30 by 60 foot Confederate Flag near Tampa's I-4 and I-75....refurbished for Super Bowl visitors.

[madfloridian]

This is the flag that former Tampa Tribune columnist, Daniel Ruth, referred to when he wrote Night of Cheers, about the Obama win. He said:

In a few more moments the country would officially elect its first black president at the end of a campaign more than 200 years in the making, winding through Selma and Birmingham and Watts and Hough and all the other stations of the cross of the American civil rights movement.

.."And just then, Florida - stumblebum Florida, the state that has historically been little more than a Wal-Mart gift card for the Bush family - was declared in favor of Obama.

..."Tuesday night, Barack Obama carried Hillsborough County, the same county where a bunch of narrow-minded simpletons fly a massive Confederate flag near I-4. That's hardly atonement. But it is a giant step across the breach of bigotry. One step down, more to come."

Daniel Ruth reminds us.

Here is the article from ABC Action News about the flag being refurbished in time for Super Bowl visitors.

Huge Confederate Flag to be replaced Friday

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL -- Marion Lambert says the large 30 by 60 foot Confederate Flag that normally sits on a 139 foot flagpole near the I-75 and I-4 junction has been refurbished and will be hoisted Friday at 2 p.m.

Lambert says the event coincides with Super Bowl week in order to show case the memorial for visitors to the Tampa Bay area.

Creative Loafing covered Lambert back in June of last year.

Marion Lambert: "The flag is going up."


WHOSE HISTORY? Marion D. Lambert says the Confederate flag he raised at the junction of I-4 and I-75 is meant to serve as a heritage symbol.

Sphere of influence: Before June 3, only a few neighbors and natural food stores knew the 60-year-old beekeeper and South Tampa resident. But after the Sons of Confederate Veterans member announced his intention to fly a huge Confederate flag at the junction of I-4 and I-75, it seems everyone has an opinion about him. He's attracted the support of fellow Confederate flag devotees and the ire of the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners, the local NAACP chapter and some nearby business owners. The controversy has already made national news. For better or worse, Lambert's flag, which is nearly the size of a semi-truck, will influence how the rest of the state and nation view the Tampa Bay area.

There are interesting comments after the interview with Lambert at Creative Loafing.

[Political Tiger]

1. That flag is an embarrassment to Tampa!

And the "heritage symbol" excuse is pure BS!

[The Backlash Cometh]

39. The word, "heritage." is turning into a "read between the lines" word.

[AndrewP]

60. Right on

[misanthrope]

65. Like "state's rights"**nm

**

[The Backlash Cometh]

74. State's Rights is smoke and mirrors.

They don't believe in that, either. You have Republicans (mostly) legislators in Florida trying to rangle the power from the State and give it to local government. That's because local government is easier to infiltrate. These legislators are usually affiliated, in some way, to the real estate industry.

It's not difficult to corrupt the populace in a small city. There is a number of people down on their luck at any one time, who have ambition and get vocal about some community problem. They're the ones that get picked off like low hanging fruit. They're the ones that get recruited to run for office, for example.

To stretch the metaphor, carrots get dangled in front of them. They are shown possibilities of profit if only they tweak their understanding of property rights a little. If they can get these people to forget the concept of fiduciary responsibility, they can succeed in redefining the whole purpose of government. All of a sudden, you have commissioners thinking their responsibility is to the individual developer or businessman, over the public interest.

If you look close enough, you'll generally see that the commissioners benefitted at one time, from the same kind of loose thinking. "I have a right to make a living!" I've heard that before. Once that happens, they're committed, tainted. There's no going back for them. Really strange when someone like a mayor tells this to you, because you get a glimmer that the public office position was not their intended sole source of income.

So you get commissioners customarily ignoring process, and if it happens enough times, eventually, a civil tort gets committed along the way. Now you have a compounded problem, because those in power also have the social networks to organize a cover-up. And when they're well-connected into the business networks, that can mean a double-assault on the people they've wronged. If these civilians try to fight back, they soon discover that normal legal channels cannot be counted on and, they may have to worry about social retaliation, as well.

