illegal to defile or cast contempt on the Confederate flag (Flag Exhibit Draws Criticism)

[The Straight Story]

Confederate Flag Exhibit Draws Criticism

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- An art exhibit that shows a Confederate flag hanging from a noose on a gallows will be allowed to remain on display at a museum in Tallahassee.

Artist John Sims calls his work, "The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag." It's part of a larger exhibition of art from six African-American artists entitled "AfroProvocations."

The Florida chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans objects to the display. The group calls it tasteless and offensive.

Spokesman Bob Hurst asked the museum to take it down.

Hurst said it's an example of hate speech. He thinks the display violates a Florida law that says it's illegal to defile or cast contempt on the Confederate flag.

http://www.local6.com/spotlight/11273584/detail.html

[TerdlowSmedley]

1. Awww, the poor crackers got offended. Tsk, tsk.

[HRC_in_08]

16. is cracker not considered a racial slur? eom

[zeemike]

2. I think it should be illegal to display the flag

Of a nation we fought a war against and lost many men doing so, except in a contemptuous way.

[realisticphish]

3. meh

that's kind of iffy, since we are also said nation :shrug:

but I really don't want to get into semantics, the objection to the display is still idiotic.

[Donnachaidh]

8. some cracker in Georgia is pushing for April to be designated

Confederacy Heritage Month.

Of course, his constituency covers the area of Chickamauga. Of course, these people get all tweaked when asked to apologize about slavery.

:puke:

[realisticphish]

11. What I don't understand

There's never "Civil War appreciation month" started by the people of Gettysburg.

[flyingfysh]

4. the Confederate flag is more protected than the American flag??

This is bizarre. It is perfectly legal to cast contempt on the American flag (although most wouldn't), as in burning a flag as part of an anti-war demonstration. For the flag of traitors to be granted a higher degree of protection is weird.

[IChing]

5. LOL.......

[TN al]

6. I don't really have anything to add...

...other than to say I agree with the other posters and find it ironic that the sons of confederate vets would call it hate speech. I just want to go on record against the display of the confederate flag and the idiots who fly it. Besides if you hang it on end doesn't it look just like a pair of suspenders? Isn't that something to be proud of.

[Donnachaidh]

7. the Confederacy was tasteless and offensive

Can we cast the Sons of the Confederacy out?

[Dhalgren]

9. I think that anyone who reveres the confederate flag should be

both pitied and laughed at - at the same time. The very fact that there are people who would take offense at anything done with a piece of rag that represents nothing but bigotry and defeat is, in itself, a pretty funny and sad phenomonon...

[Goblinmonger]

10. They should have

a good old fashioned southern lynching of the bastards that dare to defile the confederate flag.

[poorinnaples]

12. Lynching???

Was "lynching" simply a southern phenomena, or was it more widespread than most Americans suppose?

http://withoutsanctuary.org/pics_01.html

[Goblinmonger]

13. Yeah, yeah, I know

There was a lynching in Michigan, too. But I flipped through 30 of those pictures on your link and guess where they majority were from? Yep, the south. Lynching isn't only in the south but they sure seemed to have a flair for it. Plus it was a joke to go along with the confederate flag so some level of hyperbole was used.

On edit: welcome to DU

[baldguy]

14. Flying or displaying the Confederate flag with honor is an anti-American act.

[wicket]

15. kick

:kick:

[poorinnaples]

17. What would Howard Dean & James Webb do? But, then there's Lieberman...

Apparently the Democratic party's a bigger tent, than most people realize, because there seems to be some descension within the ranks. Thankfully, Dean & Webb are the ones whose words most Americans actually hear. It's hard to win elections throwing firebombs with one hand, & asking for votes, with the other. Basically, a fool's errand.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/01/elec04.prez.dean.confederate.flag/

** HOWARD DEAN **

"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," the former Vermont governor said in an interview published Saturday in the Des Moines Register. "We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats."

At that event, Dean received a rousing ovation from the crowd when he said, "White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back ought to be voting with us, and not , because their kids don't have health insurance either, and their kids need better schools too."

Lieberman admonished Dean to watch his words.

"Governor Dean ought to be more careful about what he says," he said. "It is irresponsible and reckless to loosely talk about one of the most divisive, hurtful symbols in American history."

*************************************************

** JAMES WEBB **

Suffice it to say that from the outset, "poor but proud" was an unapologetic and uncomplaining way of life. Nor on the other side, did modern liberals invent the term "redneck", although it is only in recent decades that the term has been uttered by American elitists with such an arrogant, condescending sneer. In truth "redneck" is an ethnic slur, however ignorant those who use it may be of that reality. The moniker was used to earmark rough-hewn Scots-Trish Presbyterians as early as 1830 in North Carolina and had its roots in north Britain long before that. Similarly, the term "cracker" was used pejoratively by the English upper classes before the Revolution in referring to the "lawless set of rascals on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia.

The difference between this culture and most others is that its members don't particularly care what others think of them. To them, the joke has always been on those who utter the insult.

(Excerpted from "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America", pg. 181 - by James Webb, Democratic US Senator-Virginia)

[HRC_in_08]

18. I find it surprising that what many consider a racial slur is used in a thread...

about what many consider to be a racist symbol. A little ironic.