Flag Costs South Carolina a Tournament

Boo Hoo. They can keep the tournament.

I think the blacks of this country need to find something more constructive to worry about. A little history lesson: The succession of the southern states was about a lot more than slavery. The southern states had every right to succeed. It was that right that convinced the states to unite in the first place. Without that right this country would never had been founded. Lincoln was wrong, even though one of (not the only) reason for the war was just.

They don't fly it in front of their homes and businesses because they know how people feel about it. The south is a very strange place. As a northerner who had to work in the south for six months last year, I couldn't wait to leave. I heard more racist comments in two days than I had in my whole life. Religious zealots were rampant proclaiming their faith.

Chuck - GLAD YOU LEFT!

Joe Eckhardt, the south did not succeed.

I'm with Mr. Randolph on this one -- and I am a southern white woman. I think those bigots ought to fly that awful flag in front of their businesses so that I would know exactly where not to do my business.

Maybe Southerners could settle this dispute by using Nerf Bats. Amazing how much hate still exists in the Bible Belt.

Argue all you want about the flag and its symbolism, but it has no business being flown at the statehouse. What you are asking is for African-Americans to honor the side that fought against their freedom. Whatever the "other issues," the end of slavery came about because the South lost. It may mean a whole bunch of things to white Southerners, but it means something entirely different to black Southerners. The flag over the statehouse should be something that the citizens of the state as a whole should be able to get behind. When an entire segment of the population is alienated by the state flag, then perhaps it's time to reconsider.
For myself, as a white Northerner, I am rather irritated by the whole concept of the Confederate flag. To me, it just reeks of "I didn't get my way, so I took my marbles and went home."
Although a personal favorite moment of mine was when some guy in a car saw my anti-Bush bumper sticker and screamed "America! Love it or leave it!" He of course had a confederate flag on his truck. The irony was rather delicious.

It's not really about a flag. It's about an attitude. Get over it, S.C.

And what has Obama got to do with this?!!

Get over it, good ol boys!

You know I have read these comments and I have to say that the biggots that are talked about are not just Southerners or Confederate Flag Wavers. I think there is plenty of biggotry to go around this blog. The Confederate Flag is almost sacred to Most Southerners not because of racism or hatred of any kind but the love and great respect we have for those of our people who went out to face an invading army bent on the total destruction of our country. In recent years we have seen the Southern People endure the destruction of their entire culture while other cultures are held aloft and somehow deserve more respect and forbearance. Slavery was leagal in the entire United States and Lincoln himself said that he would not emancipate any slaves if he could keep the Union together by any other means. The Southern people are hardworking, loyal,brave,dignified, and God Fearing but because of the privation and destruction wrought upon us by invading armies we have allways been reminded of what tyrany is like. Yes there was biggotry and racism in the South but biggotry and racism where and are everywhere and in every cultural and racial background. The soldiers who carried those flags into battle however didn't go to their deaths for the advancement of slavery. And in fact the vast majority of them never owned slaves at all. However, they died by the thousands for Liberty, for their home States, and in defense of their homes and their families. Therefore we honor them , their sacrifice and their bravery, by honoring that flag and if you can't understand or respect that then to hell with you and your false notions of what is correct and what is not. Because they have sacrificed everything on the field of honor and have imortalized themselves forever and you only lessen yourself and diminish your very being by denying our right to honor our sacred dead as we honor our returning veterans now. Time does not diminish their deeds of bravery and self sacrifice and as a Southerner whose family lost everything in that war including many of my kin and forebears, I find it offensive when Neo Nazis and other Hate groups use that flag for their hate mongering. However, I will continue to defend that flag until my dying breath as will my children after me. I do fly that flag from my home and I do fly that flag from my business and have for most of my life. An I will not stand idly by and see our flag dishonored and berated by fools and biggots. If the Naacp whom I support really wants equality and mutual respect between all peoples then they would understand our need to preserve our history and our culture as we have understood their need for equality, freedom, and dignity. You cannot move forward with mutual respect if you try to deny an entire people their history and the respect for their fallen veterans.

Chris Hubbard, no one's trying to deny you your heritage. But obviously people descended from slaves don't feel the same way about that flag, so it shouldn't be flown over a government building. No one's denying you your right to fly your flag over your business or whatever, but a symbol that painful to so many citizens of South Carolina should not be forced to be represented by it.
And y'know what? Nazi-ism wasn't all about killing Jews, and a lot of Germans never killed a Jew or personally oppressed one. A lot of them weren't fighting to get rid of the Jews but for the ideal of country, but there's not a lot of people waving a swastika saying "heritage, not hate." The swastika was tied to something inconceivably awful, which is what has made it unacceptable despite the fact that there were probably quite a few stand-up German fighting for honorable reasons. The confederate flag is also tied to something awful - it represents an economy tied to the ownership and oppression of millions of human beings. Whatever your ancestors were fighting for, it included the right to own people like livestock. Sometimes one bad idea can cast its taint over everything it touches.