It's not State's Rights, they're after. It's Libertarian free-market. It's a more corrupting factor.

[Hugabear]

2. A bow, arrow, and some flaming pitch would take care of that nicely

That flag deserves to be burned.

[grannie4peace]

3. wonder if we could enough people to write letters and ask him not to do it

[madfloridian]

7. Many have tried.

Even the commissioners who voted so anti-gay this week don't like it. And they are pretty right wing. I don't think they can stop it on the basis of free speech?

[grannie4peace]

11. gotcha

[treestar]

4. When will they relegate that piece of crap flag to the dustbin of

history.

[onehandle]

5. Bigger than the footprint of our house. Welcome to the South, y'all! nt

[madfloridian]

20. I had a good picture of it...it's huge.

And right off the interstate. Can't find the picture, guess I did not label it right.

[struggle4progress]

33. Is the pole properly banded and lit as an aviation obstruction?

[LibDemAlways]

6. Nearly 150 years later and these yahoos are still

fighting the Civil War and flying a racist emblem. It's goddamn embarrassing that such dumbasses flaunt their ignorance and intolerance in such a public way.

[Winterblues]

16. Not just a racist symbol but a symbol of Treason as well.

And they are proud of that Treasonous Heritage..

[Ken Burch]

24. A "flag" that represents a "country" that only existed for FOUR YEARS.

Why would they be so determined to fly a flag that reminds them and us that they LOST the Civil War?

[AlbertCat]

63. and one that failed in all its goals!

[Kalyke]

75. No, actually, it doesn't.

It represents Virginia.

It's not the Confederate Flag. It's the Battle Flag of Virginia and was used as a battle flag for the entire Confederacy, but it's NOT the Confederate Flag.

This is the Confederate Flag, for historical reference:

[Ken Burch]

79. Interesting. I'd never seen that flag(whose design appears intended to echo the "Betsy Ross" flag)

I was aware(and I assume you'd know this as well)that neither the "battle flag" nor, presumably, this flag, was ever flown over any Confederate STATE capitol building. The Confederate governors and legislators had opposed centralized authority in Washington, so they weren't going to encourage its establishment in Richmond.

[defendandprotect]

26. Agree . . . "Treason" . . .

[AlbertCat]

62. You are wrong.

By today's standards it may seem like treason, but before the Civil War the power of the Federal government was a real question. State's rights was a real issue, not a GOP smokescreen. As Ken Burns points out in his documentary, before the Civil War people said "The United States of America are....." After the Civil War, it became "The United States of America is...."

Also, the Confederacy did not invade the North, and the North fired on Fort Sumter, not the other way around.

But it is true that the War decided the question once and for all, so if say Alaska tried to succeed now, that would be an act of treason.....because of the Civil War.

You cannot judge 18th and 19th century thinking by 21st century standards.

[Ken Burch]

70. Er...Fort Sumter was a Federal installation.

The The Federal army would not have fired on its OWN base.

And the population of Gettysburg would take issue with your "The Confederacy did not invade the North" statement. If you wanted to say "did not invade the North FIRST", you may be correct.

[Bandit]

77. I think you may be a bit confused

First it was Declared "The United States of America" after the Revolutionary war and the election of George Washington. It was then as it is now a Country. A country made up of individual States but none the less a Country with one President and one Congress. To declare "War" against that country by some of it's own is indeed Treason. Fort Sumter was a Federal Fort or the USA. It was fired upon by a State that was declaring Succession. The South did indeed fire the first shots that began the Civil War. Americans can look upon any flag of the Confederacy as a flag of treason just as Great Brittain can look upon the Stars and stripes as a flag of treason as well.

[gratuitous]

8. Heritage, is it?

Well, my great-great grandpappy was in the 133rd Indiana Irregulars, and it's my family's heritage to shoot any rebel sumbitch flying that traitorous flag.

