Davec.

You are a day late and a dollar short. Game05 is trying to prove a point with his avatar. Thank you for trying to start something.

I would like to point out that "Game05" uses an avatar that represents a nation responsible for killing more people under Stalin than Nazi Germany under Hitler. I think its a bit ironic for Game05 to criticize someone for ANY symbol.

It really depends on how you feel when you see the Confederate Battle flag. When I was a child I held it in the highest regard because of our family history. As I grew older I saw it used in many ways until it became the ultimate symbol of bigoted hate. This is 2011 and now it is still hijacked by white hate groups. It is a relic but the hate groups are not, no matter where they are, north or south.

Hang any where you want as long as my tax dollars do not support it.

Game05.

Good point.

i happen to know a kind gentleman who fought in WWII on the Axis side. sure wish there was a way to honor him, and especially so i don't just forget WWII. it's my RIGHT, correct? oh, but then again that flag sure has a strong connotation with hate that i don't like and other people wouldn't like, either. so i guess i won't display anything like that. boy, that was difficult.

"he IS FLYING a flag of sorts. displaying a symbol of probably the most evil and hated regime, responsible for more death and oppression that even the Nazis and their Swastika."

the American Flag?
maybe i should display the flag of the State of California, which has a Red Star on it, too.

Game05.
Maybe just maybe I should change my own avatar to the flag of the Republic of New Afrika.

If the flag of New Afrika is offensvie then so should the Confederate flag.

maybe next year i'll change my avatar to the flag of North Vietnam to honor all those soldiers who died in that war. lest we forget.

OK. Secession caused the war. Owning slaves was a side issue and the south believed that that part of thier culture was threatened and they chose to leave the Union which was against the Constitution that they agreed to support. That was 1861.

Forword to 2011. The flag that idenified the southern cause is being used by hate groups opposed to civil rights. When the folks defending the honor of the Confederate Battle Flag begin to call the hate groups to task maybe then thier beliefs will sound less hollow.

game05,
I have never owned a confederate flag nor will I ever. Its all about history, there are those that would like to ignor history and the facts, history is a tool too the future. We cannot deprive one for the other... If someone wants to honor their fallen by a symbol, that is their right. It has nothing to with racism, we're beyond that now, anyway I think we are. Then you have folks like Mr. Williams, that puts a tag of racism when ever he disagrees with the subject matter, and fails to bring an outline of facts to the table on his disagreement. There were hunderds of thousand of Americans killed during the civil war, they should be honored if its by a symbol then so be it.

Writein,
LOL!!!!

Have a wonderful Christmas...

I agree with Game5's message 100%.

It's not about insisting upon a right. It's about respecting the other side.
It's about how a very large section of the population rightly or wrongly does feel that it is a symbol of evil and oppression.

No one is gaining anything by insisting upon their right to wave that flag. but you are losing something by doing so.

personally I think that many who do wave that flag about, do NOT do so out of insistence upon any right to do so or any keeping up with any heritage. They do so precisely because they know it DOES stir the pot. It DOES cause a scene.

They do so because they like to be instigators. They want to piss people off then act the victim about how they are only exercising their rights in displaying the flag.

While I agree with what Game5 said, I find it extremely ironic that he sits there and says he personally would NOT fly the flag out of respect for all those who do see it as bad. I find it Ironic because even as he says this, he IS FLYING a flag of sorts. displaying a symbol of probably the most evil and hated regime, responsible for more death and oppression that even the Nazis and their Swastika.

The Crossed Hammer and Sickle of Soviet Communism. and on a Red Star no less.

this is all so frustrating. it always comes back to rights rights rights. i haven't suggested a change in the law, to make it illegal to display the flag. yes, it's your right to waive the Confederate flag. it's your right to do most anything.

the freedom to do something isn't an obligation to do so.

what about just being nice? it's as simple as that.

a metaphor: if your spouse thought that hunting was murder, truly hated the activity and it made them feel really bad, but you enjoyed hunting, would you still hunt? would you still insist on going out even though you knew it made them feel terrible and it created just that small little schizm in your relationship? i mean, it would be your right, after all. or would you say "Honey, i disagree with you, and i do enjoy hunting, but because i love you and don't want to hurt you, i'll stop."

now, you can't say "Well i wouldn't have married that person in the first place, then" because we're already tied to the people in our community. they're already here, and our history is now their history.

would you still go hunting? you're not going to change their mind about hunting and they won't change yours. what would be the right thing to do?

putting the flag away doesn't rewrite history nor does it ignore it. you can't go 24 hours in the South without getting reminded of the past. and black people remember history, too.

---------

ok, so a bit unrelated from the Confederate Flag discussion, I want to ask a separate question, maybe to get to learn about the whole Southern Culture more:

Accepting the premise that slavery would have continued another 100 years, would Southerners still wish they would have won the Civil War? All the other good stuff comes with it, separation from the Union and whatnot, but slavery hypothetically lasts another 100 years. Would you still wish the South won the Civil War?

Itisi.

Don't try to talk to me like I'm stupid. For past few I have given you statements and quotes from who's who in the CSA leadership. WHere I gain my history is from Texas Historial commission, Museums, Local historial societies, and where I attend college at. So lets not go there.

99 precent/99 precent. THERE IS NO SUCH thing as 99 precent. Even if you were 99% your 99% is bigger and have more power than my 99%. Gee talk about fairness.

For now on....I will be on you like ugly on an ape.

