Flag Vote Angers Southern Heritage Groups

[Khephra]

ATLANTA -- Southern heritage groups called for an economic boycott of Atlanta on Wednesday, a day after Georgia voters overwhelmingly approved a state flag without the divisive Confederate rebel "X."

About 50 people rallied outside the Capitol, saying tepid turnout for the flag referendum meant people thought it was phony. The ballot didn't allow voters to choose the 1956 version dominated by the Confederate cross of stars.

"The rigged referendum yesterday was an insult to the good dignity of every Georgian," said Steve Harris, vice chairman of the Southern Party of Georgia.

"Large segments of the Georgia General Assembly have more regard for the Yankee dollars... than they do for the wishes of their constituents," said Ray McBerry of the Georgia League of the South. "We encourage Southerners to cease doing business within the city-state of Atlanta."

more............

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-georgia-flag,0,4281023.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[arcane1]

1. the Confederate "heritage" is as anti-American as it gets

and I was born and raised in their capital, I should know

any group that fights to secede from the Union, and KILLS AMERICANS in the process, is a group that hates America. Pretty simple

Funny, though, how they fight against the will of the voters when it doesn't agree with them.

Those mere 50 ralliers are "an insult to the good dignity of every" human being on this planet

they really need to get over themselves. They lost, and 150 years later they STILL wish they weren't Americans :eyes:

[Hotdiggitydog]

4. I like the new flag...

Looks great and it retains some "heratige" without the hate.

[Adamocrat]

11. If it weren't for the "city-state" of Atlanta...

which is my home, these people in rural Georgia would have starved to death long ago. We pay the taxes for the bulk of this state. That said, I hope Sonny Perdue gets what he deserves when voters go back to the booths.

The Democratic Party here in Georgia would be wise to tie Perdue to the Bush misadministration, since he had his lips firmly suctioned to Dumbya's sphincter during his campaign.

-A

[mot78]

2. These people are traitors

http://www.southernindependentparty.com/platform.htm

Check out the bottom proposal.

[QC]

7. Something interesting from that platform.

We favor honest voting with a return to the old more reliable paper ballot being tallied by hand and verified by precinct and higher citizen's committees open to public viewing.

Looks like we're not the only ones suspicious of the new voting machines.

[TroglodyteScholar]

3. Rigged?

Because 50 people didn't get their way, the vote was rigged. This kind of thing is the reason that people don't pay attention to ACTUAL problems with the voting system.

Georgia is tired of being seen as racist...or at least most of us are. Not to mention we have a huge black population that probably wasn't too thrilled with the old flag, either.

Either way, the referendum was "non-binding." How ridiculous is that?

Guess it worked anyway, though, since the margin was so overwhelming.

[DoNotRefill]

19. I think their problem....

was with the fact that the flag that they use currently was not on the ballot at all...If it had been, they probably would have voted to retain it.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

5. yankee dollars?

too funny.

[dixielib]

6. I'm a 50+ year Georgia resident....

...and I didn't bother to vote on the flag. I would have if the old confederate flag had been offered because I DO NOT want it back. We need to move past that flimsy hold to old Dixie. I am white but am proud of every step we have taken to get discrimination out of this state.

[newyawker99]

18. Hi dixielib!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Southern heritage

would be flying the Stars and Bars, which has a blue canton with a circle of stars and a red, white, red bar. The southern heritage folks in this part of Arkansas fly this flag, not the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, and I have no problem with them. Those who fly the flag that was used post-bellam to promote racism and the KKK are racists, not people who are interested in history and heritage.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. The choices on the ballot were the blue flag with huge center seal

and six small flags under that (one of them the rebel battle flag) -- which is the current flag -- and the other was essentially the Stars and Bars, with a couple more stars, I think. Perdue campaigned on a promise of a referendum of the old flag (the battle flag) and the new flag, which we obviously didn't get. For graphic appeal, they're both inferior to the battle flag, which is a very good-looking flag. Wish we could have gotten a new, better looking a flag.

At least the flags added color to the ballot. :shrug:

[bluestateguy]

9. Boycott?

Does this mean that conservative white southerners will boycott voting too? Pretty please?

[boobooday]

12. Good for the people of Georgia

I applaud you.

And some of these people are still talking bout "Yankees?" And it ain't baseball? Whoa. Get with the schmillenium, dude!

:toast: :toast:

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[TankLV]

13. Southern Heritage Groups = Racists

Love the term, tho - so "gentlemanly".

Bunch of sick bigots - every single one of them.

Disgusting.

[Nevernose]

14. Most of them, but not all members

One can be proud of one's Southern heritage without being racist, although you're right -- more often than not, "southern heritage" equals "I blame all non-WASPs for all of my personal problems."

One can also look at the confederate flag and realize that slavery is only a small part of what it represented (then again, the only reason that it's on the damn state flag was because of segregationists in the 50's).

[cprompt]

17. break out

the broad brush their trigger, gg.

[sonias]

15. Why not send them some lovely parting gifts

Maybe they would like some white hoods to wear at their next protest.

Confederate rebel "X", sounds like a good handle for a freeper. I'm sure there are a zillion using that one.

:evilgrin:

Sonia

[struggle4progress]

16. About time

After 140 years, you'd think folks who can read would be able to see that, in the "Late Unpleasantness" between the states, southern behaviors clearly fit the Constitutional definition of treason: the rebels were lucky they weren't hanged. I had ancestors on both sides of that war; by about 1900, my Southern progenitors had all agreed the right side won.

[DemoTex]

20. I'll look for a new crop of anti-Sonny signs on the trees along I-20.

Put there by the redneck crackers who elected him. Well, the rednecks and BBV elected Sonny Purdue.

[Spider Jerusalem]

21. Can we say "brain-damaged scum-sucking imbeciles"?

These idiots apparently know sweet fuck-all about their own precious "southern heritage"; the flag selected by the voters in the referendum is, in fact, the first national flag of the Confederate States of America, with the number of stars in the blue canton increased to thirteen.

Here are the two for comparison purposes:

Georgia flag



Confederate flag



Obvious that these people are ignorant of the history they claim to be supporting.

[Dulcinea]

22. Many Georgia residents aren't Southerners.

Atlanta, especially, is a huge transplant area, myself included.

None of my ancestors had anything to do with the Civil War (they weren't in this country yet!) The Confederate flag means absolutely nothing to me, & I bet a lot of people in this state feel the same way.

I know I'm not alone when I say put it in a museum where it belongs, not over public buildings!

BTW, I voted for the flag that won.

[Spider Jerusalem]

23. Then you voted for ANOTHER Confederate flag.

See post #21.

[DemoTex]

24. Confederate "Battle Flag" is what they want. And "Dixie," played loud!

[alittlelark]

25. Spent 2 years of my youth in 'the deep south'

It made me what I am today. I witnessed the racism. I came from a school in which I was a minority (NM) to a place where I (and those that looked like me) was in the percieved majority.
MESSED UP!!!
Hatred is hatred, whether it be words, a flag, or a sicko mindset.


Those that wish to keep this flag are RACISTS. Plain and Simple