Okay, that's not really true about my family. But it's undoubtedly true about someone's family and personal heritage. I wonder if Marion (Marion?) would support everyone's right to honor and exercise their heritage, or does he reserve that right only to himself?

[FLAprogressive]

9. I disagree with them -- but I have to defend their right to put it up

Hillsborough County is filled with racist fundie hicks but I have to defend their 1st amendment right to put it up. It's on private property, and while it may offend some, it's no different than having a large gay pride flag up (despite the fact that one flag is about moving backward and the other is moving forward) on private property and having some fundies complain about it.

[defendandprotect]

27. It's a symbol of "hate" not very different from any other hate speech . . .

[Somawas]

43. Thank you for defending the First Amendment.

I am totally with you on this.

[Chulanowa]

10. History my ass

The flag he's flying is a cobbled-up symbol created by the Klan, using the pattern of the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate Naval Flag's colors.

If he actually wants to fly the flag of the confederacy, he either wants the "Stars and Bars" or the "Blood Stained Banner"

'Course, finding a motherfucker in the south that knows dick about Confederate history is like trying to find brains at a Freeper protest

[tosh]

12. True, that, to the very last word.

[Obamanaut]

17. From time to time I will see one of the flag/tags on the front bumper

of a pickup truck. Frequently it will be upside down (unless it has some sort of wording on to give a clue as to installation orientation.)

I've pointed out to the owner that the tag is upside down, that the single points of the stars should be pointing upwards, and every time the response has been "Huh?"

And don't even expect a full conversation if I mention there were three approved flags of the Confederacy at different times. Another "Huh?"

[quickesst]

34. Some of you.....

...are as pathetic as the cause you decry.

"'Course, finding a motherfucker in the south that knows dick about Confederate history is like trying to find brains at a Freeper protest"

That's a pathetic statement to all democrats who live in the south, of which there are many. Painting with the broad brush of ignorance is reaffirming the shallowness of those who believe they are somehow better than others, who's self-percieved superiority is thinly cloaked hatred of an entire group of people who share one thing in common. Geological location. I was born, and live in the south. I voted for Barak Obama for president, and proclaim it loudly, and proudly. A lot of southerners did, but the holier than thou cannot help but to display the ignorance and hatred perpetuated by more ignorant stereotypical influences rather than logic and common sense. They welcomed our vote, but continue to shit on us because of a past many are not particularly proud of, and would like to see change. If that's not enough for some to temper their bullshit, then how about a good ole southern "fuck you". We'll keep trying, despite the superiority complex many outside the south share, and use to perpetuate the "civil war" out of sheer stupidity. Try opening your eyes, and you will see the same racism across this land, north, south, east, and west. The feeble attempts to hide the piles of shit in one's own back yard by pointing out someone elses is a child's game best left to the spoiled undisciplined brats of the elite.
quickesst

[summer borealis]

36. Ease up, Jubal

Racism and stupidity exist everywhere in this pathetic nation. Hell, I see the bastardized symbols of southern treason on the polished pickups of the underemployed in the north, too. And the harshest racism I've ever encountered was in Philadelphia, Pa., not Philadelphia, Miss.
But it ain't elitism to point it out. It ain't superiority to admit I'd rather dwell with small-town folks in Vermont than their counterparts in Georgia.

Oh, and speaking of elitist, ignorant racists, fuck Robert E. Lee, too.

[Somawas]

44. Well said. Unfortunately, it doesn't keep the obnoxious bastiches from retiring here.

[Chulanowa]

47. And I was born and raised in Mobile, AL. Don't give me this shit

It's wonderful that you're able to find your ass with one hand, but most people in your neighborhood couldn't do it with both hands, a map, and two sherpa guides, you realize. I think you'll find that the range of people who understand that the "confederate flag" they fly is nothing of the sort is even more limited. Seeing someone proclaim the thing as "their heritage" is pretty much like them flat-out saying "I'm an ignant sumbitch what don't know jack shit 'bout nothing"

[AlbertCat]

64. Stupid folks

It's wonderful that you're able to find your ass with one hand, but most people in your neighborhood couldn't do it with both hands, a map, and two sherpa guides, you realize.