"but a symbol that painful to so many citizens of South Carolina should not be forced upon them as a representation of their state." I meant to say...

it's part of history...let it be..you can't change history

"I find it offensive when Neo Nazis and other Hate groups use that flag for their hate mongering..." ~chrishubbard~ do you not understand that for most americans, (yes, most) the confederate flag is a symbol of hate. ergo, it has no place above any government building. you may claim that it's part of history, but by that logic, we should be flying british, french, and spanish flags (just to name a few) over our statehouses. texas, california, and most of the southwest could fly the mexican flag! the confederacy no longer exists, that's an historical fact; one you and others would do well to remember.

The symbol of the Confederate Flag is painful to Southerners as well as bittersweet. That Flag should fly proudly over the capital of every Southern State that our brave boys died defending. It might make some uncomfortable sure, but Our boys died defending our states and they deserve respect and a place in the pubic arena. You are saying that we should turn our backs on those who fought so bravely in our defense just because a few people don't like it well that's just bull. The fact is the flag is flown over Southern States in honor of Southern Soldiers. If the flag were flown in Illinois or Detroit I would agree with you. You just want my people to turn their backs on our failies and kin just because it make you uncomfortable. The thing is that Mutual respect isn't destroying someones culture and history so you can be COMFORTABLE. Those who want the flag removed also want monuments to our dead removed, they want Flags flying in Confederate Cemetaries removed, and worst of all they want the names of Confederate soldiers on school buildings which where built in Univercities and places of higher learning all across the South with money scratched from nothing by widows and orphaned childred of Confederate Veterans REMOVED.So don't think that that somehow you are talking about sanity here or reconciliation. What is being done to the South is rape and nothing more. Rape in the name of a false poitical view which puts one group of citizens and their culture over another. Sound Familiar? Live and let live and there will be peace enough for all but mabe not comfort.

In regards to the Nazi comment maybe you should read your history books cause tens of thousands of Southerners including my grandfather and ALL of his brothers went off to war and died defeating the Nazis and protecting all humanity. Southerners didn't invade ten or more sovereign nations and only fired on Fort Sumter after calls from the North to invade the South. The South never had squads of soldiers whose only directives were to seek out and kill all those of a particular race or political ideology and even during the worst days of the war when there was no food in the South- southerners never-ever systematically murdered millions of their own citizens and people from other nations around us for any reason. Nazism on the other hand was conceived and executed by Hitler and his cronies from the very beginning to eliminate all Jews from Europe and to attempt the unification of all Europe under Nazi control killing all who stood in their way. Read Mine Kampf Hitler spells it all out word for word. Comparing the scourge of Nazism to The war for Southern Independence is offensive and historically inaccurate at best. Your argument doesn't wash. The Southern War for Independence was a continued rebellion from the 1830's put down by Andrew Jackson. The Southern states feared the centralized power and growing Imperial actions of the North threatened their Constitutional Rights and their security. Had there never been slavery there would have been a war because the protagonists where all still in place. Again Slavery was LEGAL all across the United States. The purveyors of the Slave trade were the same Wall Street bankers that the American People just bailed out yet again. Some of the same companies still exist today. They profited from the slave trade and they profited from every aspect of the War Between the States. Slavery is a moral issue which everyone in this nation shares guilt in not just the South. True most large slave operations where in the South because that is where the crops were grown. However, those were owned by the richest of the rich. The Rockefellers of their day. And the people who financed the whole thing came from Wall Street. My family where farmers from Georgia who had nothing but a farm and a few acres of land. Which was more than most white and black. But they lost all but one of their sons and most of the other men between 16 and 40 died in combat and from disease in the camps. They deserve to be respected and remembered and up until recently the Black community used to feel real respect towards confederate veterans because the black folks who lived during the war faced the same hardships and privations, as did all Southerners Slave or Free Man. In Vicksburg they ate their mules and rats while Union guns shelled the civilian areas of the city to terrorize the population killing black and white alike. That scene repeated itself throughout the war. And all black men, women and children found South of the Mason Dixon line were "CONFISCATED AND ARRESTED AS CONTRABAND" and sent to labor camps run by the Union-not released as free men. So old glory itself could be very offensive to many people if the truth be known. We try to look past those offenses and mutually accept that people are not perfect nor are political entities. I agree that we should never allow slavery in any form to exist again but while we attack each other the next Hitler is already planning slavery for us all. All we can do is try to show MUTUAL Respect for each other and our causes. But attacking those who have given their lives for their homes and families is not the path to equality, mutual respect, or enlightenment.

Whaaa... Whaaaaa.... Whaaaaa.....