I am not a coward this is why I sign my name on here. You and others hide behind computer screens and talk mess. I bet you, Get Smart, sandwichh, won't do that in public or in mixed company.

John Lara.

You are interested in being popluar and liked than being right.

- Mr. Williams

game05,
you have a strong point in your comment, and I do agree. However what about the other side of that coin, and does the other 99.9% have the same rights? One cannot explain the civil war w/a few sentences, there is a bigger picture "history", good or bad those feelings run deep on both side of the fence, we can't ignore history nor should we re-write history... History has to stand on truth and the merits wether you like the end result or not.

what the Confederate flag truly signifies seems an unwinnable debate, both sides ready with an answer to everything. it hasn't been solved in 150 years, so it won't happen anytime soon, either.

if you're a Christian, there's a Book of the Bible that mentions vegetarians and people who otherwise have personal habits and traditions that one might otherwise disagree with. it goes on to say that we're not to ridicule these people for it, but respect their decision, even if we disagree.

i think that this passage certainly applies in the case of waiving a Confederate flag around, even if it is our legal right to do so. by all accounts, 99.9 percent of Black people feel that this is a symbol of hatred. an entire race of people. one could "educate" their ears off that the flag doesn't actually represent what they think it does, but that's just how it is and it's not going to change.

so i ask, where's the respect for these people's strongly held feelings? again, if you're Christian, do you think God would prefer us putting the Confederate flag away out of deference to them, or waiving it in front of their faces, knowing how they feel about it?

i was recently talking with someone about the benefits of living in a smaller town like Victoria instead of a big city. what was most often brought up was the benefit of small-town "community." and whether that community is just Victoria or Texas as a whole or even the Christian community at large, the real argument about the Confederate flag isn't about State's Rights or celebrating Southern culture, but is deep-down about community, and the type of community we are all building here.

even if opponents are ignorant about it, displaying the Confederate flag in public is wilfully segregating oneself from the large numbers of people who find the symbol offensive. and what kind of "community" is that? what kind of community are we truly building when people choose to identify themselves with a symbol that stirs up such strong negative emotions in others?

i am opposed to any display of the Confederate flag not based on any pedantic and rhetorical history of the Civil War, but because i want to respect the deeply held feelings of other people who might oppose it, and because i want to work toward building a community here where different people are united based on commonalities, and don't feel separated from one another based on history.

Getsmart- Hee Hee! Funny- now I started humming it-

I don't care if you paint it on your roof. My tax dollars will not buy the paint.

Yes,but those decals won't be sanctioned by state via the governing board...But,racism is not a one way street.

You can paint your entire car.

http://tinyurl.com/6t8hgem

It really doesn't make any difference whether the flag is approved for license plates or not. There are always decals that can be placed in the rear window. Some people will see bigotry, racism and all sorts of bad things where ever they look because most things they see will reinforce their beliefs regardless of what those beliefs are. There are millions of goofy people around the world who see racism, hatred and imperialism when they look at the stars and stripes of Old Glory. You just can't please some people.

As I recall Sam Houston was against joining the CSA. I also have heard many folks say that slavery played no part of the Civil War and defend it by making up new names for the event.

Mr. May’s argument should be with the governing board of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. They voted down the proposal 8-0 on November 11, 2011. There are only nine states that allow the confederate flag on a state issued license." Granvel Block, commander of the group’s Texas division, said a lawsuit was likely. Lawsuits in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland resulted in approval of the specialty plates, after initial turn-downs by a state agency."..How ironic, the author stated that the Civil War was about States' rights but when the state invoked their right, the group will sue.

http://tinyurl.com/888gxx8

Mr. Mavs is correct in saying that we're not being forced to buy the plate but the issue is whether the state should sanction the plates. We have a governing board to decide this issue.

There is no dispute that the confederate flag is offensive to some and admired by others but that flag no longer flies over a state capital, as a matter of compromise between the two groups. We can argue the assertions "until the cows come home" but minds won't be changed in the battle of semantics. The documents are there for all to read and come away with their own opinion.

Mr. Mavs analogy about racism does not hold any water because he compares racism to support groups. The so called white race is made up of many, many ethnicities, so it's no more racist to honor the first Italian American to become speaker of the house, than it is form a black, Hispanic or tea party caucus. We divide ourselves every day, in one way or the other and on Sunday we are segregated more than any other day of the week. Let's leave the racism to blatant discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race and not mistake it an isolated incident.

the war was over states rights its true, but what was the main right the south wanted? slavery, so if slavery hadnt existed in this country then id bet my christmas money that their wouldnt have been a civil war. also, only a portion of texas was/is actually a part of the south so why the hell does texas even care?

Writein,
where's your facts? Perhaps you skipped over a few chapters in American History or just didn't care to read about. As Obama said yesterday, you have to play fair...

This letter and the person who wrote it proves that THERE IS A LACK OF EDUCATION in this state. I bet my bottom dollar that ingorant men like John Mays would write this or say this to minority-majority paper or in person.

Thats right I said it.

Mr. Williams

Getsmart, be careful! It would be safer to walk up to a police station and start shooting than to try to even remotely state that some folks are showing they care more for another country than this one.

I agree with getsmart.

This flag is a well established symbol of racism, hatred and prejudice. The KKK loves this flag. I wonder why?

What single state right was the focal point of this rebellion ?

Slavery caused secession and secession caused the war or am I to think secession caused secession and secession caused the war???????

Thank you Mr. Mays for factual history, so little taught today.

"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that—

I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

Abraham Lincoln, from first inagural address