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

Huh. I found the same to be true in Maine! And CA too actually. You think the South is stupid....try the environs of Pittsburgh!

Of course Maine doesn't have the race problems we do here down South....because there are 2 black people in Maine and they're nice.

Maybe it is time for a good old fashion long-drawl Southern "Fuuuuuuck Y'all"

[Chulanowa]

69. Hell, I think Alaska is, per capita, the dumbest place in the nation

Spent a decade there, and every... single... day of it, someone managed to awe me with dumbfuckery.

Such a ruckus over noting that most of the people posing with hte "confederate flag" have nooooo fucking idea what it is, what it means, what any of the actual flags of the confederacy were, blah blah blah.

[misanthrope]

67. The bloom is off the azalea...

Sometimes things are just as they seem while still being more complex than appearances suggest.

Alabama’s sole entrant in the inaugural parade of Pres. Barack Obama was a group of 50 teenaged girls from Mobile, Ala., the 300-year old town’s Azalea Trail Maids. After announcement of their participation, criticism quickly emerged from Edward Vaughn, president of Alabama’s NAACP chapter, that the maids’ stylized antebellum costumes reminded him of slavery and he felt their inclusion in the event sent the wrong message to the nation.

"We needed something that could show Alabama's great progress rather than something that shows a shameful past," Vaughn said. Within days, he rescinded his comments after widespread outrage howled from various corners of the state.

Was Vaughn out of line? Are the costumes solely representative of days gone by?

Yes and no.

Mobile is firmly in the Old South, holding more in common with Charleston or Savannah than Nashville or Atlanta. It was a town made wealthy in the freefalling lucre of King Cotton, at one time boasting one of the busiest slave markets in the region. It embraced the South’s feudal system, matching up well with Mobile’s Old World sensibilities and strictly drawn socio/economic lines.

Long after it was outlawed, the last boatload of African slaves arrived in Mobile as the culmination of a wager between wealthy townsfolk. After sneaking into port, the ship’s crew was given orders to destroy the ship and the human cargo aboard as their usefulness was done.

The Azalea Trail Maids were formed in 1949 to honor the Gulf Coast town’s Azalea Trail that highlights the preponderance of the annual blooms. Formed by the local Jaycees, the honorees ostensibly passed a litmus test of community activism and academic achievement before bestowment.

In 1949, Jim Crow also ruled the South. African-American men in Mobile could find themselves in dire straits, possibly incarcerated, for not doffing a hat for a passing white woman, giving up their place in line for a white or not stepping off the sidewalk to let a white person pass.

When costumes were chosen for the ATM, naturally the God-fearin’ white folk of Mobile chose something that displayed local mores. It was another way of erasing emancipation and Reconstruction, another path to repudiate the distastefulness of Yankee egalitarianism.

Decades passed and Mobile was forced into the modern age. The schools were finally desegregated in the 1970s.

In the 1980s, federal courts ordered Mobile to change a city government structure that effectively disenfranchised African-Americans.

It wasn’t long before young women of color emerged on the Azalea Trail Court. Some qualified students refused to participate while others took the plunge by telling themselves that the dresses were no different than theme park attire. They immersed themselves in the exclusivity of selection and the ballyhooed academic requirements.

Still, in a town racially divided exactly down the middle, only one-fifth of the Azalea Trail Court is non-white. For those young women of color who populate its ranks, it’s not about the antebellum South. And it’s easy to respect their longing for achievement.

But it’s still hard to deny that the costume's genesis lies in the romanticization of a way of life founded on feudalism and white supremacy. In Internet defense of their costumes, some recent maids have used the explanation that the dresses represent a time when people practiced “courtliness and grace.” So it would seem they are more than willing to practice their own delusion and willful ignorance.

