Reply #41: I Was Reluctant To Post In This Thread Because Of The [View All]

[DemocratSinceBirth]

tone the discussion of this topic has taken....


I don't think Dean is a racist.... That's plain silly to suggest....

He misspoke... His words were misconstrued.....


What frustrated me was that some folks made a sophistic defense of "states rights" and the Confederate flag giving the Confederate flag and "states rights" new meaning...

Don't take my word for it .... Go to any college campus and ask any historian or political science profeesor who is a centrist or to the left of that what the flag and "states right" represent and mean in their historical and cultural context....

The confederate flag was the flag that the soldiers of the antebellum south carried into war.....Many were conscripts.... Most misguided.... But one hundred forty years of hinsdight informs us of the perniciousness of their cause and most folks who fly that flag today are aware of that fact too....

In fact, the flag was pretty much dormant as a state symbol until the Civil Rights era began and then certain states like South Carolina resurrected it as a symbol of opposition to African American enfranchisemnt...

The Confederate flag is a big F U to African Americans.....

Theodore Bilbo, George Wallace, and Strom Thurmond invoked "states rights" when they opposed integration.... They contended it wasn't "negras" they opposed but the heavy hand of Washington pushing for their enfranchisement....

For staking out this position I was called ignorant.... Well if that's being ignorant I'm the happiest fool in America....

Peace

11-3-03

Brian