Would you stand with these folks?

[JJIII]

Originally Posted by Charles

I'm simply playing the game. In case you haven't noticed, it's wildly popular here.

BTW, I don't go to protests. IMHO, not only are they a magnet for the unhinged, they are also an exercise in futility. Not to mention allowing yourself to become a tool for someone's agenda.

I have my own agenda...it's called ME. And from where I sit, it's hardly worth showing up for either. If I had another option, I wouldn't bother at all.

Chas

Bam!

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by JJIII

Bam!

Boo Hoo....poor dears.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Charles

And my perspective is that anyone who allows themselves to become enraged over something as simple as a flag isn't being very objective.

Chas

Can you actually blame modern-day African-Americans for being uncomfortable about people proudly flying a symbol of their oppression/enslavement? I can't. Ironically, the demographic who fly the stars & bars is the one that goes ballistic when people desecrate the American flag.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Can you actually blame modern-day African-Americans for being uncomfortable about people proudly flying a symbol of their oppression/enslavement? I can't. Ironically, the demographic who fly the stars & bars is the one that goes ballistic when people desecrate the American flag.

Could it be that some folks are more impressed with the symbols than the meaning behind them? They love the flag, the eagle and all the brass band hoopla and cherish the borders but do nothing but bitch about the people who live inside those borders?

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Charles

And my perspective is that anyone who allows themselves to become enraged over something as simple as a flag isn't being very objective.

Chas

Everything, from the battles over whether newly inducted states would be designated "free states" or not, to the punitive taxes levied against the agrarian South.......was all about slavery. Southerners did not believe they could run their plantations without armies of slaves to do all of the grunt work.

And, you're absolutely right. The rage over the Stars-n-Bars isn't as simple as hating a flag. It's what that flag symbolizes that is despised.

It's not the cans he hates, Navin. It's the man behind them.

Dave

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Charles

I have my own agenda...it's called ME.

And now we come to the root of the problem...

[BlueStreak]

As to the OP.

As a veteran, I have given this some consideration.

Yesterday, I heard Senator Bachmann say they are holding this event to protest the "...politicians in Washington using these veterans as political pawns." As SHE, a POLITICIAN IN WASHINGTON, uses them as political pawns.

No thanks. I will not be standing with them.

Dave

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by Charles

No doubt slavery was a central issue, but not the only issue.

The Civil War was perhaps started with the Missouri Compromise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Compromise, which was an attempt to maintain a balance of power in the Federal Government...back in the days when states rights were a concern. This was soon followed by the Tariff of 1828 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff_of_Abominations which benefited the industrialized North at the expense of the agrarian South. And things continued downhill from there.

In short, the Civil War was fought for the same reasons that all wars are fought, political control and money. Slavery, while necessary in the South and abhorred by the abolitionists in the North, was a peripheral issue at the time.

I am not here to defend slavery. And while some see the Confederate flag as the banner of hatred and oppression, there are those who see it as symbol of freedom, and one which their ancestors fought under and died for. Actually, it's both.

Primarily, it's a piece of history, an inanimate object which is defined only by one's own perspective.

And my perspective is that anyone who allows themselves to become enraged over something as simple as a flag isn't being very objective.

Chas

I think the Civil War started with Nat Turner's rebellion. That was the 9/11 of the ante-bellum South, and squashed any feeling in the South that they could ever free the slaves. Ever. Anyone pushing the idea was either insane or plotting to destroy them.

[icenine]

Actually the War started when a man opposed to the expansion of slavery into the new territories won from the war with Mexico was elected in 1860. The issue of slavery was THE cause. The conservative revisionist arguments are just rationalizations proposed by those who do not really want to accept the truth. Sort of like protesting the closure of the WWII memorial when you actually voted for and caused the shuttering of the monument.

but what do I know

[piece-itpete]

I agree about the Flag Chas, I wore a confederate belt buckle for many years when I was young even though I'm a Yank , but sure wasn't showing my love of slavery.

The Civil War? It was going to happen once the cotton gin brought back slavery from the dead.

Pete