Officials refuting Vaughn’s charges have consistently stated the ATM as representing the town’s three centuries of history. If so, then why use costumes derived from only a couple of decades in that history?

And if the costumes aren’t about representing antebellum archetypes, if they instead are supposed to highlight the best of Mobile’s young women, then why not just change the costume? Are those hoops more important than they admit? And if so, why?

Mobile is still mired in the past and constantly seeking to relive it. Antebellum mansions are ubiquitous beneath the Spanish moss, some sporting Confederate flags between their pillars.

When drivers enter Mobile County on Interstate 10, they’re greeted by a massive Confederate flag near the Alabama-Mississippi state line.

Every April is officially recognized as Confederate Heritage Month. One of the city's most revered historical figures is a naval figure who not only took up arms against the United States, but remained an unrepentant Confederate until his death. His name graces landmarks and his statue is prominently displayed at the foot of the town’s grand boulevard.

The city elected its first African-American mayor in 2005, but it was only made possible by white flight that resulted in the population being divided 50-50, black-white. Still, forays into the town’s comings and goings reveal a citizenry strictly divided along racial lines.

The ruling mindset is that a decent education is the province of those born above a certain station in life. The almost entirely white private schools are expected for anyone serious about their child’s education. The mostly black public schools are a shame. Underfunded, poorly managed and nationally notorious, they are merely a token effort given to the lower classes.

2008 was a rough year for Mobile. A documentary on the city’s still racially segregated Mardi Gras celebrations – and the local rationalizations within – were exposed to shocked arthouse theater patrons nationwide in Margaret Brown’s The Order of Myths.

A sizable defense department contract for airplane manufacturing was awarded to the town then rescinded after election year politics arose. The trampled feelings led many Mobilians to lash out angrily at Seattle and Boeing, their chief competitors for the contract. When one of the nation’s most regressive towns takes swipes at one of the most progressive and educated American metropolitan areas, it comes off as little more than bitter and pathetic.

In the fall, a Discovery Channel documentary highlighted the 1981 lynching of an African-American youth in Mobile by Klansmen. Like Trees Walking, a book by author Ravi Howard centered the same event and has stayed in the limelight by garnering recent awards.

Mobile voted firmly against Barack Obama in November. Mobile’s daily newspaper, the Newhouse-owned Press-Register, led the march against the Democratic candidate in an unending litany of editorials that still continues almost unabated.

And now the kerfuffle over the Azalea Trail Maids surfaces.

So how did a group of erstwhile belles dressed like Scarlett-at-the-barbecue end up as the only representative of mega-red state Alabama – a state that still requires the nickname “Heart of Dixie” on its license plates – to welcome the nation’s first African-American president?

Ask Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the junior senator from Alabama. Arch-conservative Sessions, a current Mobile resident, has been exposed in the past for making sympathetic comments about the Ku Klux Klan and calling the NAACP and the ACLU “un-American” and “communist-inspired.”

The ATM sent their request for parade participation through Sessions’ office. In turn, it was the only request Sessions turned in to the selection committee. It would seem the senator was determined the first African-American president would be greeted by Alabamians in garb synonymous with a system founded on white supremacy.

Are the maids a symbolic middle finger to the new president? It seemed that way to this chagrined Mobilian and to the other local liberals with whom I’ve spoken. Of course, none of us are natives to this strange place, this “last great plantation.”

Regardless of what these young girls symbolize to all of us, what they should mean to the new president is that despite his magnanimous attempts, there are plenty of conservatives determined to thwart and undermine him at every turn. He's not getting a first, second or any chance with them. They will nod with Obama’s conciliatory words while sharpening their knives for aim at his back.

Beware, Mr. President. Sometimes taking the high road leaves you nowhere but exposed on a ridgeline, an easy target for those below.

