Quote:

---

Suppose African-Americans marked their heritage with flags depicting Nat Turner’s rebellion of 1831, in which slaves massacred about 60 whites before the uprising was crushed? The flag wouldn’t be celebrating the murder of whites, of course, but would simply commemorate a factual milestone in black history!

Suppose Mexican-Americans waved a flag depicting the battle of the Alamo? The point would not be to celebrate the slaughter of Texans, but to express pride in Mexican heritage!

Suppose Canadian-Americans displayed a flag showing the burning of the White House in the War of 1812? Nothing against the Yanks, mind you — just a point of Canadian historical pride!

Suppose American women waved flags of Lorena Bobbitt, who reacted to domestic abuse in 1993 by severing her husband’s penis and throwing it into a field? The aim wouldn’t be to approve of sexual mutilation, of course — but Bobbitt’s subsequent acquittal was a landmark in the recognition of domestic violence!

Well, you get the point. That’s how the Confederate battle flag looked to many of us. And at least Nat Turner was fighting for his own freedom, while the Confederate battle flag was the banner of those who fought freedom, defended slavery, clubbed civil rights workers — and, most recently, murdered black churchgoers. And it’s exhilarating to see the same distaste expressed in the Southern mainstream.

Let's celebrate the drawing down of the Confederate battle flag — and then let's pivot from symbolic moves to substantial ones.

“The Confederate battle flag was the emblem of Jim Crow defiance to the civil rights movement, of the Dixiecrat opposition to integration, and of the domestic terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan,” noted Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention. “White Christians ought to think about what that flag says to our African-American brothers and sisters.”

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by G:
I wonder sometimes how different the US would be now if they hadn't actually lost.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by G:

Books have to be exciting and fun, so I assume plenty of literary license in those you linked, but in real life we might have ended up pretty close to where we are now - one country but separate.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by OLDGUY:
Love you guys/gals...always enjoy reading your insights..so many of us love our Firefly..and yet we have such differing views.

First - a disclaimer - I was Ohio born and raised but parents were mixed..ie one from Ohio, one from S. Carolina low country.

Second - have done the family treemaker trace just to be sure..and..yep... NONE of my heritage ever owned slaves..in fact..closest we ever came was one great ungle who lived in a house 3 doors down from a black woman who herself was a slave owner...

now that we have the whole "slavery thing" out of the way..
i'll say that the flag issue saddens me..not cause I need to see it flying over a state capital (which it wasn't btw), nor even on a memorial lawn, or on the back of a 4x4 jacked pickup truck..
rather, it's because of the utter ignorance of the mass of folks who have been drawn into this conversation over race and hate..and have overlooked the more insidious effort...that a govt would find ways to rewrite, or even worse, erase history. It's a natural progression when you want to dramatically alter a nation's govt. and break the legs of the foundations of religion, liberty, free speach, etc.
that somehow a memorial flag can cause such total grief, emotional damage, and utter dispair for some people, but i'm not allowed to even comment on my beliefs or see justice served when a pack of "young people" [code word] rampage a store, injur random people, or am physically repulsed at the sight of 2 guys dressed like Tina Turner gettin it on at Disney's It's a Small World?
no..this isn't about racial hatred....it's not about putting the horror of a civil war behind us...it's about something much darker...today they've come for an old relic...a symbol of a time when folks disagreed so severely that we almost destroyed ourselves. That's not something you forget, that's history you should learn from.
I seem to recall a statement made by our liberal Firefly author and fearless leader "might not have been the winning side...not sure it wasn't the right side" Funny how all the rebel scipts made sense when a guy named Bush was in the White house...now we're all "enligtened"

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
That flag should never have been flown in any govt. facility to begin with. I'm a Civil War buff and have visited more than twenty-five battle sites in seven states. I've never considered the Confederacy or the flag as anything to be proud of.

---