of hate. It was only 100 or so years late, but at least it was done (and then I think they were forced into it with the pending Olympics).

I really hope it doesn't become and issue again, but it won't surprise me with the fools here.

One nice thing about the flag is it's easy to spot a fool when they put it on their car or fly it over their house.

[maddezmom]

26. welcome to DU, Hoyt

:hi:

[newyawker99]

28. Hi Hoyt!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NuttyFluffers]

3. meh, my friends and i more than make up for their boycott

we love coca cola. though if i could i'd drink mostly RC cola (it's a tasty cola and a bit more liberal). the only cola my friends and i cannot stand is pepsi (for its conservativeness and for its sickeningly sweet flavor). funny thing was i grew up on pepsi in saudi arabia. it was the only american cola available there. i think they were boycotting coca cola in some sort of snub against israel, but this was like the early 80s so maybe it was something else. but i ended up drinking pepsi like water back then... well actually it kinda was like water. water back then, as is pretty much now, was a commodity. desalination water was/is expensive and doesn't taste all that great. the kingdom asked kindly if you'd drink soft drinks instead.

i loved vimto, teem, afri-cola, and miranda though. they were quite tasty.

[joeybee12]

4. I'm drinking a diet coke right now--this makes me want to....

...go get another!

[jdj]

5. well, there's nothing like getting behind the really pressing issues

of our time.

[rlpincus]

9. Georgians as wayward Confederates

Its pretty laughable that Georgians would adopt the Confederate battle flag--oh, excuse me, the Stars and Bars is not the Confederate National Flag, but who is keeping track anyway--since the Civil War-era governor of Georgia helped destroy the Confederacy. That fine statesman took states rights to heart and refused to release any supplies from his bursting Georgia warehouses unless they went directly to Georgian troops. As a result, Confederate soldiers with ragged uniforms and worn-out shoes huddled around smoky fires practically starving to death while Governor Brown hoarded his mountain of supplies, all with the full support of his people. Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's president, was apoplectic but couldn't order the Guv to comply since states rights prevented the Confederate government from making such demands on a soveriegn state. Like one wag put it, "The Confederacy died of an idea." Of course, try to explain that to present day Georgia politicians.

[Hobarticus]

12. Come now...you know history isn't their strong suit.

Painting history with broad strokes is easier on the cranium.

[0rganism]

14. the confederate battle flag is the perfect southern red state symbol

Let them have it already. The rest of us have a right to know what the southern racists are all about, so running the stars&bars is a perfect way to advertise their proud heritage of plantation slavery and open treason.

[Hosnon]

15. AHEM - Please don't forget that just because GA is RED doesn't mean that

all of its citizens are.

[0rganism]

19. I understand your position, there are indeed liberals in Georgia

but I think you'll agree that you represent a statewide minority -- a strong and vocal one, but a minority nonetheless. Face it, a substantial majority of your fellow Georgian voters prefer the confederate heritage represented on their flag. Let's be democratic (small d) about this.

The question with respect to state symbols is, or ought to be, in some sense, representative of who makes the laws for that state. If California re-elected Schwarzenegger and radical neo-cons took over the legislature there, they'd be all set to replace their bear with a swastika no matter how many progressives live in San Francisco.

Perhaps, when our legislatures get around to voting on the gay-marriage ban amendment to the constitution, we could have a national referendum to replace the US flag with the confederate battle flag and take care of both issues at one time.

[DemBones DemBones]

18. The battle flag is the one most people know, the

St. Andrew's cross on a red ground. The Stars and Bars is a completely different Confederate flag.

[0rganism]

21. You're absolutely right, I tend to get them confused so...

...in case anyone else wants to compare:
"Stars & Bars"


"Confederate Battle Flag"

[DemBones DemBones]

22. Good job! A lot of people just assume that

the battle flag has stars and bars (crossed ones!) so it must be the Stars and Bars.

NOT!!!

As a design, the battle flag is far more powerful and attractive, hence its popularity.

[0rganism]

24. I did a bit of reading on the backstory of the stars&bars vs. battle flag

After all 11 states joined the Confederacy, each one getting a star on the flag, it became difficult for the civil war armies to tell them apart in the middle of battles due to its similarity to the Union's stars&stripes. Thus the need for a separate battle flag and naval jack.

[karlrschneider]

16. Villa Rica is a hotbed of insane wingnuts...I fought for years with a

nutjob named Stan Hardegree on the old FIDO network. Creationist, segregationist, bigot, hypocrite and goofy in every other way.
:eyes:

[DemBones DemBones]

17. Southerners will never vote Democratic if Dems like you

continue to disparage them. Why is it that liberals can sympathize with conquered peoples in Ireland, Israel, Tibet, etc., but cannot get it that Southerners were a conquered people less than 150 years ago? Southerners have certainly not forgotten Reconstruction and the injustices suffered by their ancestors.

Just as blacks want to look back to their history in Africa, to the accomplishments of their people in Africa, to the time before they were sold into slavery, Southern whites want to look back to the time when they stood up against the tyranny of Washington and fought for the freedom of the Confederacy, the time before they were conquered and began to be exploited as cheap labor by Northern companies that relocated to the South.

Northerners could be more gracious winners and try to walk a mile or two in a Southerner's shoes. Try to see why they care about symbols of the past.

[Charlie Brown]

20. Are you addressing me?

How am I "disparaging" anyone? All I did was post this story from the ajc, replete with a condensation of the content lifted verbatim from the text and an appropriate header (Georgians boycott Coke over Dixie flag). I did not take sides in describing the story. Does the fact that I post ajc stories at DU mean I have condescending feelings toward Southerners and look down on them?

[DemBones DemBones]

23. No, I intended to address those who wrote disparagingly about

Southerners in their posts, but posted as a reply to the opening post (yours) as the best way to reply to a group. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

The AJC does exhibit condescending feelings toward Southerners but that's not your fault.

[Spider Jerusalem]

27. I live in the South...

have most of my life...my parents were born here, my grandparents were born here, most of my family, in fact, going back three hundred to nearly four hundred years, have been SOUTH of the Mason-Dixon line (Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas). My family, between the mid-1600's and 1800's, owned plantations, and slaves (the latter a fact I personally find disgusting). The only ancestor I know of who served in the Civil War wore grey (and he was a poor dirt farmer who didn't own slaves). I'd say that, given my background, I am quite entitled to hold negative opinions of Southerners who choose to glorify an emblem (the Confederate battle flag) which has been nothing more than the visible symbol of racist opression and Jim Crow. Do you have a problem with that? Too bad.