[AlbertCat]

61. Bingo! The only heritage it honors is the Klan's

There was no flag like that in the real Confederacy. There are many people down South that do know their heritage, but those who want to fly the so called "Confederate" flag are not they.

[HillWilliam]

13. As I posted on another thread

this white, Appalachian, gay, and proudly Southern man calls bullshit on their "heritage" argument. Those of us who wish to remember our genealogy and history (good, bad, and indifferent) would tend to use the First National flag if we use a flag at all (like a graphic on a section on a family genealogy site, for example). Use of the Naval Ensign (later adopted as the battle flag and later co-opted by racist doofuses who like to make the rest of us look like doofuses) is considered distasteful, tacky, declassé, intentionally inciteful, and downright rude.

I get realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly tired of the south-bashing that goes on on DU and I get even more tired of little assholes like these that make sure that south-bashers have something to point at.

There's a lot more to it than anyone has let on. As a Southerner, a student of history, and a genealogist, I want to put my foot down firmly. Somebody needs to slap the catshit out of morans like those.

This is the First National:


If those morans were "concerned" about "heritage" they'd use the First National. Using the battle flag, well, that lets you know just who and what they really are.

/end :rant:

PS: As noted on that other thread, there are two more perfectly good CSA national flags, if they're so interested in "heritage". Clearly, they're not interested or they'd've picked one not clearly so intended to incite. That sonofabitch Lambert knows perfectly well what he's up to and it isn't "heritage".

He's just the sort of person who'd trespass into your back yard to steal the sheets off your line and the wood off the side of your shed to go burn a cross in the yard of someone he doesn't know and beat them with a Bible he doesn't (or can't) read.

[Starry Messenger]

45. Great post! n/t

[The Wizard]

14. They should just all the way

and hang up the flag of the Third Reich.

[whistle]

15. Marion D. Lambert is quoted as saying, "I sold my last rock of crystal meth to git that flag ready!"

[SidneyCarton]

18. The Confederacy is dead its symbols need to pass on too.

I can understand among some southerners the sense of pride in past, but as another poster has stated, this was not the Confederate flag. This is the banner of the Klan, of institutionalized racism, of lynchings, church bombings and of all that is ugly wretched and vicious about our nation. The men who these fools claim fought under that flag, didn't fight for the reasons they usually attribute (well, not all of them at least) As a descendent of soldiers in the CSA (not something I'm particularly proud of) I feel disgusted every time I see some neo-nazi moron, or some redneck psycho fly that flag along the banner of the 3rd Reich and spout the filth of that Austrian Corporal.

But I digress...

The point is that the Civil War is over, it's been over for 144 years. We need to let it go. The South will only rise again with the rest of us. The sooner we learn this, the better we all will do.

[BanTheGOP]

19. I called Lambert up...

...and gave that person a piece of my mind. I scolded Lambert that one may as well be putting up a huge sign that says, "F*** YOU, N****" or some other horrific statement. Lambert was pissed at me and hung up, but perhaps a few hundred more calls may get Lambert's attention.

I won't post addresses or phone numbers or the link, but suffice to say the number is listed on a normal search.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[madfloridian]

22. Picture

Link

[klook]

37. Views from the interstate

To me, this flag shouts "Dumbass redneck and proud of it!"

I used to have some shitheads living in my neighborhood who flew the stars and bars off their porch. Funny thing is, they weren't peckerwoods. They were punk rockers and motorcycle riders who apparently thought the flag was a symbol of rebellion, or maybe they just delighted in pissing off everybody in a neighborhood where "War Is Not The Answer" signs are the norm.

Fortunately these idiots had to move out when they got behind on their rent. I guess they're stinking up some other neighborhood now.

Unfortunately, the peckerwood in Tampa owns the property where this flag will fly.

[scytherius]

23. The entire country will get to see their racism

Welcome to pig country.

[rpannier]

25. The Battle Flag of The Confederate States of America

By flying it he is saying... I associate with losers and I'm proud of it.

