How was the civil war not about slavery?

We are just going to have agree to disagree on this Dannyalcatraz.

I feel that doing it your way and allowing symbols to be corrupted is just letting the bad guys win.

I think in some ways we have gone overboard on things in this country. Nobody dares type out the N word even when it is relevant like in talking about its use in Mark Twain work. We have taken a racial slur and made it all mysterious and imo given it more power by doing this. It elevates it and gives it more power.

A teacher in Chicago was suspended for five days for using it in his classroom after some kids were passing around rap lyrics with the word in it. He took the opportunity to teach about how some language has been used to demean people and sometimes those people take control over the word .

His Principal walked in heard him say and suspended because the word is forbidden to be said because it is hate speech.

Tennessee made talking about or using any words about homosexuality illegal in public classroom.

In a country where we believe in free speech this is an issue when we start penalizing people for using words even if it is not in a hate filled rant.

In South Carolina back in the 40s I believe they started putting up metal signs with a Confederate flag on it and text to designate Civil War sites. This was not as a racist endeavor. The flag was used to differentiate those historical sites from the Revolutionary war sites which I believe have the Continental flag on them.

Near my Aunt's house is one it says this was the site where the union troops fired their cannons on the capital across the river. The Capital building itself which was under construction at time has several of these signs they even have places where the cannon balls hit marked. They left them and never repaired them.

Standing and reading those signs brings history alive at least it does to me.

In the last few years there has been a push to get rid of them because the Confederate flag is offensive to some people. The state has said that they simply don't have the funds to pay for this. Those signs were made of an expensive metal and made to withstand the elements replacing them would cost a fortune. So then if they can't be replaced the group just wants them gone.

This is where I start to have an issue that to not offend people we just white wash over history because in a way that is what these people seem to want.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of executive order 9066 the order that gave the US military the right to round up and detain Japaneses Americans. But I can pretty much guarantee that the majority of Americans don't even know it nor was it in their history books it was not in mine. I only learned about because of being a Trekkie and talking to George Takei whose family was sent to one.

People who don't know history are doomed to repeat it
 

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There's a difference between using the Confederate flag in history books and flying it at courthouses.

Which I said way back at the start of this.

Though my reason maybe different than yours. I don't think it belongs flying on Government buildings not because of racism or because it offends some people but because it represent sedition.

Flying the Confederate flag like that would be the same imo as flying a British Flag at the White House.
 

No, there are several reasons, but the biggest is that the confederate flag has a bad rep because ignorant people keep distorting the truth and using the symbols of the Confederacy as the symbols of their hate groups alongside the symbols of the Nazis...
I didn't actually mean the only reason. But yes, I agree with you 100%.

Flying the Confederate flag like that would be the same imo as flying a British Flag at the White House.
I also agree with this 100%. It's a good example.
 

What really irks me is how people nowadays see a confederate flag as a symbol of racism. It is not. It's a symbol of the south and nothing more.
If it is flown today, it IS a symbol of racism. It may not have been THEN, but definitely TODAY it is. There is simply NO other reason to display it. The South LOST, so there is NO reason to fly the flag of the losing side. We are ALL the United States now.
 

There is some wrong information in this thread, but explaining it will just make the thread longer and provoke more "if, and's, or but's" so I shall pretend I've forgotten the American Historical Association's Statement of Standards of Professional Conduct and just say "it is Dundracon this weekend, anybody going?"
 

If it is flown today, it IS a symbol of racism. It may not have been THEN, but definitely TODAY it is. There is simply NO other reason to display it. The South LOST, so there is NO reason to fly the flag of the losing side. We are ALL the United States now.

There is a huge difference in saying the flag should not be flown because the south lost and we are in the United States and then saying flying it equates racism.

There are a lot of reasons to display one. You could choose to display it as part of your heritage, or as a statement against what some people see as an over reaching federal government which was one of the reasons the Allman Brothers used it on an album cover. Some people like it because it is symbol of rebellion, And finally some people unfortunately use it as a racist statement.

My neighbor flies an Irish flag every day under his American flag. I see various flags from different South American countries on dashboards and in windows in my neighborhood. I doubt that racism is the primary reason those people do it. It is to keep them connected to their heritage.

You may not agree that it should ever be flown or displayed`but I think you are wrong to just assume anyone who does it is racist.
 

If it is flown today, it IS a symbol of racism. It may not have been THEN, but definitely TODAY it is. There is simply NO other reason to display it. The South LOST, so there is NO reason to fly the flag of the losing side. We are ALL the United States now.

I'm guessing you're not from the South?
 

I'm guessing you're not from the South?

I am, and I don't have much issue with that statement.

(To clarify- I'm 100% cool with re-enactors, historical displays & lessons. I judge private displays- guitars, belt-buckles, etc.- on a case by case basis. I am not cool with ANY government issued/approved displays- flying it or flags incorporating it over gov't buildings, recreation areas, and the like; state issued license plates, and so forth, unless they fall into the first category.)
 
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True...but even so, there aren't many debates over the intent of those flying the Swastica or flashing SS regalia.

To be fair, the swastika was in use long before the nazis perverted its meaning.

As for the confederate flag, around my part of NC flying such a flag is little different than flying a NASCAR flag.
 

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