if the Confederate flag is a symbol of Southern Heritage and not hate

[pstokely]

why have I seen Confederate Flags and stickers outside of the South, I've seen them in Wisconsin (near River Falls) Kansas, and Missouri (near Kansas City, someone had a Confed flag on a pole inside his yard within city Limits)

have you ever seen a Confed Flag outside of the South?

[RetroLounge]

1. Yeah I see them up North in Wisconsin

and I doubt the guys driving those pickups are from the South.

It's probably more a Country & Western music, Dukes of Hazard thing for them, no heritage anyhow.

[scarletlib]

3. I'm Southern--it's not

What the Confedrate flag means: "Proud to be an Idiot"

My bet is that majority of the a**holes who display this flag didn't even have ancestors here when the Civil War was fought.


Face it: We lost and we deserved to lose. The south was fighting for all the wrong reasons.

[bleedingheart]

2. I see them here in Pennsylvania...which is funny given the

whuppin...the Yankee army gave the confederates here...

Personally I don't believe its "about the history"...because if you ask any pointed questions about the slave issue or any history leading up to the Civil War most of the people with those flags do not have a clue...

For example...ask someone with that flag if they know who John C. Calhoun was and see if they have a clue...

[beanball]

4. John Caldwell Calhoun

Vice President of the U.S. before the civil war(war between the states)better man than Unka Dick.

[bleedingheart]

11. you get a prize!

but he was somewhat influential in the civil war...even though he didn't live to see it occur....

do you know why?????

[mitchum]

22. intellectual strategist of slavery and secession

[Blue_State_Elitist]

5. saw one at a boy scout event in so cal

I made him take it down from his truck.

[TheRedMan]

6. It depends on who flies it

If the flag is right next to a "If we had known you would be this much trouble we would have picked our own cotton" sticker, I think it is safe to assume the guy just likes it because he thinks it is racist.

But if some highschoolers have it stuck up there with some college stickers (e.g. UGA) I think it could just be about being southern.

It's a context thing.

[pstokely]

7. I'm mostly talking about outside of the South

does it really mean anything outside of it?

[4_Legs_Good]

8. I see them on pickup trucks in Lompoc California

I think I've even seen a couple flying, but I may be wrong.

david

Kucinich 2004

[dolo amber]

9. I've had this conversation with loads of people

I'm in Ashland KY (which, for Civil War purposes, is NOT the South) and you do see it, although it's not nearly as common as you might think. But when I ask what the purpose of it is I usually get some type of *Southern Pride ala SYKNYRD* sort of answer. I think for the type who display it it's mostly a pop-cultural thing, like we used the anarchy symbol when we were stupid little punk rock kids. Our reasons for wearing it and what it actually meant were two totally different things.

[bluestateguy]

10. The Confederate Flag...

These people who associate the flag with "heritage" have this in mind:

Cotton plantations, golden haired young women on the veranda of antebellum mansions, faithful black servants who "know their place", Victorian standards of morality and young men marching off to war against the "Yankees".

[bleedingheart]

12. bingo!

you stated it perfectly...

[gratuitous]

13. We got 'em all over Oregon

The best response I ever saw to that "heritage" line was right here at DU: Somebody talked about his Southern heritage, and another poster said, "Well, my great-great-grandpappy fought for the Ninth Indiana Irregulars {or some such}, and it's my family's heritage to shoot any sumbitch Southern traitor flyin' that flag."

[HawkerHurricane]

14. Good answer!

Family legend has it that GGGGrandpa Hurricane walked off the boat from Ireland, saw a man in uniform who said 'sign here to become a American Citizen', signed in and found himself in the 37th New York...

[demnan]

15. Look, I'm a life long resident of Virginia . . . (northern Va)

When I was a child in elementary school we had a history book called the "Cavilier Commonwealth". All Virginia children were protected from the brutal fact that the South lost the Civil War. Fox news could have written our text book - you would have thought the South won the war from the soft-soaping of these books. Had it not been for Yankee parents and JFK's beautiful speechs (early sixties) and the power of the civil rights movement and my own brother's stay in Vietnam, I might have been one of them. (Like my cousins).

Let me tell you something, even in now (thank whatever) liberal Alexandria, Va there is still the Confederate soldier at Washington Blvd. and he faces south. What does this mean?

It is like a Confederate flag - believe me, every southern city has something like that.

[Kamika]

16. well

Maybe its a car from the south or the guy moved there from the south?

Im not defending the flag but i doubt everyone flagging the conf flag is a raging nazi. My dad wanted the conf flag on our boat together with all our other flags just to show we were from the south

[MasonJar]

17. The Confederate flag

I am in Kentucky and I do not have a Confederate flag, but I have framed Confederate money and a Confederate sword. I also have a saber from the Revolutionary War and a war club from Borneo. That does not make me racist or prejudiced. I am not. I personally think that there is nothing wrong with enjoying your history and especially that of your family. My great-great grandfather was in the Confederacy; he undoubtedly believed in the cause. The thing that we should remember is that most of the men who fought were doing it with honor; they believed they were right or at least that they had to protect their state (as Robert E. Lee). Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln were both born in Kentucky. I am very proud of that; it is history. Then there were Henry Clay (the great compromiser) and his cousin, Cassius Clay (the great emancipator.) In Kentucky the war between the states was especially heart-rending. A lot of families were split apart.

[bleedingheart]

18. But I see a difference between someone like yourself and

someone who flies a confederate flag outside their house in a suburban white neighborhood that borders some african american communites...

In your case you are honoring your family history...and you may be a history buff as well...

My mother has in her possesion war souvenirs her first husband brought home after WWII...they are Nazi money..etc...it isn't displayed but she kept it because of the history

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. Oops...posted in the wrong place! sorry...

[Droopy]

19. We've got them in Ohio

I used to run up to Cleveland every day. There was somebody who had one on a flag pole on a farm just south of there. Where I live in southwest Ohio they can be seen on occasion on pick-up trucks.

[SOteric]

20. So.... you're suggesting...what?

That no one with heritage in and of the south has ever left the south and taken their heritage with them?

I'm sure that some instances of the confederate flag do indeed represent hate. I'm just as sure that some fly that puppy in response to a deep cultural steeping in heritage. I would never presume an automatically judgement based on such thin evidence.

[Wickerman]

21. I see them in the back of pickups on occassion

its this netting type crap that isform fit for the window. I am up North. Small town. My guess is its a statement of being a rebel and the racism and hatred that is implied is lost on these fools. Can't swear to it, never asked any of them. Recall that Tom Petty used to sport a Confederate flag, and for him it was about being a Rebel. And yes, he was wrong. Adding - Rebel meaning rebellious, not the Southern aggressor to the Norht thing... Think James Dean, not Robert E Lee.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. You don't see swastikas flying over Germany...

For precisely the same reasons, the confederate flag should not be displayed anywhere but a museum, or during re-enactments of Civil War battles.

[hlthe2b]

25. Missouri was a border state so not surprised....

The hard core confederate resistance centered around charlie Quantrill and his gang of Guerillas, which included the then young Jesse James and his brother Frank. The confederate resistance rang strong in parts of rural Missouri and does to this day...

From one who loves living in Colorado, where like most of the west, folks don't understand this lingering craziness. Yet, I lived most of my life in the deep south and I know that not all who feel for the flag are doing so for racist ideology. The heritage factor is strong, however misinformed.

All I'm saying is that you can't discount southern heritage outside the deep south. Some are outright racists, sure, but others DO relate to that long lost cause or at least the traditions. It is not a simple black and white issue, though I wish it were.