Someone should ask him when he's going to fly the flag of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Fascist Japan and East Germany...

They all lost too and frankly should be about as acceptable in a civil society -- Not at all.

[Blue Dog Dominion]

28. At least you called it the battle flag

Kudos for being so close however.

The Flag of the CSA is the "Stars and Bars" which most people don't even recognize.

Technically the flag in question is the Navy Jack of the CSA. The Confederate Battle Flag is a copy of the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, both of which are square.

It's a shame that flag has been used in such a fashion. It really is an attractive design.

[JVS]

29. Go Mike Tomlin. Show their racist asses who is boss!

[FloridaJudy]

30. Shit

Where's a super-soaker filled with bright pink enamel paint when you need one?

Not that I'd ordinarily advocate vandalism, but Florida doesn't need another publicity disaster. We've got enough, thanks.

[1776Forever]

31. The "old" South is dying away - There are still some like this man but fewer and fewer.

Thank God for that! Someday the flag will be put away for good. Could not be soon enough!

[Cobalt-60]

32. Release the Moths!

[aikoaiko]

35. Such is life in a free country.

[hologram]

38. In 1945 Germany wisely banned Nazi paraphernalia.

[geckosfeet]

40. So why does the NFL even want to have their premier event near Tampa?

Does the NFL advocate racist backward thinking ignorance? Or is it just an unhappy circumstance?

Either way - it makes the NFL look bad and gives Tampa some bad press. They need to start holding the super bowl in the midwest or the west coast. There are plenty of cities with teams out there.

[Greyhound]

76. The new NFL. Remember when Arizona lost it's Super Bowl because the state

wouldn't allow a MLK holiday in the 80s?

[DainBramaged]

41. Those offended at the Confederate flag should be offended by Wal*Mart

foreign crap in our stores, the destruction of American manufacturing, and owning Foreign cars while Americans are jobless.

But, those issues aren't the same as the moral outrage over this asshat's flag, are they folks?

[rpannier]

56. I agree that there are more important things than this asshats flag to be upset about

As I said in an earlier post: What he is saying is, "I associate with losers and am proud of it."

Part of living in a free society is seeing stories about people like this guy.
He's a single comma (at best) in the annals of history.

[theHandpuppet]

42. Since over 1,000 Florida men fought with the USCT...

I think a semi-truck sized battle flag from a regiment of the United States Colored Troops would look great at that intersection. After all, southern heritage doesn't belong just to white southerners, or southerners who fought for the confederacy. There are plenty of men, both black and white, who fought with Union regiments. But I'm sure Mr. Lambert neither knows nor cares that the confederacy didn't hold propriety claims on what constitutes southern heritage.

[sarah FAILIN]

46. The trailer park down the road is full of rebel flags now.

The funniest one though has a rebel flag on one side of the rickety porch and a Mexican flag on the other side of it. o_O

[boomerbust]

48. Silly Little Rebel

[deaniac21]

49. That's weird. Most southerners don't even think Florida is a

southern state.

[flvegan]

50. And most visitors for the Super Bowl will never see it.

Unless you're driving in to Tampa from Lakeland/Orlando and are specifically looking for it, you won't even notice it.

[BreweryYardRat]

72. You can see it when you're heading north on I-75 as well.

But yeah, you've got to be looking for it to spot it.

Easily visible or not, I wouldn't shed too many tears if it "accidentally" caught fire.

[Lucian]

51. It annoys and irritates the fuck out of me when racists get called out on this flag...

and say it stands for "heritage". :grr:

[Decider]

52. Flag flying is not speech; Most communities would cut the pole down

Apparently, racism IS NOT the same around the country. Most towns would deal with it straight away. Cut that pole down, and fill the hole with cement.

[BrklynLiberal]

53. I agree with Geckosfeet. They should move the Super bowl out of Florida.

I would imagine that flag would be an insult to many of players, officials and fans of the NFL. Why should they have to play in state...and bring in the millions and millions of revenue...where the "heritage" of which they are so proud is an insult to so many?

[rpannier]

57. And where would you move it to???

Washington...Go to Colfax this guy would be the rationale, liberal guy in Colfax

California...Tom Metzger's organization is headquartered in CA

Indiana...Hot bed of Klan activity

Michigan, Illinois, Arizona...racists there too.

You aren't going to find the perfect place to hold it.

Florida has lots of wonderful people and the NFL, players, management and HQ like going there

[BrklynLiberal]

58. Canada

[AnnieBW]

54. My friend lives in that area

She must be sooo embarrassed.

[lib2DaBone]

55. It Friggin figures.. only in Florida. (banjo music from Deliverance)

[book_worm]

59. Some conservative southerners think they are the most patriotic Amerikans in the country, but

forget that they were also the section of the country that decided it would rather secede from the union than allow any interference with the "curious institution" many of them loved--slavery.

[misanthrope]

66. There's one just like it on I-10 southwest of Mobile, Ala...

...and another on I-65 just north of Montgomery.

The Sons of Bygone Sedition have replaced the Klan in some aspects.

[Historic NY]

68. Heritage symbol...no its a symbol of a defeated foe....this is

the United States of American not the CSA. In other words Freepers its UN-AMERICAN.

[Clio the Leo]

71. This is one of those times when defending liberty isn't fun..

..... grrrrrrrrr.

"there's a black man in the oval office ...... there's a black man in the oval office ..... there's a black man in the oval office ......." just keep saying that over and over and until the image of the peckerwoods and their hate rag goes away again.

[Sedona]

73. I saw a real Confederate battle flag last year

Just to further the conversation a little….my husband and I saw a real “Stars and Bars” battle flag at the Chancellorsville Battlefield Visitor Center http://www.nps.gov/frsp/index.htm during our visit to several Civil & RevolutionaryWar battlefields and historic sites last year. Whether we like it or not (I’m the “or not” variety) it IS a part of our history. All I can do it just pity people who are so ignorant to display the Confederate Battle Flag. It makes me just as sick as seeing a swastika
Born and bred in Boston it brought tears to my eyes when I saw it. I was startled by it appearance in the museum, not that I should have been given where I was. It represents to me treason against my country the likes of which we had not seen until the 2000 election. I just stood dead in my tracks and felt assaulted by its power to upset a lily white woman from New England. I just wasn’t expecting my reaction. It was just such a beautiful, silent place, it boggles my mind so so much blood was spilled to defend the Union and a backward way of life in the South. Sorry about the reflection in the photo. I barely remember taking it.

The battle flag of the Army of the Potomac is just across from it in the museum.
This is where all that blood spilled. It was SO beautiful and quiet and spooky.

The only place spookier was the stone wall in Fredericksburg.


A few days before I unfortunately found the Confederate battle flag in a more expected place. In my husband’s quest to set foot in all 50 states we drove three hours out of our way after visiting Jefferson’s Monticello to buy a cup of coffee at a convenience store in West Virginia. (#49) This was the one of the first things we saw as we whizzed down the exit ramp from I 64. Sorry it’s blurry but given the Obama magnet on the back of the car we weren’t going to stop.


It you at all interested to see our quest for history and somewhat early 25th wedding anniversary trip to Virginia and DC, PM me and I shoot you a link. As we watched the inauguration festivities last week we considered ourselves very lucky to have made the trip, visit the halls of Capitol Building; walk from the Washington Monument, through the WWII Memorial (spectacular!) along the reflecting pool, and stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. We were just like peas and carrots. ; )

By the way, I just LOVE the idea of pitch, bow and flaming arrow. Can it really be accomplished?

[wial]

78. someone

should put up a big flag next door saying "I'm with stupid"

they hate mockery. We drove the KKK from our town by threatening to dress as clowns and dance around them giving them flowers.